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NavSource Online: Aircraft Carrier Photo Archive

Patch at left courtesy of CAPT Gene Oleson, CHC, USN (Ret) (bluejacket.com)
Patch at right contributed by Mike Smolinski.

USS AMERICA   (CVA-66)
(later CV-66)


Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: November - Uniform - Sierra - Alpha
Tactical Voice Radio Call: "COURAGE"
CLASS - KITTY HAWK
Displacement 60,300 Tons, Dimensions, 1047' 6" (oa) x 129' 4" x 37' (Max)
Armament 4 Terrier-SAM, 100 Aircraft.
Armor, Unknown.
Machinery, 280,000 SHP; G.E. Geared Turbines, 4 screws
Speed, 34 Knots, Crew 4154-4580.
Operational and Building Data

Laid down by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp on 9 January 1961. Launched 1 February 1964 and commissioned 23 January 1965.

Reclassified as a Multi-purpose Aircraft Carrier (CV-66) on 30 June 1975.

Fate: Decommissioned and stricken on 9 August 1996. Sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Virginia coast, on 14 May 2005, after 25 days of tests consisting of underwater and surface simulated attacks on the ship. These tests were intended to provide valuable data on survivability for the next generation of aircraft carriers.

According to the December 4, 2006 issue of "Navy Times," ex-America was in one piece and sitting on its keel, some 476 miles east of Charleston, SC, and about 400 miles west of Bermuda, and 16,860 feet (5,139 meters) below the surface. This information was obtained by the USS America Carrier Veterans Association on October 30, through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Click On Image 
For Full Size Image		 Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
General views, date unknown
CVA-66 America
NS026601		 67k Bows on view (small image) USN
CVA-66 America
NS026602		 46k Rail manned, preparing to dock. USN
CVA-66 America
NS026605		 60k At Dock. Fuzzy image. USN
1964-1980
CVA-66 America
NS026604		 102k America (CVA-66) on sea trials in the Chesapeake Bay, on the way to the Atlantic, December 1964. USN
CVA-66 America
NS026655		 57k
CVA-66 America
NS026619		 99k Off Cannes, South of France, during her first Med cruise, November 29, 1965–July 10, 1966. Carrier Air Wing 6 (CVW-6). Robert Hurst
CVA-66 America
NS026636		 63k An F-4 Phantom lands aboard USS America as the carrier refuels USS Meredith (DD-890), circa 1966. © Sheridan Carey
CVA-66 America
NS026637		 50k Underway in the Caribbean, 1967. Taken from the USS Meredith (DD-890). © Sheridan Carey
CVA-66 America
NS026612		 86k Taken from the Wallace L. Lind DD-703 in April, 67 in the Med Jim McCoy
CVA-66 America
NS026607		 111k Mediterranean Sea, June 1967. © Richard Leonhardt
CVA-66 America
NS026609		 68k Mediterranean Sea, June 1967. AO-61 Severn alongside. © Richard Leonhardt
CVA-66 America
NS026610		 39k Mediterranean Sea, June 15, 1967. AO-61 Severn alongside © Richard Leonhardt
CVA-66 America
NS026608		 49k Mediterranean Sea, June 17, 1967. © Richard Leonhardt

NS026617		 81k South China Sea coming alongside AO-57 USS Marias. © James W. Mitchell

NS026618		 88k Slowing for UNREP. This was the USS America's maiden voyage to Gulf of Tonkin (1968). © James W. Mitchell

NS026621		 105k Alongside AO-57 USS Marias. © James W. Mitchell

NS026623		 79k Stern view of America during UNREP. © James W. Mitchell

NS026622		 76k En route to the Gulf of Tonkin. © James W. Mitchell

NS026624		 79k One of the many aircraft operating overhead. © James W. Mitchell 
CVA-66 America
NS026611		 53k Closeup of hangar deck in June, 1968 while on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Jim McCoy
CVA-66 America
NS026613		 734k On Yankee Station in 1970. © William P. Jones, M.D., Medical Officer AFS-3
CVA-66 America
NS026614		 53k On Yankee Station in 1970. © William P. Jones, M.D., Medical Officer AFS-3
CVA-66 America
NS026603		 84k

USS America (CVA-66) underway, May 14, 1970. Note plane guard helicopter in right far background, an A-3 Skywarrior on the starboard catapult and an E-2A Hawkeye on the port one. F-4J Phantoms sit poised on the angled deck catapults. Photo taken by Photographer 3d Class L. J. Lafeir (# USN-1145455).

 USN
CVA-66 America
NS026620		 64k A Ling-Temco-Vought A-7E Corsair II assigned to VA-82 "Marauders" in flight over USS America (CVA-66), 1971. Robert Hurst
CVA-66 America
NS026657		 63k

Test of the anti-aircraft missile system on the way to Yankee Station, during America's WestPac 72-73 cruise. The photo was taken from "vulture's row" with a 35 mm Mamiya-Secor 1000 DTL SLR camera.

Partially visible are a North American RA-5C Vigilante of RVAH-6 "Fleurs" (foreground) and a McDonnell-Douglas F-4J Phantom II of VMFA-333 "Shamrocks."

 © John Lowery, Avionicsman with VMFA-333
CV-66 America
NS026666		 177k

USS America received three Mk.15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) in June 1980: one on the port side, forward; one on the starboard side of the island; and one on the port quarter, later moved to the port side of the fantail. Phalanx can fire 3,000 rounds per minute and simultaneously measures the location of both target and projectiles in flight, automatically correcting the fire control solution. This is a vertical view of one the mounts, during a firing exercise.

General Dynamics Corp. photo (DVIC id: DN-SC-82-05395).

 Defense Visual Information Center

For more photos and information about this ship, see:
USS AMERICA CVA-66 History
View This Vessels DANFS History Entry
(Located On The Hazegray & Underway Web Site, This Is The Main Archive For The DANFS Online Project.)
Crew Contact and Reunion Information
Date:  
Place:  
Contact: Edward Pelletier
Address: 26 Chestnut Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Phone: 914-471-7335
E-mail: angels66@aol.com
Web site: The USS America Carrier Veterans Association
Remarks:  
Related Links
Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages By Andrew Toppan.
Official U.S. Navy Carrier Website
The USS America Carrier Veterans Association
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Last update: 9 March 2008