DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200311

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:   22 lines

CARRIER AMERICA LEAVING MONDAY FOR INACTIVE FLEET

The carrier America will make perhaps its final voyage out of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on Monday, towed through the Elizabeth River between downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth and on to Philadelphia, where it will join the mothballed fleet.

Retired on Aug. 9, 1996, after 31 1/2 years of service, the former Norfolk-based 1,047-foot aircraft carrier has been in the Portsmouth shipyard since, receiving long-term preservation to its equipment before being moored at the Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.

Navy officials said the America is scheduled to leave the Portsmouth shipyard at 8 a.m. Monday and pass the shipyard's huge hammerhead crane on the Elizabeth River about 9 a.m. Its tow will then take several more hours before reaching the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. KEYWORDS: U.S.S. AMERICA RETIREMENT DECOMMISSIONING

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