La. tug to deliver Ranger

BREMERTON, Wash. – The Navy’s mothballed aircraft carrier USS Ranger – decommissioned since 1993 – began its 16,000-mile tow from here to a Brownsville, Texas, scrapyard March 5. The carrier served from 1957-93 when it entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility. The Navy announced a deal Dec. 22 to pay International Shipbreaking of Brownsville a penny, and the value of the ship’s scrap metal, to take it away. The five-month trip will go around South America because it won’t fit in the Panama Canal. Crosby Tugs of Golden Meadow, La., has been contracted to tow the carrier. With Ranger’s departure, there is only two carriers remaining in the Bremerton mothball fleet - USS Independence and USS Kitty Hawk. The Navy is holding Kitty Hawk in reserve until USS Gerald R. Ford becomes active. Ford is scheduled to join the fleet in March 2016. (Source: Kitsap Sun 03/03/15)