Bremerton, WA — A group started a Change.org petition drive to save the aircraft carrier USS Ranger and then worked to get the retired aircraft carrier named as a Washington state and national historic site. The efforts came despite the Navy stating the ship will be dismantled.
The chance to rescue the ship, which is in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, has come and gone. During eight years while it was on donation hold, no states, municipalities or nonprofit organizations came up with a viable plan to save CV-61.
But now, the California city of Long Beach is jumping on board. Some city leaders want the USS Ranger moored alongside the Queen Mary, the old ocean liner that’s being used as a hotel and entertainment venue.
The City Council voted 9-0 Tuesday to direct City Manager Pat West to investigate the feasibility of bringing the ship to the waterfront as a floating museum and asked the City Attorney’s Office to prepare a resolution stating Long Beach’s interest in the aircraft carrier.
The effort is being led by resident Robert Harmon, who served on the ship during the Gulf War and has formed a nonprofit organization, Top Gun Supercarrier of Long Beach Inc., to raise the millions of dollars needed to save the ship. He told the City Council it could be done.
There are no plans to return the ship to donation hold, said Navy spokesman Chris Johnson. The Navy is reviewing proposals from ship recycling companies, with a deal expected to be made by the end of the year or in early 2015. The USS Constellation was towed from the inactive fleet Aug. 8 for scrapping in Brownsville, Texas.
Ranger had been in pristine condition, but for a week in August volunteers from other naval museums were allowed to remove items to improve their ships.
Commissioned in 1957, the USS Ranger earned 13 battle stars in the Vietnam War. It was taken out of service in 1993.
Source: http://www.stripes.com