Ex-carrier Ranger set for last voyage in early 2015

Navy Pays Texas Ship Breaker a Penny to Dismantle Carrier Ranger - USNI News

USS Ranger (CVA-61) maneuvers at high speed, sometime in the second half of the 1960s.

John Slaughter, Webmaster USS Ranger History & Memorial site, who was aboard Ranger, 1968–70, comments: "you can see what appears to be an AE in the background and a DD off to Ranger's port quarter. My guess is that Ranger had just unrepped and was heading back to take up station. In my two years aboard, both in deck division and later having to go on working parties during unreps, I do not remember us ever unrepping from an AE anywhere but while on Yankee Station." 

Ranger was decommissioned July 10, 1993, after more than 35 years of service. It served as a retention asset for potential future reactivation until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on March 8, 2004, and redesigned for donation. After eight years on donation hold, the USS Ranger Foundation was unable to raise the necessary funds to convert the ship into a museum or to overcome the physical obstacles of transporting her up the Columbia River to Fairfview, Oregon. As a result, the Ranger was removed from the list of ships available for dismantling and designated for dismantling.
While there are many veterans with strong desires that the Navy not scrap the ship they served on, there were no states, municipalities or non-profit organizations with a viable plan seeking to save the ship. The Navy cannot donate a vessel unless the application fully meets the Navy’s minimum requirements for donation, and cannot retain inactive ships indefinitely.

Aircraft Carrier Photo Index: USS RANGER (CVA-61)

Ex-carrier Ranger set for last voyage in early 2015
The ex-carrier Ranger is set to make its final sea voyage in early 2015.
The Navy paid 1 cent for shipbreakers to tow and scrap the decommisioned aircraft carrier, which once launched combat missions in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm, Naval Sea Systems Command said Monday.
"Under the contract, the company will be paid $0.01. The price reflects the net price proposed by International Shipbreaking, which considered the estimated proceeds from the sale of the scrap metal to be generated from dismantling," the NAVSEA release said. "$0.01 is the lowest price the Navy could possibly have paid the contractor for towing and dismantling the ship."

NAVSEA - Inactiveships_News

Navy to Scrap Historic Aircraft Carrier – 2014 UPDATES | Malcolm's Round Table