Jim wrote:

I have seen some of the decisions made on carrier retirements and can only
wonder who REALLY determines which carrier goes and which stay.

Case in point... The America (CVA-66) was decommissioned in 1996 - before
Independence (CVA-62) decommissioned 1998, Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) (still in
service), Constellation (CVA-64) decommissioned in 2003, and Enterprise
(CVA-65) still in service.

The official reason was that the overall condition was worth that the others
mentioned but I was on both the Kitty and America in 71-72 and she wasn't in
better shape than at that time.

Which is neither here nor there as to their respective condition in the mid-90s
-- the other carriers had been through fairly recent SLEPs or at least major
overhauls at the time the decision was made, and America hadn't.

Seemed to many that the decision was very
political.

Seems like common sense to me.

While other carrieres were considered for donation as museams - America was
sunk to determine how much damage it would take to sink a modern carrier.
Didn't even get a chance to be an artifical reef.

At least the Bunker Hill will live on doing something useful.

ISTM that knowledge gained by sinking America is likely to live on through at
least another generation of warships, and any crewman of a ship that survives
damage because of lessons learned will owe a debt to her. I'd say that was at
least as useful as becoming razor blades.

Guy