USS America (CV-66)

USS America (CV-66)

The USS America (CVA/CV-66) was one of four Kitty Hawk-class super carriers built for the United States Navy in the 1960s. Commissioned in 1965, she spent most of her career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, but did make three Pacific deployments serving in the Vietnam War. She also served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

America held the distinctions of being the last U.S. supercarrier built not named after a person, and being the first large aircraft carrier since Operation Crossroads in 1946 to be expended in weapons tests. In 2005, she was scuttled southeast of Cape Hatteras, after four weeks of tests, despite a large protest of former crew-members who wanted to see her instituted as a memorial museum. She was the largest warship ever to be sunk.

Read more about USS America (CV-66):  Construction and Shakedown, First Deployment (1965–1966), Second Deployment (1967), Bound For Vietnam, Crisis in Lebanon, Returning To Lebanon, Crisis in Libya, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Final Deployments, Decommissioning, Post Decommissioning Service