USS Forrestal to leave Philly on last voyage Tuesday

PHILADELPHIA Weather permitting, the USS Forrestal will leave the Navy Yard on Tuesday on its last voyage - to a scrap facility in Texas.

The Navy has paid one cent under a contract to have the 60-year-old vessel dismantled by All Star Metals in the Gulf port of Brownsville.

The Forrestal, the first of the post-World War II supercarriers, already has been stripped to the steel and will make its way to Texas under tow instead of its own power.

The Navy said All Star Metals had contracted with Foss Marine Towing for the job.

No time has been announced yet for the ship's departure from the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility. The Navy says the best place to view the ship will be from publicly accessible spots along the Delaware.

The Forrestal was decommissioned Sept. 11, 1993, after more than 38 years of service. The Navy had offered the carrier for use as a museum or memorial but said none of the applications it received was deemed viable.

Under its contract with the Navy, All Start Metals assumes all costs of towing, insuring, and dismantling the vessel with the aim of recovering its costs and making a profit through the sale of the scrap.