Bill, The U.S.S. Constellation, CV-64, preceded the Ranger by a few months to the same fate. Both will be scraped in Galveston, TX. The U.S.S. Saratoga, CV-60 was the first carrier sold to the Galveston scrap company. Photo of the "Connie" was in the San Diego paper showing it off the coast of Argentina as it was towed north. Steve
Sent from my iPad
On Mar 18, 2015, at 22:43, William Talanian w1uuq@cox.net wrote:
Folks:
This week on the 14th a famous ship sailed under tow through the Santa Barbara channel and no one rendered honor's. The club's AIS systems were tracking the former USS Ranger, CVA-61. It was not until the club was contacted for information about our AIS sites by Mr. Vern Bouwman, Navy Ship Historian, Bothhell, WA that I became aware of this event. The Ranger was sold for one cent to a scrap yard in Texas. The journey will take 5 months around South America as it is too wide to fit through the Panama Canal. The Ranger was part of Task Group 77.7 at Yankee Station off Vietnam. We all knew about the excellent air support we got from the Ranger's airmen and sad to see its legacy going to the scrap yard. Check out other great ships and their final days.
For the full story of this event go to the following web page http://navy.memorieshop.com/AIS-Station/AIS-Station-No-1360.html
To read the full story of tugs and Naval vessels go to: http://navy.memorieshop.com/Tug-Boats/index.html
Bill Talanian