CV-17 Bunker Hill retirement?

Jim wrote:
I have seen some of the decisions made on carrier retirements and can only
wonder who REALLY determines which carrier goes and which stay.

Case in point... The America (CVA-66) was decommissioned in 1996 - before
Independence (CVA-62) decommissioned 1998, Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) (still in
service), Constellation (CVA-64) decommissioned in 2003, and Enterprise
(CVA-65) still in service.

The official reason was that the overall condition was worth that the others
mentioned but I was on both the Kitty and America in 71-72 and she wasn't in
better shape than at that time. Seemed to many that the decision was very
political.

However your time on those ships was over twenty years before the
decision on which ship to decommission was made. By the mid 1990's the
Kitty Hawk, Constellation and the Independence had already been through
their SLEP rebuilds. The America on the other hand was the oldest CV
that still needed to be SLEPed. The Forestal was also decommissioned
about the same period while in the middle of her SLEP.

In fact the poor material condition of the America was a bit of a
scandal back in the early 1990's. I remember a long article in US News
about how bad he condition was back then.

ALV


While other carrieres were considered for donation as museams - America was
sunk to determine how much damage it would take to sink a modern carrier.
Didn't even get a chance to be an artifical reef.

At least the Bunker Hill will live on doing something useful.

My suspicion is that Bunker Hill was in poor condition and that's why she
was not modernized and was retired early.

Franklin was clearly in bad condition and bringing her back to flight status
was not considered practical. But Bunker Hill suffered from a bad fire, and
the info I have seen implies that she really did not regain flight
capability after the damage.

The Navy probably could have repaired her, but they had a lot of Essex class
carriers and they didn't need more. In fact, if anything, they probably
needed a few ships laid up to provide spare parts.

But I don't have anything that confirms that.




D

DDAY wrote:
My suspicion is that Bunker Hill was in poor condition and that's why she
was not modernized and was retired early.

Franklin was clearly in bad condition and bringing her back to flight status
was not considered practical. But Bunker Hill suffered from a bad fire, and
the info I have seen implies that she really did not regain flight
capability after the damage.

The Navy probably could have repaired her, but they had a lot of Essex class
carriers and they didn't need more. In fact, if anything, they probably
needed a few ships laid up to provide spare parts.

But I don't have anything that confirms that.




D


IIRC, it provided reduction gears for repair of Bon Homme Richard,
Kearsarge and Ticonderoga.

Rick

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

"DDAY" wrote in message
k.net...
My suspicion is that Bunker Hill was in poor condition and that's why she
was not modernized and was retired early.

Franklin was clearly in bad condition and bringing her back to flight
status
was not considered practical. But Bunker Hill suffered from a bad fire,
and
the info I have seen implies that she really did not regain flight
capability after the damage.

The Navy probably could have repaired her, but they had a lot of Essex
class
carriers and they didn't need more. In fact, if anything, they probably
needed a few ships laid up to provide spare parts.

But I don't have anything that confirms that.


There are articles that suggest the precise opposite

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...unkerhill.html

States that Bunker Hill was put back into service between Sept 1945 and
January 1946
as a unit of TG 16.2 returning veterans from the PTO

Other records indicate she was repaired at Puget sound between June and Sept
1945

http://warlords.hobbyvista.com/history.htm

Keith



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

Bunker Hill was put back into service between Sept 1945 and January 1946 as a unit of TG 16.2 returning veterans from the PTO

Point taken. However OPERATION MAGIC CARPET duty was a far cry from the demands of even normal peacetime operations. You don't need much material refurbishment to bring redundant forces home.

As others besides me have pointed out, there were many other ESSEX assets in much better material condition. So there was little economic or national security incentive for the Gummint to modernize BUNKER HILL or do more than make FRANKLIN temporarily seaworthy at war's end.

--
Mike Kanze

"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."

-- General William Tecumseh Sherman

"Keith W" wrote in message ...

"DDAY" wrote in message
k.net...
My suspicion is that Bunker Hill was in poor condition and that's why she
was not modernized and was retired early.

Franklin was clearly in bad condition and bringing her back to flight
status
was not considered practical. But Bunker Hill suffered from a bad fire,
and
the info I have seen implies that she really did not regain flight
capability after the damage.

The Navy probably could have repaired her, but they had a lot of Essex
class
carriers and they didn't need more. In fact, if anything, they probably
needed a few ships laid up to provide spare parts.

But I don't have anything that confirms that.


There are articles that suggest the precise opposite

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...unkerhill.html

States that Bunker Hill was put back into service between Sept 1945 and
January 1946
as a unit of TG 16.2 returning veterans from the PTO

Other records indicate she was repaired at Puget sound between June and Sept
1945

http://warlords.hobbyvista.com/history.htm

Keith



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

Mike Kanze wrote:
Bunker Hill was put back into service between Sept 1945 and January 1946 as a unit of TG 16.2 returning veterans from the PTO

Point taken. However OPERATION MAGIC CARPET duty was a far cry from the demands of even normal peacetime operations. You don't need much material refurbishment to bring redundant forces home.

However repairs didn't stop when the war ended. According to the a/c
allocation list of 7 SEP 1945, CVG-13 was assigned to Bunker Hill, and
they were working up preparing for deployment. Had the war continued I
don't think there's any doubt she would have been part of TF38 / 58 for
the final push on Japan.

MW

Mike Weeks,

Workups ashore by the Air Group are a bit different than readying the ship itself for deployment. The former can happen (and in this case, apparently did) without the latter necessarily happening. In addition, an Air Group could be easily shifted to another deck, if absolutely needed.

Sidebar Sea Story:

Any veteran of predeployment refurbishment dets can personally attest to the variations between ship readiness and squadron/air wing readiness. A big part of ship readiness can vaguely be defined as the "habitability" of the spaces assigned to the Air Wing. Depending upon (a) the ship's general material condition, (b) the conditions of the prior cruise (war, peace, greater than 10 months, etc.), (c) "town/gown" relations between ship's company and "passengers, and similar factors, you could find things pretty nice or a complete wreck.

VA-95 was lucky. Our "habitability" challenge aboard CORAL SEA, preparing for its 1973 cruise, consisted mainly of scraping off all of the "Semper Fi" tags and painting over all the red/gold areas left by our predecessor A-6 squadron, VMA(AW)-224. g

--
Mike Kanze

"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast."

-- General William Tecumseh Sherman

"Mike Weeks" wrote in message ups.com...

Mike Kanze wrote:
Bunker Hill was put back into service between Sept 1945 and January 1946 as a unit of TG 16.2 returning veterans from the PTO

Point taken. However OPERATION MAGIC CARPET duty was a far cry from the demands of even normal peacetime operations. You don't need much material refurbishment to bring redundant forces home.

However repairs didn't stop when the war ended. According to the a/c
allocation list of 7 SEP 1945, CVG-13 was assigned to Bunker Hill, and
they were working up preparing for deployment. Had the war continued I
don't think there's any doubt she would have been part of TF38 / 58 for
the final push on Japan.

MW

----------
In article , "Keith W"
wrote:


Franklin was clearly in bad condition and bringing her back to flight
status
was not considered practical. But Bunker Hill suffered from a bad fire,


There are articles that suggest the precise opposite


http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...v17-bunkerhill
/cv17-bun
kerhill.html

States that Bunker Hill was put back into service between Sept 1945 and
January 1946
as a unit of TG 16.2 returning veterans from the PTO

Other records indicate she was repaired at Puget sound between June and Sept
1945

http://warlords.hobbyvista.com/history.htm

But she never again flew aircraft. She only served as a transport. This
makes me wonder if the repairs were incomplete.




D

DDAY wrote:
My suspicion is that Bunker Hill was in poor condition and that's why she
was not modernized and was retired early.

I do believe it's simply that she was never modernized, that's all.
She was repaired and remained in the active fleet for a short period
following the war (decommissioned and mothballed on 9 JAN 1947).

MW