I made the IO/MED cruise on CV-66 in '81. The America was the dirtest
ship I was ever on. I was on 5 carriers. But it was a safe ship with a
pretty good crew.

To me the America was chosen to be sunk because it more closely
resembles a Nimitz class carrier than to the Forrestal class now out of
service. The Chinese have been practicing sinking carriers. Also it
was decomissioned early because of poor material condition.. The ship
was never SLEP'ed.. What about the Connie? It was on the west coast and
NAVSEA who run the test is on the east coast.

Why the sink a carrier? The Chinese have a anti ship cruise missile,
the Sunburn, when loaded with a tactical nuke warhead could sink a
carrier. The missile travels at twice the speed of sound.

Could it be that the Navy sunk her with some captured munitions from
the mid east? Perhaps some munitions bought from China,sold to N. Korea
and then sold to a country in the Middle East? Who knows??