Historic Navy 'supercarrier' sold to Texas recycler for penny

The USS Forrestal in front of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, 1959. (U.S. Navy photo) The USS Forrestal in front of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, 1959. (U.S. Navy photo) Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Historic Navy 'supercarrier' sold to Texas recycler for penny 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

The U.S. Navy has paid a Texas scrap metal firm one penny to haul off and dismantle a storied but inactive aircraft carrier.

The Ex-USS Forrestal, the first of the Navy's "supercarriers," is to be recycled by All Star Metals through a contract awarded Oct. 22, according to a Navy news release.

"One cent is the lowest price the Navy could possibly have paid the contractor for the towing and dismantling of ex-Forrestal," Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman Chris Johnson said Thursday by email.

The Navy will continue to own the ship until it has been fully dismantled, although the Brownsville-based contractor takes ownership of the scrap metal as it is produced and sells the scrap to offset costs, Johnson said.

The one-cent price was based upon All Star Metals' estimate of proceeds from the scrap metal sales, the Navy's release said.

All Star Metals is a subsidiary of Scrap Metal Services and is one of the nation's largest ship recycling and scrap processing facilities, according to its website.

In May 2012, the Navy solicited proposals for up to three contracts to dismantle and recycle inactive aircraft carriers. All Star was the first of three responding companies to receive the necessary security clearance for the recycling facility, the Navy said.

Next, the company will develop a plan for towing the decommissioned ship from the Navy's inactive ship facility in Philadelphia to Brownsville. It's expected to leave Philadelphia before the end of the year, the Navy's release said.

Launched Dec. 11, 1954, the Forrestal was commissioned Sept. 29, 1955. It was named for James Forrestal, the nation's first secretary of defense.

In July 1967, when the ship was in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War, an accidental rocket launch aboard the carrier resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen, according to the Associated Press.

Among the survivors was John McCain, then a Navy pilot and today a U.S. senator from Arizona.

In remarks at the ship's commemoration in July 1992 in Philadelphia, McCain recounted the horrific event:

"On that Saturday morning, I sat in the cockpit of my A-4 preparing to fight my country's enemies," McCain said. "My parachute rigger, a fellow from Mississippi, wiped off my visor, as he always did, and handed me my helmet. I started my engine, and a rocket hit the fuel tank under my airplane. I never saw my friend from Mississippi again ..."

A couple of years after the Forrestal was designated as a training center, the Navy decommissioned it in September 1993.

In June 1999, the Navy announced it would donate the ship to an eligible organization to use as a museum or memorial but received no viable applications, the release said. In 2003, the ship was redesignated for disposal.