@@TPaine1776 thank you for your service! My beother did two tours of duty in the Med. Another, older yet brother served on USS Saint Paul, heavy Cruser in the South China sea. Mid to late 50's he was Chef cook! Served President Eisenhower his meals when he was aboard.
I served aboard her from 1972 to 1974 . My shop was on the forward hanger deck at the time the Hanger door blew in. The door destroyed 3 or four aircraft and killed one and injured two more. The door stopped approximately three quarters of the way into the hanger deck. That was the longest three days I've ever spent and I'm 75 years old.
I too served aboard Roosevelt during that time. I was in IM-2 division. My shop was all the way aft on the starboard side. I remember the hangar blowing into hangar bay one. I’m 78 now!
Was told by a couple of squid buddies at the VFW, that Rusty Rosie was the ship most dreaded for assignment in the late 60s/70s. Said the heads were always 3 inches deep in sewage, and A/C units were always out. Noisy, filthy, stinking ship, and neither one of them was sorry when it went to the breakers.
@@sharbymjthat was right before she was decommissioned. Would have been when she was is worst shape due to getting screwed out of proper overhauls and upgrades
@@hazchemel NATO fleet exercises in the North Sea. Here’s a link to an old newsreel about Mainbrace ua-cam.com/video/i4FG3k3izyI/v-deo.htmlsi=Z0hvAM2FXW39Y9wM.
@@hazchemel It was a large NATO fleet exercise off Norway in the North Sea. There’s an old newsreel about the exercise that you can find on UA-cam. My Great Uncle was a WW2 vet (flew P-47s in Europe). He was on an exchange tour with the Navy when he died.
Its July 2024 this Midway is a Very popular attraction in San Diego only a few thousand feet away from a few Active carriers. I have on deck TWO aircraft I personally flew. Come and see it.
My 7th grade class took a tour of the FDR. Our tour guide was the father of a student. He was the Strike Ops officer. I remember him explaining his job to us. I got a kick out of the FDR beating the USS Enterprise in launches and recoveries. I was on the USS Midway (OE Division)(May 1980 to May 1985). The USS Enterprise was on it's first major cruise after a 3 year overhaul. The Midway beat the USS Enterprise in both launches and recoveries. Since the Enterprise had three catapults, Midway two catapults, beating launches was sweet for our Captain. In that same competition, at the same time, the USS Midway also beat the USS Eisenhower in launches and recoveries. The reason was the USS Midway was the most "at sea" ship in the US Navy, only exceeded by the USS White Plains. The Midway didn't have long periods in port. So the Midway crews worked at their jobs far more than than the crews of the Enterprise or Eisenhower.
@@TPaine1776 I was over in Yokosuka from mid '79 to late '82 on 2 of the FFs there. We chased the Midway all over WESPAC and into the Indian Ocean. If you couldn't see her just scan the horizon for the black smoke! I saw the aftermath of when that freighter collided with her one night. We came along side about 2 or 3 hundred or so feet away and lit her up with the spotlight. You could see the hole where she was hit and the bent elevator tracks and other stuff from where it had dragged down her side. And the F-4s hanging over the edge of the flight deck into the gallery. Yup, good times. Wasn't until 25 years later I went aboard to take the tour.
As I recall, one notable event from the experiment that had the Rosie operating Harriers in her air group was that the ship didn't have to come as close "to the wind" to launch and recover them, especially if she was steaming at speed. In one exercise the air group was able to flummox the opposition because she didn't have to steam directly into the wind and launched an unexpected exercise strike, catching her opposite number unprepared. While the Harriers were not nearly as capable as the conventional strike aircraft aboard, it was still enough for the "Umpires" to award the Roosevelt group the win.
@@AjaxStarfall That waist catapult was removed in 1968, reducing the carrier to two forward catapults. So, earlier, the carrier had three catapults, that waist launcher installed when the angled deck was itself installed. So, you're both correct!
Thanks to my dad, I became a avid collector of U.S. Navy ship patches, lighters, ashtrays and other items. I still have a 1964 Med Cruise patch from USS Roosevelt. This patch was (is) made with the thick gold tread. I think it might have come from a Navy Peacoat. It's worn but still in great shape. I still have my things from Coral Sea and Midway. My dad was stationed on USS Oriskany while home ported NAS Alameda 1972.
Am retired Navy, was stationed on the FDR from 1975 - 1977, made her last Med Cruise '76-'77, and on her decommissioning crew, she was my first ship and have fond memories of her. Nice to see some recognition for her.
I remember passing by the Coral Sea at the international date line. She was transferring from Third to Seventh Fleet, while we were tranferring from Seventh to Third.
Vietnam era AO here. USS FDR and the other Midway class were interesting designs. When you served aboard her did she still carry her heavy anti-aircraft weaponry? I was amazed at the number of 5” 54’s and 40mm weapons. WOW. I saw the USS JFK. once and was taken by the obvious contrast to the Midway class carriers.
Agreed. Also, the process has become politized. I think it is unforgivable that there is no USS Bill Clinton. Not having a USS Richard Nixon is purely partisan. Though I do think that it was a good move naming a submarine rather than a carrier was Jimmy Carter, since he served on nuclear carriers. I also can understand not having a Donald Trump since he has so constantly denigrated military service and implemented so many policies that hurt veterans (he even tried to get for a while the VA to be run by club members at Mara-Lago, like Michael Eisner). Plus being a convicted criminal strikes a negative note. There is one person I would like to see them name a carrier after in each generation is Chester Nimitz. And there is one carrier name they seem determined to keep alive in the service and that is the Enterprise. I also like that they are naming a carrier after Doris Miller, the cook who grabbed a free machine gun at Pearl Harbor and shot down 2 Zeroes. I believe his Navy Cross was upgraded to a MoH in the 1990s. He also portrayed himself briefly in the film that director John Ford made on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sadly, because he was black, they made him stay in the kitchen rather than moving to anti-aircraft gunnery. He died later in the war. I'd love to see more ships named after deserving sailors. As a hardcore student of Jimmy Thach I'd love to see a carrier named after him. He did have a destroyer named after him, but I think he might warrant a carrier. And what about a USS Raymond Spruance or a USS Bull Halsey or a USS Mark Mitscher?
I was on board from the fall of 63 to the fall of 65. She was in the NYNSY in 63 and moved to Mayport that December. We went to the Med in April of 64, so I think your date of relieving Enterprise is incorrect. Also, as an Engineering Watch Officer I can attest to the condition of the plant. The old timers said it was destined for a short life due to where she was built. Our full power runs were 31.5 kts with 12 boilers. We could easily make 30 kts with 10 boiler operation. The stress put on the plant by the steam cats put on in 1956 was responsible of firing the boilers out of specs. We used larger bore sprayer plates than the original design called for and the forced draft blowers were run at higher rpm constantly. That is why she smoked so badly at times. She had a proud crew and Air Group when I was on, FDR stood for Filthy-Dirty and Rusty. But hey, she was a steaming giant.
18:30 This was the key to FDR's demise. The country's mood was to reduce defense spending, and the politicians wanted the navy to change from "power projection" Nimitz carriers to "sea control" carriers like the Royal Navy's Invincible class (similar to today's America and Wasp class). If the FDR was used successfully for sea control experiments, a new class would be built from the lessons learned. The class would probably be in the 40,000 ton range and be conventionally powered. It would also embark Marines. It's air wing would probably include fixed wing AWACS, and possibly F-14s. But the goal being to reduce the expense of a Nimitz carrier, history suggests that the new sea control carrier would encounter delays and cost overruns making its purchase price very close to that of the Nimitz. The Navy put the kabosh on any such sea-control experiments.
Great video, heading to San Diego next month and planning to visit Midway. Have you done any of the Des moines class heavy cruisers? Salem is still around
Good video. Personally, I like Rosie's final appearance more than Midway's. It's got that nice mix of WW2 and early Cold War technology without the excessively large flight deck.
@@BlindMansRevenge2002The leftover "brine" is pumped overboard in an amazing balancing act of heat transfer, vacuum, pumps and valves. Talking thousands of gallons of seawater a minute heated and kept at the correct temp.
@@williamcarl4200 OK, I think I finally understand it. It sounds to me like it is not a closed system, but in fact open. The water intakes or sea chests located across the bottom of the hole bring in the ocean water as the ship is going forward. That ocean water runs through the evaporators in a constant loop where in the evaporators heated up the evaporated salt water is then collected and funnel into the boilers as speed water, which is clean. From there steam is created to be funnel through the high-pressure lines and the low pressure lines to service the turbines and other steam driven parts of the ship. Because it is a constant loop. It sounds like it is not 100% efficient so only so much clean water can be extracted from the incoming ocean water. Otherwise you would get crystallized solid salt so that heavily salted water then needs to go back into the ocean and incomes regular ocean water beginning the cycle or loop again.
When I was in VA-128 (A-6 RAG) we did carrier qualification on the FDR in 1974/75 timeframe. The folks that were on the carrier det told tales on how bad the rust was, stating that they could poke holes in some bulkheads witg their fingers. They also called her "Rusty Roads".
One other thing that I didn’t notice mentioned was that FDR had GE turbines, where Midway and Coral Sea had Westinghouse turbines, so from a maintenance perspective, it makes more sense to discard the one with the oddball machinery.
Thanks for not confusing her with the ill-fated USS Franklin as some "historians" are prone to do. Also, being the first US carrier to be equipped with "Special Purpose Weapons" AKA nukes makes her historically significant.
Both Coral Sea and Midway had General Electric main engineering while Roosevelt had Westinghouse engineering. Similarly the Westinghouse engineered Essex class had shorter lifespans
You have a backwards Midway has Westinghouse like the New Jersey does. There is a great Video on New Jersey UA-cam page we're both museums figure it out. Missouri has GEs and it always had problems, and we're pretty sure FDR had GEs cuz was built the same yard where Coral Sea and Midway or not
Look up "battleship engine on a Carrier on USS New Jersey UA-cam channel. I just rewatch it. There is a comment from a guy who's dad was on FDR and she was GE turbines. New Jersey, Wisconsin, Coral Sea and Midway all have Westinghouse. Due to those ships being build in Philadelphia/ Virginia and Westinghouse also being in PA. FDR, Iowa and Missouri were build in New York and closer to GE plants.
When the Wasp, CV-18, returned to Alameda, CA after its first Pacific cruise, he was promoted to lieutenant and reassigned to the Roosevelt in the Atlantic. But when they were driving through Cincinnati on the way to that assignment they heard newsies shouting that we had dropped the atomic bomb in Japan. He never got on the Roosevelt.
I was on Rosie from August '74 to March '78. I came aboard the last night in the Philly shipyard. By morning we were at sea headed to Mayport. I was part of the decommissioning crew and was fire, flooding, and security watch until my separation in March of '78. I was assigned to #4 engineroom.
I was on Rose 75-76, A1 Hydraulics, Most of my time was in number 3 Elevator machinery room. When we finished carrier qualificatoins 1976 we had a steak and king crab party on the flight deck some where off the east coast of Florida, When we went to weigh the anchors we blew a hydraulic gasket and oil went every where, at first we where going to have one made at Mayport but I found a big sheet of copper back in the air wing, talked to the comander in charge and gave my the air tool to cut off a 12" X 12" piece and took it to the machine shop and a few hours later Me (Jeff Jensen) and MM3 Bruce Manning put it together and what a slipery mess it was trying to torque the bolts as the deck was all oil, Any ways we got it done. Then for about 24 hours we hauled hydraulic oil from steering (all the way Aft and down 4 decks ) to the anchor windlass hydraulic machinery room (All the way forword) in 5 gallon cans.
My dad was a blank holder on the FDR. In the CAG , VB-75 . He was in the back set of SBW4--E lucky number 7 that crashed on take-off. They were Herring planes to Gitmo Cuba. The Catapult failed , Catapults were still a new thing back then. They both were picked up by the Fox trailing behind. The crash was filmed an shown on News reels at local movie theaters . Mom , seeing the news reel , she wrote dad, who was the guys in plane #7 ? Mail was still slow for the Navy , so mom got the return letter , along with 3 water logged letters. You can see the failed launch on UT , search , maiden voyage of the FDR.
i am a little surprised that CV-16 Lexington was chosen to replace CV-36 Antietam as a training carrier instead of the larger CV-42 Roosevelt or CV-43 Coral Sea
A bit of trivia. That last cruise was cobbled together rather quickly and ended USS Oriskany CV-34 last cruise early, that with fixed wing airwing CVW-19. Airwing 19 attack squadrons were barely back in Lemoore when they were shipped east, combined with two F-4B squadrons from the east coast Navy, all to see how VSTOL attack aircraft (AV-8A, I believe) could be integrated into a conventional airwing's 90-ish minute launch-recovery cycles as well as how to fit hem into tactics defined in CAG's TACNOTES. They had a shorter cycle time, particularly if carrying ordinance. Too short-legged. The scorching, melting and burning of the two types of non-skid is a problem still with F-35B conversions of helicopter amphib/ASW carriers such as Kaga. Not only did Roosevelt but also Airwing 19 decomissioned as the fleet shrunk after this last, interesting cruise. PS, the two Crusader F-8J fighter squadrons left on the beach by the CVW-19 move east transitioned to the F4-J standard: testing all grey & Ferris angular, high contrast paint schemes, with cockpits painted in the fuselage bottom, the AWG-10 digital weapons system, smokeless engines and slaving 'winder sensors to the pilot line of sight. 'Deployed as part of CVW-15, Coral Sea 1977-78 WESTPAC the F-4J's and aircrew dispersed to the wind. So, a number of interesting tests for the last embarked airwings of Rusty Rosey & Coral Maru.
I am brand new to your vids. I like'm! please keep it up as there are a lot of fans of naval history. It's a very specific target market to be certain and your photos and commentary are really good. Thanks!
My dad served abroad Rosie in 1948-49 his first two years after boot camp in the Great Lakes. He told stories about different incidents on board. Some were mentioned here and on the website. Dad passed away two years ago at the age of 93.
I was on the ship from Dec 75 t0 just before her last Med Cruise in late 76 working as a screen writer in the Catcc air ops Division and saw the integration of the AV8 Harriers into the overall air ops system. I called her the Filthy Dirty Rosie and no amount of sweeping could keep that ship clean.
Wow I had no idea the Midways had that many guns on them. It's like when you're playing UAD: Dreadnaughts and have a bunch of extra tonnage to spare and have to add SOMETHING to use up all that extra space.
Second comment about those USMC Harriers. Some Vice Admiral was looking at an issue of Koku Fan showing pretty pictures Royal Navy Harriers on the boat and innocently asked, "Why don't we? If the Brits can, so can we. Where can we test this?" to his staff. And, they got to work.
06:10 It wasn't just some Marine taking that P-80 onto FDR It was Marine ace and later Major General Marion Carl ! 12:00 that's the pic I was looking for a while ago: 8 A3D Skywarriors aka Whales aboard a carrier
the American navy has mastered the art of making aircraft carriers for more than a century . . . especially CATOBAR aircraft carriers featuring completely straight & flat from bow to stern & port to starboard . . . positioning of the port side angled flight deck on USS Franklin D Roosevelt (CV-42) was inaccurate, pushed a bit too much to the aft stern section of the CATOBAR flight deck . . . instead of removing the entire armour belt, the navy could have thinned out the armour thickness from 5.63 in. to 3.0 in.
How did U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet submarines prevent themselves from hunting down U.S. Navy Surface Fleets by accident? How did the U.S. Navy prevent themselves from hunting down Pac-Fleet submarines? It's not as if they both did not have passive and active SONAR, am I right?
Obviously, you know little about Roosevelt's connection to the Navy. He served as the Assistant SecNav early in his career and the Navy would've been in far worse condition if it wasn't for Roosevelt when we entered the war. He was the one that pushed through the massive ship building plans that started the largest Navy in history. The ship was named in honor of his connection to the Navy. It didn't have anything to do with his being a Democrat.
The main reason they retired the FDR was because it was scheduled to be the third of the three carriers to be modernized. But most of the allotted funds ended up being expended on the Midway, leaving only a little for Doral Sea (sorry, Spinal Tap joke) and none for FDR. I am from Arkansas and have toyed with writing a book on significant Arkansans in WWII. The three I started off researching were legendary fighter pilot Jimmy Thach, Pappy Gunn (who field modified B-25s into the first major ground attack strafers, which made then into devastating commerce raiders - it is estimated that the 20 B-25s he modified and were used at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea did around 75% of all damage inflicted on the Japanese at that battle, surpassing all the damage that the larger groups of Allied aircraft, which included Beaufighters, various fighters, and B-17s), and Footsie Britt (winner of more very high medals than any other US soldier in WWII, though Audie Murphy received more total medals. I kinda backed off this when Alex Kershaw's latest book told the story of three great European he heroes, two of whom were Britt and Audie Murphy. And no, I will/would not include Douglas MacArthur, partly because like most people who study him, I really detest him, and partly because he always denied having been born in Little Rock (his mother was traveling by train when in late pregnancy she went into contractions; Little Rock was the next major trainstop, and that is the ONLY reason he was born in Little Rock). The point of all that is I focused a lot of research on those guys, especially Thach and Gunn, whose impact on the war was massive. After the war, but before being kicked up to a desk job (his major postwar job - he would eventually create America's antisubmarine program, and even today the leading ship or unit in antisubmarine Warfare is annually presented with the John S. Thach Award). Before heading up the antisubmarine program, he served as the captain of the FDR. Sidenote: I also believe Thach was the crucial pilot at Midway, with two Rookie pilots and him ccupying the majority of Japanese CAP for 30 minutes , which extended well past the time the last torpedo plane had left the area. When the dive bombers showed up they were utterly astonished that there were no Japanese planes over the fleet. That was because they were out of position, trying to shoot down Thach and the rookies, but couldn't because Thach had implemented for the first time in combat what would become known as "the Thach Weave." And upon returning to Pearl Harbor on June, all the fighter pilots there - including names like Joe Foss, John Smith, George Bauer, and Marion Carl - sought him out and grilled him on how he had managed to dogfight 15-30 Zeroes for 30 minutes, when the established wisdom was that you couldn't dogfight a Zero at all. The lessons Thach learned at Midway made possible the brilliant defense of Guadalcanal by those same Marines. And just to anticipate a response I often get when I say this to someone, I HAVE read SHATTERED SWORD, and no, it does not in anyway undercut what I'm alleging. In fact, I fact, it was reading Parshall and Tully's book that I first realized Thach's massive contribution to the battle. Usually these same people who try to refute me by saying I need to read Parshall and Tully probably haven't read the appendices of SHATTERED SWORD, in which they insist that MIDWAY had two major effects on the war. The first and best known was the destruction of so many planes, carriers, and crew. But the second was the new tactics that evolved at Midway that allowed the US fighter pilots to dominate the Japanese hence forward, even before acquiring the Hellcat. What they meant specifically was Jimmy Thach's Beam Defense, which the other senior Navy fight pilot, Jimmy Flatley, redubbed before a Congressional committee "The Thach Weave." The best place to get a handle on all this is John Lundstrom's two masterpieces, THE FIRST TEAM (in which Thach is described as sort of the captain of the "first team", talking in sports metaphors), and THE FIRST TEAM AND GUADALCANAL.
My late brother served on "Rosie Rust Bucket" from 1967-1971. His photo of her now hangs on my wall.
Never saw her. I was on her sister CV-41
@@TPaine1776 thank you for your service! My beother did two tours of duty in the Med. Another, older yet brother served on USS Saint Paul, heavy Cruser in the South China sea. Mid to late 50's he was Chef cook!
Served President Eisenhower his meals when he was aboard.
I served aboard her from 1972 to 1974 . My shop was on the forward hanger deck at the time the Hanger door blew in. The door destroyed 3 or four aircraft and killed one and injured two more. The door stopped approximately three quarters of the way into the hanger deck. That was the longest three days I've ever spent and I'm 75 years old.
My late father served aboard her in ‘74. I remember him telling me briefly about that incident with the hangar door
I too served aboard Roosevelt during that time. I was in IM-2 division. My shop was all the way aft on the starboard side. I remember the hangar blowing into hangar bay one. I’m 78 now!
Was told by a couple of squid buddies at the VFW, that Rusty Rosie was the ship most dreaded for assignment in the late 60s/70s. Said the heads were always 3 inches deep in sewage, and A/C units were always out. Noisy, filthy, stinking ship, and neither one of them was sorry when it went to the breakers.
I was on the Rosie in 1975-76. I thought she was a fine ship. Best chow I had in the Navy. Like a floating city.
@@sharbymjthat was right before she was decommissioned. Would have been when she was is worst shape due to getting screwed out of proper overhauls and upgrades
Thanks for this one. My Great Uncle died trying to bring his Banshee aboard during Operation Mainbrace in September 1952.
Fair dinkum ... what was that 1952 operation?
@@hazchemel NATO fleet exercises in the North Sea. Here’s a link to an old newsreel about Mainbrace ua-cam.com/video/i4FG3k3izyI/v-deo.htmlsi=Z0hvAM2FXW39Y9wM.
@@hazchemel It was a large NATO fleet exercise off Norway in the North Sea. There’s an old newsreel about the exercise that you can find on UA-cam. My Great Uncle was a WW2 vet (flew P-47s in Europe). He was on an exchange tour with the Navy when he died.
Its July 2024 this Midway is a Very popular attraction in San Diego only a few thousand feet away from a few Active carriers. I have on deck TWO aircraft I personally flew. Come and see it.
My 7th grade class took a tour of the FDR. Our tour guide was the father of a student. He was the Strike Ops officer. I remember him explaining his job to us.
I got a kick out of the FDR beating the USS Enterprise in launches and recoveries. I was on the USS Midway (OE Division)(May 1980 to May 1985). The USS Enterprise was on it's first major cruise after a 3 year overhaul. The Midway beat the USS Enterprise in both launches and recoveries. Since the Enterprise had three catapults, Midway two catapults, beating launches was sweet for our Captain.
In that same competition, at the same time, the USS Midway also beat the USS Eisenhower in launches and recoveries.
The reason was the USS Midway was the most "at sea" ship in the US Navy, only exceeded by the USS White Plains. The Midway didn't have long periods in port. So the Midway crews worked at their jobs far more than than the crews of the Enterprise or Eisenhower.
I was on Midway early 80s that was Bering sea 83, correct? Only one cat was working too.
@@TPaine1776 I was over in Yokosuka from mid '79 to late '82 on 2 of the FFs there. We chased the Midway all over WESPAC and into the Indian Ocean. If you couldn't see her just scan the horizon for the black smoke! I saw the aftermath of when that freighter collided with her one night. We came along side about 2 or 3 hundred or so feet away and lit her up with the spotlight. You could see the hole where she was hit and the bent elevator tracks and other stuff from where it had dragged down her side. And the F-4s hanging over the edge of the flight deck into the gallery. Yup, good times. Wasn't until 25 years later I went aboard to take the tour.
Didn't Enterprise have four? Not three catapults? Two bow cats and two waist cats on the angled portion of the flight deck.
@@Monarch683 Yes,Midway class had 3.
As I recall, one notable event from the experiment that had the Rosie operating Harriers in her air group was that the ship didn't have to come as close "to the wind" to launch and recover them, especially if she was steaming at speed. In one exercise the air group was able to flummox the opposition because she didn't have to steam directly into the wind and launched an unexpected exercise strike, catching her opposite number unprepared. While the Harriers were not nearly as capable as the conventional strike aircraft aboard, it was still enough for the "Umpires" to award the Roosevelt group the win.
I was there on her last Med Cruise, worked in the radio shack at the time, was quite something when we were told we had won.
The umpires awarded the win to the Harriers in 1982 South Atlantic Cup too...
I was serving on board when Chief Rhodes was killed. One other thing . The ship never had an angle deck catapult
history seems to disagree
@@AjaxStarfall That waist catapult was removed in 1968, reducing the carrier to two forward catapults. So, earlier, the carrier had three catapults, that waist launcher installed when the angled deck was itself installed. So, you're both correct!
Thanks to my dad, I became a avid collector of U.S. Navy ship patches, lighters, ashtrays and other items. I still have a 1964 Med Cruise patch from USS Roosevelt. This patch was (is) made with the thick gold tread. I think it might have come from a Navy Peacoat. It's worn but still in great shape. I still have my things from Coral Sea and Midway. My dad was stationed on USS Oriskany while home ported NAS Alameda 1972.
Am retired Navy, was stationed on the FDR from 1975 - 1977, made her last Med Cruise '76-'77, and on her decommissioning crew, she was my first ship and have fond memories of her. Nice to see some recognition for her.
I remember passing by the Coral Sea at the international date line.
She was transferring from Third to Seventh Fleet, while we were tranferring from Seventh to Third.
1975 76 Six months aboard in Mayport.
Vietnam era AO here. USS FDR and the other Midway class were interesting designs. When you served aboard her did she still carry her heavy anti-aircraft weaponry? I was amazed at the number of 5” 54’s and 40mm weapons. WOW. I saw the USS JFK. once and was taken by the obvious contrast to the Midway class carriers.
@@sharbymjStationed at NAS Jacksonville 1970. A stones throw away from Mayport.
Changing to naming carriers after people was a mistake. Shouldve kept the naming after battles and previous warships
Agree. I want Yorktown!
I agree. The naming of ships after politicians is too divisive
Agreed. Also, the process has become politized. I think it is unforgivable that there is no USS Bill Clinton. Not having a USS Richard Nixon is purely partisan. Though I do think that it was a good move naming a submarine rather than a carrier was Jimmy Carter, since he served on nuclear carriers. I also can understand not having a Donald Trump since he has so constantly denigrated military service and implemented so many policies that hurt veterans (he even tried to get for a while the VA to be run by club members at Mara-Lago, like Michael Eisner). Plus being a convicted criminal strikes a negative note.
There is one person I would like to see them name a carrier after in each generation is Chester Nimitz. And there is one carrier name they seem determined to keep alive in the service and that is the Enterprise. I also like that they are naming a carrier after Doris Miller, the cook who grabbed a free machine gun at Pearl Harbor and shot down 2 Zeroes. I believe his Navy Cross was upgraded to a MoH in the 1990s. He also portrayed himself briefly in the film that director John Ford made on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sadly, because he was black, they made him stay in the kitchen rather than moving to anti-aircraft gunnery. He died later in the war. I'd love to see more ships named after deserving sailors. As a hardcore student of Jimmy Thach I'd love to see a carrier named after him. He did have a destroyer named after him, but I think he might warrant a carrier. And what about a USS Raymond Spruance or a USS Bull Halsey or a USS Mark Mitscher?
Absolutely!!!
And scary bugs.
I was on board from the fall of 63 to the fall of 65. She was in the NYNSY in 63 and moved to Mayport that December. We went to the Med in April of 64, so I think your date of relieving Enterprise is incorrect. Also, as an Engineering Watch Officer I can attest to the condition of the plant. The old timers said it was destined for a short life due to where she was built. Our full power runs were 31.5 kts with 12 boilers. We could easily make 30 kts with 10 boiler operation. The stress put on the plant by the steam cats put on in 1956 was responsible of firing the boilers out of specs. We used larger bore sprayer plates than the original design called for and the forced draft blowers were run at higher rpm constantly. That is why she smoked so badly at times. She had a proud crew and Air Group when I was on, FDR stood for Filthy-Dirty and Rusty. But hey, she was a steaming giant.
18:30 This was the key to FDR's demise. The country's mood was to reduce defense spending, and the politicians wanted the navy to change from "power projection" Nimitz carriers to "sea control" carriers like the Royal Navy's Invincible class (similar to today's America and Wasp class). If the FDR was used successfully for sea control experiments, a new class would be built from the lessons learned. The class would probably be in the 40,000 ton range and be conventionally powered. It would also embark Marines. It's air wing would probably include fixed wing AWACS, and possibly F-14s. But the goal being to reduce the expense of a Nimitz carrier, history suggests that the new sea control carrier would encounter delays and cost overruns making its purchase price very close to that of the Nimitz.
The Navy put the kabosh on any such sea-control experiments.
Honestly, FDR was probably the best-looking of the 3 Midway-class rebuild! It looks like an enlarged Essex-class aircraft carrier.
Great video, heading to San Diego next month and planning to visit Midway. Have you done any of the Des moines class heavy cruisers? Salem is still around
I served on the Rosie Jan 71 to Feb 72. A great ship.
Good video. Personally, I like Rosie's final appearance more than Midway's. It's got that nice mix of WW2 and early Cold War technology without the excessively large flight deck.
In 1960 my dad was an AF pilot and served on the FDR flying A-4's with VA-46. I was 10 yrs old and was quite overawed by the sheer size of the ship.
When she was scrapped my ship got one of her 100,000 gallon a day evaporators. That machine continued to serve until 1994.
Only the main plant had any more issues than her sisters
@@M167A1 Never met anyone who steamed her plant. She was gone way before my time. I met my first carrier in 89.
What happens to the salt once it is extracted from the feed water.
@@BlindMansRevenge2002The leftover "brine" is pumped overboard in an amazing balancing act of heat transfer, vacuum, pumps and valves. Talking thousands of gallons of seawater a minute heated and kept at the correct temp.
@@williamcarl4200 OK, I think I finally understand it. It sounds to me like it is not a closed system, but in fact open. The water intakes or sea chests located across the bottom of the hole bring in the ocean water as the ship is going forward. That ocean water runs through the evaporators in a constant loop where in the evaporators heated up the evaporated salt water is then collected and funnel into the boilers as speed water, which is clean. From there steam is created to be funnel through the high-pressure lines and the low pressure lines to service the turbines and other steam driven parts of the ship. Because it is a constant loop. It sounds like it is not 100% efficient so only so much clean water can be extracted from the incoming ocean water. Otherwise you would get crystallized solid salt so that heavily salted water then needs to go back into the ocean and incomes regular ocean water beginning the cycle or loop again.
When I was in VA-128 (A-6 RAG) we did carrier qualification on the FDR in 1974/75 timeframe. The folks that were on the carrier det told tales on how bad the rust was, stating that they could poke holes in some bulkheads witg their fingers. They also called her "Rusty Roads".
They were built to fill a need in ww2, they were overwhelmed with the advent of heavy jets, and super carriers. Great vessels, just overshadowed.
I remember the old "Rosie" in the early 70's as we would unrep her frequently. I believe I still have some old 8mm film of her in the Med.
Must hold the prize for the most 5 inch guns on an aircraft carrier.
Yeah that's what I thought. Looks formidable though ... Go Navy 🇺🇲
Great video Skynea. Thanks for highlighting this fascinating warship,
One other thing that I didn’t notice mentioned was that FDR had GE turbines, where Midway and Coral Sea had Westinghouse turbines, so from a maintenance perspective, it makes more sense to discard the one with the oddball machinery.
The ship has some beautiful lines and unbelievable armament. Like the former version before the refits. .
My father-in-law served on the FDR.
Thanks for not confusing her with the ill-fated USS Franklin as some "historians" are prone to do. Also, being the first US carrier to be equipped with "Special Purpose Weapons" AKA nukes makes her historically significant.
Both Coral Sea and Midway had General Electric main engineering while Roosevelt had Westinghouse engineering. Similarly the Westinghouse engineered Essex class had shorter lifespans
I was on the USS Midway. The electric plant frequently ran at 110%. It was odd to see the generators running beyond allowable limits.
You have a backwards Midway has Westinghouse like the New Jersey does. There is a great Video on New Jersey UA-cam page we're both museums figure it out. Missouri has GEs and it always had problems, and we're pretty sure FDR had GEs cuz was built the same yard where Coral Sea and Midway or not
Look up "battleship engine on a Carrier on USS New Jersey UA-cam channel. I just rewatch it. There is a comment from a guy who's dad was on FDR and she was GE turbines. New Jersey, Wisconsin, Coral Sea and Midway all have Westinghouse. Due to those ships being build in Philadelphia/ Virginia and Westinghouse also being in PA. FDR, Iowa and Missouri were build in New York and closer to GE plants.
I was in #4 engineroom. The turbines were GE for main engines and generators.
Very interesting topic n cool ship history ❤🎉.
When the Wasp, CV-18, returned to Alameda, CA after its first Pacific cruise, he was promoted to lieutenant and reassigned to the Roosevelt in the Atlantic. But when they were driving through Cincinnati on the way to that assignment they heard newsies shouting that we had dropped the atomic bomb in Japan. He never got on the Roosevelt.
I am guessing that the internal layout and other factors contributed to the decision not to upgrade her as much; and retire her early
I was on Rosie from August '74 to March '78. I came aboard the last night in the Philly shipyard. By morning we were at sea headed to Mayport. I was part of the decommissioning crew and was fire, flooding, and security watch until my separation in March of '78. I was assigned to #4 engineroom.
Great videos, keep it up 🫡🇺🇸
I was on Rose 75-76, A1 Hydraulics, Most of my time was in number 3 Elevator machinery room.
When we finished carrier qualificatoins 1976 we had a steak and king crab party on the flight deck some where off the east coast of Florida, When we went to weigh the anchors we blew a hydraulic gasket and oil went every where, at first we where going to have one made at Mayport but I found a big sheet of copper back in the air wing, talked to the comander in charge and gave my the air tool to cut off a 12" X 12" piece and took it to the machine shop and a few hours later Me (Jeff Jensen) and MM3 Bruce Manning put it together and what a slipery mess it was trying to torque the bolts as the deck was all oil, Any ways we got it done. Then for about 24 hours we hauled hydraulic oil from steering (all the way Aft and down 4 decks ) to the anchor windlass hydraulic machinery room (All the way forword) in 5 gallon cans.
My dad was a blank holder on the FDR. In the CAG , VB-75 . He was in the back set of SBW4--E lucky number 7 that crashed on take-off. They were Herring planes to Gitmo Cuba. The Catapult failed , Catapults were still a new thing back then. They both were picked up by the Fox trailing behind. The crash was filmed an shown on News reels at local movie theaters . Mom , seeing the news reel , she wrote dad, who was the guys in plane #7 ? Mail was still slow for the Navy , so mom got the return letter , along with 3 water logged letters.
You can see the failed launch on UT , search , maiden voyage of the FDR.
i am a little surprised that CV-16 Lexington was chosen to replace CV-36 Antietam as a training carrier instead of the larger CV-42 Roosevelt or CV-43 Coral Sea
There was some talk about Coral Sea taking over in about 92 but that was shelved.
It's a good point, I guess they were looking at which ship had more wear and tear. Also a number of Essex class were in mothballs just for parts.
A bit of trivia.
That last cruise was cobbled together rather quickly and ended USS Oriskany CV-34 last cruise early, that with fixed wing airwing CVW-19.
Airwing 19 attack squadrons were barely back in Lemoore when they were shipped east, combined with two F-4B squadrons from the east coast Navy, all to see how VSTOL attack aircraft (AV-8A, I believe) could be integrated into a conventional airwing's 90-ish minute launch-recovery cycles as well as how to fit hem into tactics defined in CAG's TACNOTES.
They had a shorter cycle time, particularly if carrying ordinance. Too short-legged.
The scorching, melting and burning of the two types of non-skid is a problem still with F-35B conversions of helicopter amphib/ASW carriers such as Kaga.
Not only did Roosevelt but also Airwing 19 decomissioned as the fleet shrunk after this last, interesting cruise.
PS, the two Crusader F-8J fighter squadrons left on the beach by the CVW-19 move east transitioned to the F4-J standard: testing all grey & Ferris angular, high contrast paint schemes, with cockpits painted in the fuselage bottom, the AWG-10 digital weapons system, smokeless engines and slaving 'winder sensors to the pilot line of sight. 'Deployed as part of CVW-15, Coral Sea 1977-78 WESTPAC the F-4J's and aircrew dispersed to the wind.
So, a number of interesting tests for the last embarked airwings of Rusty Rosey & Coral Maru.
I am brand new to your vids. I like'm! please keep it up as there are a lot of fans of naval history. It's a very specific target market to be certain and your photos and commentary are really good. Thanks!
USS Filthy-Dirty-Rusty
I kind of surprised there was no specific mention of her role, if any, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Great video to learn from thank you.
My dad served abroad Rosie in 1948-49 his first two years after boot camp in the Great Lakes. He told stories about different incidents on board. Some were mentioned here and on the website. Dad passed away two years ago at the age of 93.
Did a Med cruise on DLG-17 in ‘73 as part of the FDR group (proudly made in Brooklyn)
Uncle and Great Uncle served onboard her. Great Uncle always called her filthy dirty and rusty.
Made two CQ dets on the Rosey Boat...first as a compt. cleaner in1974, next as AFTS in VF-101, I believe in 1975.
I was on the ship from Dec 75 t0 just before her last Med Cruise in late 76 working as a screen writer in the Catcc air ops Division and saw the integration of the AV8 Harriers into the overall air ops system. I called her the Filthy Dirty Rosie and no amount of sweeping could keep that ship clean.
Had more 5" mounts than found on USS Atlanta.
Thank you veterans for your service!🇺🇲
Wow I had no idea the Midways had that many guns on them. It's like when you're playing UAD: Dreadnaughts and have a bunch of extra tonnage to spare and have to add SOMETHING to use up all that extra space.
I've noticed that sometimes a new ship on it's trial cruise appears at some diplomatic event, representing the country.
One more thing that made her different from her sisters was that she had GE machinery instead of Westinghouse.
Second comment about those USMC Harriers.
Some Vice Admiral was looking at an issue of Koku Fan showing pretty pictures Royal Navy Harriers on the boat and innocently asked, "Why don't we? If the Brits can, so can we. Where can we test this?" to his staff. And, they got to work.
Are we allowed to request ships? If so I’d love to see you put one together about Hmcs Haida Canada most fighting ship!
Interesting that at 1:37 the Bofors guns were already installed at launch. Normally things like AA guns are THE equipment added afterwards.
06:10 It wasn't just some Marine taking that P-80 onto FDR
It was Marine ace and later Major General Marion Carl !
12:00 that's the pic I was looking for a while ago: 8 A3D Skywarriors aka Whales aboard a carrier
She got to operate a complete Marine Air Wing I believe
Why isn't it upgraded and repaired to continue its service?
the American navy has mastered the art of making aircraft carriers for more than a century . . . especially CATOBAR aircraft carriers featuring completely straight & flat from bow to stern & port to starboard . . . positioning of the port side angled flight deck on USS Franklin D Roosevelt (CV-42) was inaccurate, pushed a bit too much to the aft stern section of the CATOBAR flight deck . . . instead of removing the entire armour belt, the navy could have thinned out the armour thickness from 5.63 in. to 3.0 in.
Had the bad reduction gears verse the other two
As a CVB Carrier Battle vs the CV or CVA Attack
It stank we berthed among hordes of roaches!
Did FDR Splice the Mainbrace?
Long Live the Skidway
How did U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet submarines prevent themselves from hunting down
U.S. Navy Surface Fleets by accident?
How did the U.S. Navy prevent themselves from hunting down Pac-Fleet submarines?
It's not as if they both did not have passive and active SONAR, am I right?
Not a fan. This was the beggining of naming capital ships after people.
CHANGING HER NAME IS UNLUCKY ANYWAY! IT ALWAYS BRINGS HORRIBLE LUCK, THATS WHY SHE HAD THE LIFE SHE HAD!
Nonsense. The Essex class ships that were renamed to honor the sunk Lexington, Yorktown, Wasp & Hornet all made it through WW2 just fine.
comment++;
They named the ship after a Democrat.....destined to be expensive to maintain, and not reliable...
like a carrothead, sinking fastly!
Obviously, you know little about Roosevelt's connection to the Navy. He served as the Assistant SecNav early in his career and the Navy would've been in far worse condition if it wasn't for Roosevelt when we entered the war. He was the one that pushed through the massive ship building plans that started the largest Navy in history. The ship was named in honor of his connection to the Navy. It didn't have anything to do with his being a Democrat.
😂. Do try keep your politics out of it
Make America dumb again.😂
Sometimes one disqualifies himself
The main reason they retired the FDR was because it was scheduled to be the third of the three carriers to be modernized. But most of the allotted funds ended up being expended on the Midway, leaving only a little for Doral Sea (sorry, Spinal Tap joke) and none for FDR.
I am from Arkansas and have toyed with writing a book on significant Arkansans in WWII. The three I started off researching were legendary fighter pilot Jimmy Thach, Pappy Gunn (who field modified B-25s into the first major ground attack strafers, which made then into devastating commerce raiders - it is estimated that the 20 B-25s he modified and were used at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea did around 75% of all damage inflicted on the Japanese at that battle, surpassing all the damage that the larger groups of Allied aircraft, which included Beaufighters, various fighters, and B-17s), and Footsie Britt (winner of more very high medals than any other US soldier in WWII, though Audie Murphy received more total medals. I kinda backed off this when Alex Kershaw's latest book told the story of three great European he heroes, two of whom were Britt and Audie Murphy. And no, I will/would not include Douglas MacArthur, partly because like most people who study him, I really detest him, and partly because he always denied having been born in Little Rock (his mother was traveling by train when in late pregnancy she went into contractions; Little Rock was the next major trainstop, and that is the ONLY reason he was born in Little Rock).
The point of all that is I focused a lot of research on those guys, especially Thach and Gunn, whose impact on the war was massive. After the war, but before being kicked up to a desk job (his major postwar job - he would eventually create America's antisubmarine program, and even today the leading ship or unit in antisubmarine Warfare is annually presented with the John S. Thach Award). Before heading up the antisubmarine program, he served as the captain of the FDR. Sidenote: I also believe Thach was the crucial pilot at Midway, with two Rookie pilots and him ccupying the majority of Japanese CAP for 30 minutes , which extended well past the time the last torpedo plane had left the area. When the dive bombers showed up they were utterly astonished that there were no Japanese planes over the fleet. That was because they were out of position, trying to shoot down Thach and the rookies, but couldn't because Thach had implemented for the first time in combat what would become known as "the Thach Weave." And upon returning to Pearl Harbor on June, all the fighter pilots there - including names like Joe Foss, John Smith, George Bauer, and Marion Carl - sought him out and grilled him on how he had managed to dogfight 15-30 Zeroes for 30 minutes, when the established wisdom was that you couldn't dogfight a Zero at all. The lessons Thach learned at Midway made possible the brilliant defense of Guadalcanal by those same Marines. And just to anticipate a response I often get when I say this to someone, I HAVE read SHATTERED SWORD, and no, it does not in anyway undercut what I'm alleging. In fact, I fact, it was reading Parshall and Tully's book that I first realized Thach's massive contribution to the battle. Usually these same people who try to refute me by saying I need to read Parshall and Tully probably haven't read the appendices of SHATTERED SWORD, in which they insist that MIDWAY had two major effects on the war. The first and best known was the destruction of so many planes, carriers, and crew. But the second was the new tactics that evolved at Midway that allowed the US fighter pilots to dominate the Japanese hence forward, even before acquiring the Hellcat. What they meant specifically was Jimmy Thach's Beam Defense, which the other senior Navy fight pilot, Jimmy Flatley, redubbed before a Congressional committee "The Thach Weave." The best place to get a handle on all this is John Lundstrom's two masterpieces, THE FIRST TEAM (in which Thach is described as sort of the captain of the "first team", talking in sports metaphors), and THE FIRST TEAM AND GUADALCANAL.
Uss Trump
Uss Biden
Uss Harris
Not in my lifetime
You seem like the delicate type.
@@stevencramsie9172 im a retired combat infantryman , delicate .. highly unlikely .. try again troll
USS Biden would likely run aground while wandering around ...
Loved that
Skynea History i find your videos easier to watch than Drachs. Thats not to say he is not good your videos are just better in my opinion 😊