Previous ships called Independence: Difference between revisions

US Navy. 4th Navy ship & 2nd Aircraft Carrier to bear the name. Forrestal Class. Flew the [[wp:First Navy Jack|First Navy Jack]] as the oldest ship in the US Fleet for three years (1995-8)

<!-- The second aircraft carrier Independence (CVA-62) was launched by New York Navy Yard June 6, 1958 and commissioned January 10, 1959. 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 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 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. -->