Scale: 1/700
Model length: 18.5"
Base length: 20"
Code: SS700CV59 

USS FORRESTAL (CV-59) 

Now you can own a 1/700 scale museum-quality model ship of the USS Forrestal (CV-59), completely handmade from resin, wood and metal crafted and combined by hand. The ship model comes to you all ready to display on a beautiful wood display base atop brass pedestals; her aircraft spotted and fixed on the deck; with a brass nameplate. If you served on the CV-59 and have a lot of good memories of your time aboard her, here's the perfect token for the tales you swap with your buddies! If you act now, you will be one of the few to own what had only been previously available as a low-value, undetailed plastic model kit or PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE custom wood model ship. 

The supercarrier USS Forrestal (CV-59), formerly AVT-59 and CVA-59, was named after former Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and was the lead ship of her class of aircraft carriers. The other carriers of her class were the USS Saratoga (CV-60) and USS Ranger (CV-61). She was the largest aircraft carrier since Shinano of World War II vintage, and the first to specifically support jet aircraft. The ship was affectionately called "The FID", because James Forrestal was the first ever Secretary of Defense, FID standing for "First In Defense". This is also the slogan on the ship's insignia and patch.  

Forrestal was launched 11 December 1954 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia, sponsored by Josephine Forrestal, widow of Secretary Forrestal; and commissioned 1 October 1955, Captain R. L. Johnson in command. 

Forrestal was decommissioned 11 September 1993 at Pier 6E in Philadelphia, and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register the same day. After being stricken, ex-Forrestal was heavily stripped to support the rest of the carrier fleet. In 1999, the USS Forrestal Museum Inc. began a campaign to obtain the ship from the Navy via donation, for use as a museum, to be located in Baltimore, but this plan was not successful. The Navy removed the ship from donation hold in 2004 and redesignated it for disposal. According to the NVR, her final status is "donated for use as fishing reef." In 2007, the ship is currently being environmentally prepared for sinking as an artificial reef. Due to elements of the "Forrestal" design having led directly to current aircraft carrier design, the ship will be donated to a State and sunk in a deep water reef, for fishery propagation, so that it is inaccessible to divers. The date for the sinking has not yet been announced.