Tag Archives: USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42)

Frankie, reborn and ready for the sea again

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Some 70 years ago this week, the 968-foot Midway-class super carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), is seen being pushed out by tugs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 6 June 1956, offering a good view of her new hurricane bow and a trio of 5″/54 Mark 16 guns on her starboard sponsons.

National Archives Identifier 7578593

Swanky Franky had just completed her 25-month SCB-110 conversion at the PSNS, which lasted from 5 March 1954 to 6 April 1956, and many excellent images of her are in the National Archives from that period. 

USS_Franklin D.Roosevelt (CVA-42) in June 1956 NARA 7578590

As noted by DANFS

Workers at Puget Sound fitted Franklin D. Roosevelt with an angled flight deck, two C-11-1 and one C-11-2 steam catapults, a mirror landing system, a hurricane bow, and AN/SPS-8 height finding and AN/SPS-12 air search radars on a new mast, as part of a SCB-110 reconstruction plan. Workers also removed some of her 5-inch guns [6 out of 18], and the added measures increased her standard displacement to 51,000 tons. Franklin D. Roosevelt was recommissioned at the shipyard on 6 April 1956, Capt. John T. Hayward in command. The carrier returned to sea and on 16 June arrived at San Francisco to load stores for her voyage around the Horn to Mayport, Fla., and arrived at her new home port on 8 August.

The ship emerged from the yard work with an entirely new silhouette, and her angled flight deck is clearly visible in this port-bow image taken sometime after her recommissioning on 6 April 1956. (Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph UA 543.03)

Commissioned after construction at Newport News as CVB-42 on 27 October 1945– some eight weeks after VJ Day– she conducted her shakedown in the Caribbean before completing one North Atlantic and six Mediterranean deployments before her decommissioning for the SCB-110 modernization. Her original WWII construction had only lasted 696 days while her Cold War reconstruction took 761.

Transitioning back to the East Coast, FDR would complete a further 17 deployments including an emergency cruise (November-December 1956) to the Suez, a South Atlantic goodwill cruise, 14 Med cruises under Sixth Fleet orders including during the 1967 and 1973 wars, an emergency sortie to the Caribbean in November 1961 during the crisis in the Dominican Republic, and a 21 June 1966 – 21 February 1967 Vietnam cruise.

USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) underway in the Gulf of Tonkin, during her Vietnam War combat deployment, 19 October 1966. A UH-2 Seasprite helicopter of HC-2 is in flight at left while F-4B Phantoms, A-4C/Es Skyhawks, KA-3Bs, and RF-8As are on deck. Photographed by PH1 Hendricks. USN 1120428

Frankie was the first post-WWII super carrier decommissioned, on 1 October 1977, having completed 30 years of service, not counting her yard conversion period. She earned one battle star for her Vietnam War service, where her air wing (CVW-1) conducted over 7,000 combat sorties in 95 days on Yankee Station.

Her sisters, Coral Sea and Midway, remained in the fleet until 1990 and 1992, respectively, with the latter the largest preserved carrier museum ship in the world.

Always Ready to Ditch this Ride

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U.S. Navy Lt. F.A.W. Franke takes off in an early McDonnell F3H-2M Demon (BuNo 137003) of Fighter Squadron VF-61 “Jolly Rogers” from aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) during carrier qualifications, 10 April 1957.

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 2011.003.287.024

Of note, with the adoption of the Martin-Baker 0/0 ejection seat still a minute down the road, cats and traps at this time were done with the canopy open.

Of the staggering 265 Naval pilots that died in 1957, 172 did so following aircraft problems at low altitude/low airspeed.

Early jet operations from carriers at sea were astonishingly deadly.

Swanky Franky Coming Home

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In December of 1956, the crew of the Midway-class “Attack Aircraft Carrier”USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) assembled on the ship’s flight deck to send holiday greetings to the world. As noted by the Virginia Pilot archives of this U.S. Navy image, the ship was on the way back from the eastern Atlantic to Norfolk Naval Shipyard following a tense scratch deployment in response to the Suez Crisis.

Originally laid down as the future USS Coral Sea in December 1943, she was renamed in honor of the late FDR in May 1945– first time (but not the last) that the Navy made an exception to the traditional naming of fleet aircraft carriers for battles or famous ships.

Commissioned too late for WWII as CVB-42, the big (968-foot/45,000-ton) carrier lost her very 1945 strait-deck, open bowed appearance via a two-year SCB-110 modernization at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard between 1954 and 56, and emerged at some 51,000-tons standard displacement with the more modern angled deck and hurricane bow that is still distinctive among American flattops today. 

The above image was taken as FDR was rushed from her post-modernization sea trials to complete a surge operation with Carrier Air Group 17 (CVG-17) embarked for Sixth Fleet.

Carrier Air Group 17’s composition during FDR’s Suez Crisis run, via Go Navy

At the time, Roosevelt was arguably the largest and most capable carrier anywhere in the world– sisters USS Midway (CVA-41) would not complete her SCB-110 in Sept. 1957 and USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) wouldn’t complete her SCB-110A mod until 1960; while the two new “supercarriers,” class leader USS Forrestal (CVA-59) and USS Saratoga (CVA-60) were so busy with shakedowns and post-delivery refits they weren’t ready to deploy overseas with air wings for real until 1957. 

Nonetheless, the still-infant Forrestal and the newly rebuilt FDR were called up to bat.

As noted by DANFS:

The U.S. received information on 6 November 1956, that the Soviets intended to deploy six ships from the Black Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean. Just four minutes before midnight the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered Forrestal (CVA-59), Franklin D. Roosevelt, a cruiser, and three divisions of destroyers to the vicinity of the Azores Islands to reinforce the Sixth Fleet. Adm. Arleigh A. Burke, CNO, in the meanwhile dispatched Coral Sea and Randolph to steam off the Egyptian coast, from where they could support the evacuation of Americans or strike against the Soviets. Submarines deployed to reconnaissance stations, and antisubmarine warfare aircraft and ships patrolled multiple areas across the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The operations by the Sixth Fleet during subsequent weeks included the logistic support of the initial UN peacekeeping forces that arrived in the area on 15 November. Franklin D. Roosevelt returned home from the tense voyage on 9 December 1956, and on the 13th the Sixth Fleet stood down from a 24-hour alert status.