USS FORRESTAL CVA-59 Naval Cover 1962 Aircraft Carrier Legal Sailor's Mail

Description: USS FORRESTAL CVA-59 Naval Cover 1962 Aircraft Carrier Legal Sailor's MailIt was sent 7 Oct 1962. It was franked with stamp "Air Mail". It was sent from Patrick Scanlon to Gainesville, FL.This cover is in good, but not perfect condition. Please look at the scan and make your own judgement.Member USCS #10385 (I also earned the stamp collecting merit badge as a boy!). I also offer approvals service with FREE SHIPPING to repeat USA customers.James Vincent Forrestal was born on 15 February 1892, in Matteawan (now Beacon), New York . His father, an Irish immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1857, managed a construction company. After graduating from high school in 1908, Forrestal worked for three years on local newspapers in New York State and then entered Dartmouth College as a freshman in 1911. The following year he transferred to Princeton University in New Jersey , but left in 1915 a few credits short of his degree, apparently due to academic and financial difficulties. During his time at both schools he also participated in boxing, tennis and wrestling. He then worked briefly as a financial reporter, a clerk for a zinc company and as a tobacco salesman. The next year Forrestal joined an investment banking house, William A. Read & Company of New York (which became Dillon, Read & Company in 1923), as a bond salesman. World War I interrupted his career in finance, however, and he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a seaman second class on 2 June 1917. The young sailor became enthused by naval aviation and he took flight training with British instructors from the Royal Flying Corps at Camp Borden, considered to be the birthplace of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and at Deseronto, both in Ontario, Canada . He commissioned as an ensign, Naval Reserve Flying Corps (NRFC) at Boston, Massachusetts, on 17 November of that year, and he gained his wings of gold as Naval Aviator No. 154 [HTA-, heavier-than-air] on 6 December 1917. Soon thereafter, Forrestal served in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Following the Armistice, Forrestal, discharged from the Navy with the rank of lieutenant, NRFC, on 30 December 1919, returned to banking through 1940. He rose rapidly in the company, becoming a partner in 1923, vice president in 1926, and president in 1938. Meanwhile, he met and courted Josephine Ogden, a beautiful 26-year-old chorus girl for the Ziegfeld Follies, and after a tempestuous romance the couple married on 13 October 1926, a union that would produce two sons, Michael V., and Peter. Although Jim Forrestal was the man I wanted the bride afterward confided to an interviewer, and their matrimonial voyage began happily, their marriage eventually grounded on the husband's extra-marital affairs and his wife's descent into alcoholism and mental illness. In June 1940, Forrestal accepted a post as a special assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving as a liaison for the chief executive in handling the National Defense Program, part of the countrys belated rearmament efforts as it prepared for World War II. In August 1940, the President nominated Forrestal to fill the new position of under secretary of the Navy. Secretary of the Navy William F. Knox [Frank Knox] assigned his under secretary to handle contracts, taxes and legal affairs, and as a liaison with several other government agencies. A highly capable administrator and manager, Forrestal built his office into an efficient organization, and he ran very effectively the Navy's machinery for industrial mobilization and procurement, a vast system that ultimately produced the largest fleet ever to put to sea. The seemingly tireless under secretary made numerous trips across the country and to the far-flung battlefields, coming under fire by the Japanese more than once during inspection and morale-building tours on Kwajalein and Iwo Jima. When a heart attack took Secretary Knox, Forrestal succeeded him on 19 May 1944. He guided the Navy through the last year of the war and into the two difficult years of demobilization after the Japanese surrendered. Forrestal visited Joint Task Force 1 at Bikini Lagoon in the Marshall Islands for Test Able of Operation Crossroads to witness the detonation of an atomic bomb and its effects upon over 90 ships, together with weapons and equipment, during late June and early July 1946. The explosion stunned the secretary, who made a number of references during interviews over succeeding days to the tremendous power unleashed by the blast and its effect upon viewers. Complex global problems made more urgent by the Cold War confronted the nation, however, and planners developed a new national security system to begin functioning without delay. Forrestal participated prominently in the development of the National Security Act of 1947, even though he initially opposed unification services. Nonetheless, under pressure from President Harry S. Truman and others, Forrestal made use of the 1945 Eberstadt report and negotiations with Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson to play a primary role in shaping the initial form of the plans. Although the President preferred Patterson as his first choice for secretary of defense, the latter intended to return to private life. The President's subsequent selection of Forrestal, however ironic it might appear given the Secretary's resistance to unification, was deserved and logical considering his long experience in the Defense establishment and dedication to effective administration. Tensions between the Western Allies and the East Bloc continued to build and intelligence analysts feared that Yugoslav Marshal Josip Broz [Tito] might attempt to seize the Adriatic city of Trieste, still occupied by U.S. and British troops to ensure the orderly transition of power following the Axis collapse. Therefore, when President Harry S Truman selected Forrestal as the first secretary of defense, he also directed that be sworn-in several days earlier than originally scheduled, on 17 September 1947. Forrestal brought to his new office a deep distrust of the Soviets and a determination to make the new national security structure workable. He recognized the magnitude of the job; he wrote to a friend shortly after announcement of his appointment confiding his serious apprehensions about the future of the new organization. He soon discovered that perhaps the chief obstacle to accomplishing his objectives would be the inherent weakness in the secretary of defenses powers as defined in the National Security Act. Another problem became the existence of virtually autonomous heads for the military departments. These organizational difficulties, combined with a steady escalation of Cold War tensions, ensured 18 months of frustration. By February 1948, the Soviets had largely completed their network of satellite nations across eastern Europe, as communists supported by Moscow seized control in Czechoslovakia. That June, the Soviets blockaded land routes from the western zones of Germany to Berlin, forcing the Americans and their allies to initiate an airlift which supplied Berlin until Moscow relaxed the blockade more than 10 months later. In the meantime, war broke out in Palestine between the Arabs and Israelis. As these events occurred, Congress approved the Marshall Plan, providing economic aid for 16 European nations, and in June 1948 the Senate adopted the Vandenberg Resolution, encouraging the administration to enter into collective defense arrangements. The Americans and British led in developing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formally established in April 1949. On the other side of the world, the Chinese communists defeated the Nationalists and drove them from the mainland, leading in 1949 to their emergence as a growing threat to freedom within Asia. The national security apparatus played an important role in the development of U.S. policies and programs to meet these Cold War challenges. Forrestal believed strongly in the need for close coordination of defense and foreign policy and saw the National Security Council as a major instrument for accomplishing this coordination. Although President Truman deemed the council a subordinate advisory body he met infrequently with it before the Korean War erupted in June 1950. Forrestal thought it should originate policy proposals and provide firm guidance for strategic planning. He labored hard, for the most part unsuccessfully, to increase its influence. In addition, during these years many Western leaders feared that the Soviets would use their enormous armed forces to conquer Western Europeans, who World War II largely weakened and made destitute. These men sought desperately for aid to brunt the (perceived) Russian steamroller and embraced many former Axis leaders due to the latter-s expertise in and dedication to containing communism. Forrestal became one of these leaders who established a chain of contacts and infrastructure with émigré anti-communists, including the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists [OUN, better known by their code name of Nactigall, or Nightingale], a group of zealously xenophobic Ukrainians who fought both the Poles and the Russians from World War I onward. Some of these men gained a notorious reputation for supporting Nazi efforts to exterminate Jews, Gypsies and other victims of the Holocaust. While the public did not become aware of these classified operations for sometime, the highly publicized War Crimes trials drew attention to the atrocities of the Holocaust, and to those even remotely affiliated with them in whatever manner. Although it is unknown to what extent his association with these men affected Forrestal's mental state, on his final day the Secretary began to copy a Greek poem entitled The Chorus of Ajax by Sophocles; he stopped after writing the first syllable of the final word of one of the lines: Nightingale. National security issues plagued the Secretary and the defense budget became a source of tension between Forrestal and Truman. Due to public pressures to limit defense expenditures and his predilection for a balanced budget, Truman would not agree to budget levels proposed by Forrestal or the larger amounts desired by the services. Disagreements between the services over roles and missions complicated the matter. Because the budget limits Truman imposed intensified the competition for scarce funds, the services developed elaborate rationales justifying their views of roles and missions and the funds to support them. The Air Force argued that strategic air power as exemplified by long-range bombers carrying nuclear weapons could be key factor in future wars, and that service wanted funds to support 70 combat groups as well as exclusive use of atomic weapons. On the other hand, the Navy wanted to build large flush-deck carriers from which it could launch naval aircraft carrying atomic weapons. These and other differences among the services surfaced especially during annual consideration of the budget. For all the problems, Forrestal could list 15 solid accomplishments in the process of unification in his first report as secretary of defense in December 1948. These included the formulation of long-range and short-range strategic plans, the development of an integrated defense budget for FY 1950, the definition of service roles and missions, the coordination of service procurement efforts, and the establishment of additional overseas unified commands. Forrestal observed that the mere passage of the National Security Act did not mean the accomplishment of its objectives overnight. The most difficult part of the task of unification is to bring conflicting ideas into harmonyHow fast we complete the process of resolution will depend on the speed with which we achieve the harmony of thought which is inherent in true unification. I am confident that we shall reach that accord. The 1949 amendments to the National Security Act stand as testimony to Forrestals determination to improve the Defense structure. The 1949 amendments began the legislative process of clarifying and expanding the powers of the secretary of defense. Centralization of authority in the Office of the Secretary of Defense became a constant objective under Forrestal and many of his successors. Unfortunately, Forrestal no longer served in the Pentagon when Congress approved these amendments. Forrestal struggled with recurring bouts of despair, hopelessness and widely erratic mood swings, that the strain of the war exacerbated and that caused the Secretary to resign on 28 March 1949. Psychiatrist Dr. William Menninger of the Menninger Clinic of Topeka, Kansas, diagnosed his patients disorder as reactive depression, a malady then commonly identified among veterans returning from the fronts with combat fatigue. Although Menninger recommended that Forrestal enter his clinic for treatment, Navy officials dispatched Captain George N. Raines, the chief psychiatrist at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Md., a suburb of the nations capital, who counseled that Forrestal should enter that facility instead. While at Bethesda, however, he continued to experience further attacks of depression and resolved to take his own life by tying off one end of his dressing gown sash to a radiator and falling from the window of his room on the thirteenth floor to the roof of a third story passageway below, on 22 May 1949. The country acknowledged his services to American security and freedom through two world wars by interning Forrestal with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery three days later. The Finnish artist Kalervo Kallio sculpted a bronze bust of Forrestal which officials unveiled at the Mall entrance to the Pentagon on 22 September 1950. Some months after he left office, the House Armed Services Committee, with which he worked closely, described his administration as secretary of defense as "able, sensitive, restrained, and far-sighted." (CVA-59: displacement 56,000; length 1,036; beam 129'4"; extreme width 252'0"; draft 35'9"; speed 33 knots; complement 4,000+ ; armament 8 5-inch; class Forrestal) Forrestal (CVA-59) was laid down on 14 July 1952 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. ; launched on 11 December 1954; sponsored by Mrs. Josephine Forrestal, widow of Secretary of Defense Forrestal; and commissioned at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 1 October 1955, CAPT Roy L. Johnson in command. Ship Insignia: Image related to ForrestalCaption: Ship's Insignia Chronology and Significant Events: 1 Oct 1955: Secretary of the Navy Charles S. Thomas, RADM Ingolf N. Kiland, Commandant of the Fifth Naval District, and W.E. Blewett, Jr., President of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, attended the ceremony when the ship hoisted aloft her commissioning pennant at 1430 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth, Virginia; Captain Roy L. Johnson was the first commanding officer. The huge aircraft carriers of the Forrestal class were so large when compared to previous carriers that veterans referred to them as supercarriers. Forrestal commissioned with four steam catapults, -two forward and two on her angled flight deck, -enabling her to launch aircraft more rapidly. During the post-World War II period several developments prepared naval aviation to provide a credible nuclear deterrent against East Bloc expansion: building Forrestal, reducing the weight and dimensions of nuclear weapons, and developing aircraft capable of dropping them, including Douglas A-3 Skywarriors. From her home port in Norfolk, Va., Forrestal spent the first year of her commissioned service in intensive training operations off the Virginia capes and in the Caribbean. An important assignment became training aviators in the use of her advanced facilities, a duty on which she often operated out of Mayport, Fla. Dec 1955-Jan 1956: Helicopter Utility Squadron (HU)-2 Detachment 42 operated a pair of Piasecki (Vertol) UH-25B Retrievers on board for search and rescue purposes to winch survivors of downed aircraft out of the water. Meanwhile, a pair of McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, one a night attack variant and the other an electronic warfare conversion, together with a couple of Beech TC-45J Kansans, also flew from the ship to qualify their pilots to operate from carriers. Just after the New Year Fighter Squadron (VF)-41 flew 11 McDonnell F-2C Banshees on board for carrier qualifications, joined by 14 Douglas A-1H Skyraiders and one Kansan from Attack Squadron (VA)-42 and 13 Vought F7U-3M Cutlass, from VA-86. These became the first aircraft to operate from the carrier. 3 Jan 1956: CDR Ralph L. Werner, commanding Air Task Group-1, made the first fixed wing aircraft landing on board Forrestal when he made three touch-and-go landings after which he made the first full-stop landing, in his North American FJ-3 Fury during the afternoon watch at about 1440. A few hours later he piloted the same aircraft to make the first catapult launch from the huge carrier. Meanwhile, CDR William M. Harnish, commanding officer of VF-21, made the second landing, also in a Fury, at approximately 1445. LT Vincent Darcey of the air group was the landing signal officer for both traps. Sailors painted both aircraft in the Navy's new white and gray 'atomic' paint scheme. The ship sailed to the east of Norfolk. 24 Jan-28 Mar 1956: Forrestal completed her shakedown cruise in Caribbean waters, operating principally off Guantánamo Bay, Cuba . 23-27 Apr 1956: The ship accomplished her final acceptance trials off the coast of Virginia. 4 May 1956: The carrier entered the yard for repairs which included replacing her original propeller shafts. Forrestal's Command History Report noted that completing this work "greatly improved her performance." 29 Oct-12 Dec 1956: Worsening tensions in the Middle East erupted into Operation Kadesh, Israeli attacks against the Egyptians in the Sinai Peninsula and along the Suez Canal. The next day the British and French issued an ultimatum to the Israelis and Egyptians to pull their forces back 10 miles from either side of the vital waterway to bring about the early cessation of hostilities and to safeguard the free passage of the canal. The Israelis accepted the terms of the ultimatum but the Egyptians angrily refused to comply. ADM Arleigh A. Burke, the Chief of Naval Operations, alerted the Sixth Fleet to standby to evacuate Americans stranded by the crisis in Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israel, Beirut, Lebanon, and Alexandria, Egypt. By 4 November, ships evacuated 1,702 people, naval helos took out 165 more and Air Force crews pulled 310 refugees from harm's way, often during extremely perilous situations from gunfire, errant bombs or navigational hazards. Just as destroyer Strong (DD-758) arrived at Gaza and anchored 3,000 yards off the port to disembark 21 members of a UN truce inspection team, an Egyptian ammunition dump exploded, showering the area with molten fragments and debris. From their vantage point crewmembers also observed mortar and small arms fire as the Israelis and Egyptians fought over the strategic city, culminating in strafing and bombing runs by Israeli aircraft against Egyptian troops who refused to surrender. The Sailors also witnessed the pitiable spectacle as the fighting forced hundreds of people to leave on foot, carrying their few belongings as they drove sheep and goats before them. Meanwhile, the Anglo-French ultimatum expired at 0430 on Halloween, and the two allies dispatched a huge expeditionary force that bombarded Egyptian forces across Egypt. At dawn on 5 November they began Operation Musketeer, landing commandoes, Marines and specialized troops at key points along the strategic canal to prevent the Egyptians from closing it by sinking ships or laying mines. The fighting raged into the next day, when British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden announced a cease-fire notice to take effect at midnight of the 6th. Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson proposed the creation of a UN peacekeeping force to separate the combatants, and a majority of that body's members agreed to support his resolution. Orders directed a vast number of American ships to rendezvous and concentrate in Atlantic waters off east coast ports, including Forrestal, which put to sea from Mayport. Due to concerns over possible Soviet submarine attacks should the crisis escalate, CINCLANTFLT authorized ships proceeding independently to do so at high speed, consistent with weather and sea conditions. Ships set sail from various U.S. ports, arriving at holding areas and mustering ports as type commanders desired by 10 December. By 17 November, RADM Murr E. Arnold, Commander, Carrier Division 4 and Task Force 26, broke his flag from Forrestal in command of a powerful concentration of ships that rendezvoused near 36-30-N, 27-18-17-W, in the eastern Atlantic around the Azores Islands, also including; attack aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), heavy cruiser Des Moines (CA-134), radar picket destroyers Charles P. Cecil (DDR-835), Corry (DDR-817), O-Hare (DDR-889) and Stickell (DDR-888), destroyers Douglas H. Fox (DD-779), Healy (DD-672), John Hood (DD-655), Laffey (DD-724), Lowry (DD-770), Robinson (DD-562), Sigourney (DD-643) and Stormes (DD-780), store ship Rigel (AF-58) and oiler Severn (AO-61). Additional ships relieved some of these vessels during the following days to enable the original ships to take on fuel or achieve repairs. The carriers conducted air operations "as practicable" to enhance their readiness, and utilized their aircraft to evaluate experiments determining the maximum air group loading for "executing war missions" as they maintained readiness to enter the Mediterranean should their presence be necessary. CINCLANTFLT tentatively scheduled attack aircraft carrier Lake Champlain (CVA-39) to relieve Franklin D. Roosevelt. Forrestal returned to Norfolk to prepare for her first deployment with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.

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