The seventh USS Ranger (CV/CVA-61) was the third of four supercarriers built for the United States Navy in the 1950s. Although all four ships of the class were completed with angled decks, Ranger had the distinction of being the first U.S. carrier built from the beginning as an angled-deck ship.
Commissioned in 1957, she served extensively in the Pacific, especially the Vietnam War, for which she earned 13 battle stars. Near the end of her career, she also served in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.
Ranger was decommissioned in 1993, and was stored at Bremerton, Washington, until March 2015. She was then moved to Brownsville for scrapping, which was completed in November 2017.
Construction and trials
Ranger was the first American aircraft carrier to be laid down as an angled-deck ship (her elder sisters Forrestal and Saratoga had been laid down as axial-deck ships and were converted for an angled deck while under construction). She was laid down 2 August 1954 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia in Shipway 10. Her partially completed hull was floated and placed in Shipway 11 four months later for final completion. Ranger was launched 29 September 1956, sponsored by Mrs. Arthur Radford (wife of Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard 10 August 1957, Captain Charles T. Booth II in command.
thumb|Ranger departing for sea trials in 1957, passing [[USS Leyte (CV-32)|USS Leyte.]]
Ranger joined the U.S. Atlantic Fleet on 3 October 1957. Just prior to sailing on 4 October for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for shakedown, she received the men and planes of Attack Squadron 85. She conducted air operations, individual ship exercises, and final acceptance trials along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean Sea until 20 June 1958. Noted artist Jack Coggins was commissioned by the United States Naval Institute to paint the new aircraft carrier; his artwork appeared on the cover of their Proceedings Magazine of July 1958. She then departed Norfolk, Virginia, with 200 Naval Reserve officer candidates for a two-month cruise that took the carrier around Cape Horn. She arrived at her new homeport, Naval Air Station Alameda, Alameda, California, on 20 August and joined the Pacific Fleet.
Service
thumb|Ranger at Pearl Harbor, 1959.
The carrier spent the remainder of 1958 in pilot qualification training for Air Group 14 and fleet exercises along the California coast. Departing 3 January 1959 for final training in Hawaiian waters until 17 February, she next sailed as the flagship of Rear Admiral Henry H. Caldwell, Commander, Carrier Division Two, to join the Seventh Fleet. Air operations off Okinawa were followed by maneuvers with SEATO naval units out of Subic Bay, Philippines. A special weapons warfare exercise and a patrol along the southern seaboard of Japan followed. During this first WestPac deployment, Ranger launched more than 7,000 sorties in support of 7th Fleet operations. She returned to San Francisco Bay 27 July. During the next 6 months, Ranger was kept in a high state of readiness through participation in exercises and coastal fleet operations.
thumb|Ranger off Hawaii in November 1967, having departed for her 1967-68 WESTPAC cruise.
Vietnam War service
Ranger again sailed for the Far East on 6 August 1964. This deployment came on the heels of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. and remained so employed until 18 May 1970. During this time, the ship spent at least two extended periods on Yankee Station, the longest being 45 days, due to mechanical problems with the carrier that was to relieve her. A pleasant break in the lives of Rangers crew came with the arrival of the Bob Hope show on 24 December 1969. Upon leaving Yankee after one tour and on the way to Sasebo, Ranger was ordered to stand off the coast of Korea for three days due to North Korea forcing down a US C-130 and holding the crew. Initially, Ranger was to leave the line on Yankee Station for a week of R&R in Subic Bay while offloading supplies, then to Japan and on to Australia and home. A day before Ranger was to leave the line she was ordered to hold on station and fly the first sorties on Cambodia. Finally leaving Yankee Station, Ranger made a fast three-day offload in Subic Bay and a two-day port call in Sasebo and back to Alameda, arriving 1 June. Ranger spent the rest of the summer engaged in operations off the west coast, departing for her sixth WestPac cruise in late October 1970. On 10 March 1971, Ranger, along with , set a record of 233 strike sorties for one day in action against North Vietnam. During April, the three carriers assigned to Task Force 77 – Ranger, Kitty Hawk, and – provided a constant two-carrier posture on Yankee Station. Hours of employment remained unchanged, with one carrier on daylight hours and one on the noon to midnight schedule. Strike emphasis was placed on the interdiction of major Laotian entry corridors to South Vietnam. She returned to Alameda 7 June 1971, and remained in port for the rest of 1971 and the first five months of 1972 undergoing regular overhaul. Chenoweth was charged with "sabotage in time of war", and faced 30 years imprisonment, but was acquitted by a general court-martial.
thumb|left|Ranger in 1974
On 18 December 1972, the Linebacker II campaign was initiated when negotiations in the Paris peace talks stalemated. Participating carriers were Ranger, , , , and . In an intensified version of Operation Linebacker, bombing of North Vietnam above the 20th parallel and reseeding of the mine fields were resumed, and concentrated strikes were carried out against surface-to-air missile and antiaircraft artillery sites, enemy army barracks, petroleum storage areas, Haiphong naval and shipyard areas, and railroad and truck stations. Navy tactical air attack sorties were centered in the coastal areas around Hanoi and Haiphong, with 505 Navy sorties were carried out in this area. These operations ended on 29 December when the North Vietnamese returned to the peace table; on 27 January 1973, the Vietnam cease-fire came into effect, and Oriskany, America, Enterprise, and Ranger, on Yankee Station, cancelled all combat sorties.
Post-war service in the 1970s
Ranger returned to Alameda in August 1973. She was ordered immediately to refit and repair at Long Beach Naval Base where she was prepared for her next WESPAC Cruise over the next ninety days. Her air wing was lifted aboard by giant crane in Long Beach. She spent two weeks shaking down active duty and Reserve pilots. She returned to Alameda. There were two more two-week shake down cruises between January and April 1974. On 7 May 1974 she deployed again to the western Pacific. During this cruise, Ranger was again deployed to Yankee Station to participate in operations significant to the withdrawal of forces involved there. She returned to homeport on 18 October. On 28 May 1976, while on deployment, helicopter crews from HS-4 aboard Ranger, detachments from HC-3 on , and , and helicopters from Naval Air Station Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines, assisted in Philippine disaster relief efforts in the flood ravaged areas of central Luzon. Over 1,900 people were evacuated; more than of relief supplies and of fuel were provided by Navy and Air Force helicopters. While the large oil tanker was severely damaged, Ranger endured a significant gash in her bow, rendering two fuel tanks unusable. Ranger turned back to Subic Bay, for temporary repairs and then to Yokosuka, for full repair. The collision resulted in 10,000 tons of crude oil spilled in the South China Sea. MV Fortune was hauling 100,000 tons of light crude from Kuwait to Japan.
1980s
thumb|Ranger cruising off the coast of California in 1983
In September 1980, Ranger departed her homeport of San Diego for the 15th WestPac cruise and again crossed into the Indian Ocean via the Straits of Malacca, this time without incident. Ranger proceeded to GONZO Station to continue the US Navy's show of force in the region during Iran hostage crisis, which at that point was in its tenth month. Ranger remained on-station for over 120 days, during which time the hostages were released on 20 January 1981, the 444th day of the crisis. Ranger was awarded the Navy Expeditionary Medal, for both the ship and her company. She returned to homeport on 5 May 1981.
On 20 March 1981, under the command of CAPT Dan Pedersen, Ranger rescued 138 Vietnamese boat people from the South China Sea and brought them to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Manila, Philippines. In the same year, following the refugee rescue in 1981, Pedersen was given a nonpunitive letter of censure by Vice Adm. Robert F. Schoultz, commander of the Naval Air Force, United States Pacific Fleet, (COMNAVAIRPAC), after a three-week investigation into the 14 April 1981 death of Airman Paul Trerice, 20 years old, of Algonac, Michigan. Trerice had died after being on a bread-and-water diet for three days, then taking part in punitive exercises in the correctional custody unit. According to The Washington Post, "Trerice became abusive in the Ranger's correctional custody unit and had to be subdued in a struggle shortly before his death." The ship was just completing a successful WestPAC/Indian Ocean deployment and was at Subic Bay at the time. The Navy reported the airman faced disciplinary action for leaving his post and for leaving the ship twice without permission in Hong Kong.
A federal court dismissed criminal charges brought by the Trerice family against Pedersen and other officers on the Ranger, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal.
On 26 February 1983, she received an official visit from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, who were on a West Coast tour to visit San Diego.
Ranger entered the history books on 21 March 1983 when an all-woman flight crew flying a C-1A Trader from VRC-40 "Truckin' Traders" landed aboard the carrier. The aircraft was commanded by LT Elizabeth M. Toedt and the crew included LTJG Cheryl A. Martin, Aviation Machinist's Mate 3rd Class Gina Greterman, and Aviation Machinist's Mate Airman Robin Banks. which knocked out one of the ship's four engines and disabled one of her four shafts.Ranger returned to the Philippines after 121 consecutive days at sea. One enlisted man was imprisoned for two months of a three-month sentence for dereliction of duty relating to the fire, but the Navy released him early and reprimanded four officers after an investigation in 1984. The report blamed the fire, which resulted in $1.7 million ($ today) in damages in addition to the deaths, on engineering officers and their superiors.
In early 1985, Ranger was used to film some interior scenes for the film Top Gun. In 1986, the ship stood in for for scenes filmed for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
thumb|left|A [[Tupolev Tu-16|Tu-16 "Badger C" of the AV-MF overflies Ranger during her 1989 WESTPAC cruise]]
On 14 July 1987, Ranger started her "Pearl" Anniversary Cruise. During this cruise, Ranger relieved Midway and her carrier group in the Indian Ocean. During this period, Ranger took part in Operation Earnest Will under which the Kuwait tankers were reflagged under US colors.
On 24 July 1987, Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron 131 (VAQ-131) began the first Pacific Fleet deployment of the EA-6B Prowler equipped with AGM-88 HARM missiles, deployed in Ranger.
thumb|left|Four US Navy carriers form "Battle Force Zulu" following the 1991 Gulf War; Ranger (bottom left) cruises with (top left), (top right) and (bottom right)
On 26 January, an EA-6B Prowler from Ranger spotted two large tankers in a waterway northeast of Bubiyan Island. Two of Rangers A-6Es hit one of them with an AGM-123 Skipper missile on the starboard side. In September 2010, the not-for-profit USS Ranger Foundation submitted an application to Naval Sea Systems Command proposing the donation of Ranger for use as a museum ship and multipurpose facility, to be located on the Columbia River at Chinook Landing Marine Park in Fairview, Oregon. However, in September 2012, NAVSEA rejected the foundation's proposal, and redesignated the ship for scrapping. Preparations for disposal Ranger were completed 29 May 2014.
In August 2014, a new attempt began to convince the Navy not to scrap the ship. A petition on Change.org attracted over 2500 signatures. The hope was that Ranger could be located in Long Beach harbor as a museum. However, when asked by the Long Beach Press-Telegram, NAVSEA stated that Ranger was no longer available for donation and was slated to be scrapped in 2015.
On 22 December 2014, the U.S. Navy paid one cent to International Shipbreaking of Brownsville, Texas, to tow and scrap Ranger. International Shipbreaking paid to tow her around South America, through the Straits of Magellan, as Ranger was too big to fit through the Panama Canal. The tow began on 5 March 2015 from the inactive ships maintenance facility, Bremerton, Washington, to Brownsville. International Shipbreaking expected to make a profit from Ranger after the costs of the tow and the actual dismantling of the ship.
On 7 April 2015, ex-Ranger was seen anchored about three miles offshore at Panama City, Panama, attracting a lot of wild speculation as President Obama was scheduled to arrive two days later, for the 7th Summit of the Americas. Newspapers went so far as to repeat the local speculation that the ship was there to provide security for President Obama. On 12 July 2015, Ranger arrived at Brownsville for scrapping. The scrapping process was completed on 1 November 2017, though more than five tons of historic items from the ship were preserved for display at the USS Lexington Museum.
Both of Ranger<nowiki/>'s anchors were reused on the 2003 commissioned, USS Ronald Reagan.
Awards and decorations
Ranger earned 13 battle stars for service during the Vietnam War.