Archive for February 2010
Ranger and the Family
The year is 1972, and Ranger has completed her comprehensive overhaul at the Hunters Point shipyard in California. She went from a weary veteran, to a disheveled industrial site, to a floating city prepared to resume service wherever her country needs her.
In recognition of the incalculable support the crew receives from our families, we embark wives, children and others for a Dependent’s Day cruise. The mere anticipation has kept my son up most of the night, and I am anxious to show off where Daddy works. My wife is finally going to get a look at the ship the way she is supposed to be. She has been aboard during the yard period, but there was a lot of noise and dirt and seemingly endless stream of civilians and sailors mixed in.
We sailed out of Alameda, under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific with more than 5,000 guests aboard.
Various departments aboard hosted meals, movies, demonstrations and we even had an air show for our honored guests.
Dependents Day
It was a bittersweet day for most of us, because it meant we were back as Top Gun of the Pacific, and were ready to deploy. We felt the satisfaction of a job well done; knowledge that we would too soon be separated for an extended period.
November 16th, 1972 we will depart for the Western Pacific, or WESTPAC – But today we are the Ranger Family!
Under the Golden Gate
· Imagine the spectacle of hosting the Rose Festival from the flight deck!
· Imagine a sit down dinner for 2500 of your closest friends in the enclosed hangar deck.
· Imagine the thrill of exploring this magnificent vessel.
This ship was built in the 1950’s and served until the 1990’s. No ships of this generation are currently open to the public. Ranger was fueled by oil. Later ships of this type are nuclear powered, and will never be available for donation.
Please feel free to explore this web site, and consider how you may help. We need your support. Bringing this ship to Portland and turning Ranger into the world’s largest floating museum is no small undertaking. Like everything else worth doing, it requires effort and sacrifice.
Please take a moment to write a letter of support, make a donation and visit the Ship’s Store.
Larry Schmuhl DS2 OZ Division USS Ranger ’71-‘74
Program Manager, USS Ranger Foundation
Ranger is patiently awaiting her call to serve yet again. Though she will never roam the seas under her own power again, her flight deck is still able to host large numbers of visitors and honorary Ranger Crew.
A Note from the President of the Foundation
Sometimes an article is written that addresses a serious subject and is designed to provoke discussion. Such an article can be read here:
This article discusses the ongoing need for a vibrant and well supported naval force centered on aircraft carrier battle groups.
For the last 50 years, American Carrier groups have projected power and performed humanitarian missions all over the world. No other nation can field such a combination of capabilities.
A small number battleships of previous generations have been preserved to provide a living interpretation of the past, from the USS Texas, an elderly dreadnaught to the USS Missouri, site of the end of WWII. Several saved carriers of WWII vintage provide venues to commemorate the coming of age of air power, and the evolution to our current force structure. Current carriers are nuclear powered and will never be made available for first hand experiencing unless we preserve one of their sisters. USS Ranger is similar in size and capability to the Nimitz class ships roaming the oceans today. It is imperative that she assume a new role as an education magnet, memorial to the cold war years and a regional emergency response command center.
I hope you take the time to forward this to everyone in your address book and spread the word!
Peter Ogle
President/CEO
USS Ranger Foundation
