Previous ships called Independence: Difference between revisions

The second aircraft carrier Independence (CVA-62) was launched by New York Navy Yard June 6, 1958; sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Gates, wife of the Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned January 10, 1959; Captain R. Y. McElroy in command. This ship had a conventional power source (meaning that it was not Nuclear Powered as several US ships were during this time period). This Independence served in two wars: The Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. During the Vietnam war she participated in the first major series of coordinated strikes against vital enemy supply lines north of the Hanoi-Haiphong complex, successfully evading the first massive surface-to-air missile barrage in aviation history while attacking assigned targets, and executing, with daring and precision, the first successful attack on an enemy surface-to-air missile installation. During the Persian Gulf War she launched twenty Navy aircraft in the Persian Gulf that were the first coalition aircraft on station over Iraq as Operation Southern Watch began. Southern Watch was the enforcement of a ban on Iraqi warplanes and helicopters from flying south of the 32nd parallel. From June 30, 1995 until her decommissioning, the Independence was the oldest ship in the US Navy's active fleet. She was decommissioned September 30, 1998 in Bremerton Naval Shipyard, Washington.