USS Franklin D Roosevelt (CVB/CVA/CV-42)

The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) was launched shortly after the death of her namesake by New York Naval Shipyard on 29 April 1945. Originally named USS Coral Sea, her new name was approved by President Harry S. Truman and changed just over a week after she first went into the water. She was commissioned too late to see action in World War II, however, coming at the end of October 1945.

Early Service

During her shakedown cruise, the Franklin D. Roosevelt made port at Rio de Janeiro in February 1946, representing the United States at the inauguration of the Brazilian president. This was followed by maneuvers and other training cruises in the Caribbean, after which the "Rosie" was deployed to the Mediterranean to support the Greek government during that country's internal post-war conflict with Communist insurgents.

In July 1947, the Franklin D. Roosevelt entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul that lasted for well over a year. In September 1948, she sailed from Norfolk for a second tour of duty in the Mediterranean, which lasted until January 1949.

The Cold War

Over the next five years, the Roosevelt participated in various routine operations off the east coast and in the Caribbean. She also made four more tours of the Mediterranean. At the end of 1953, the Roosevelt was ordered to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington in order to undergo major refits and conversions.

However, she was too large to pass through the Panama Canal and was forced to take the long way around the treacherous waters between Cape Horn and the coast of Antarctica. When she arrived in Puget Sound after a three-month voyage, she was fitted with a new angled flight deck, steam catapults and a hurricane bow.

After two years of refits, Franklin D. Roosevelt left the Puget Sound Yard in April 1956. After a brief stop in San Francisco to load stores for her return voyage to the East Coast by way of the Horn, she arrived at her new home port of Mayport, Florida. There, she was assigned to training duties until the Suez Canal Crisis necessitated her emergency deployment to the eastern Mediterranean that fall.

In February 1957, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stationed off the New England coast for cold-weather tests of catapults, aircraft and other carrier equipment. That summer, she sailed for the first of three post-conversion cruises to the Mediterranean over the next three years.

The Vietnam Era

In 1964, the Roosevelt lost a blade from one of her massive screws and suffered from a locked shaft during a Mediterranean cruise. She limped home to Bayonne, New Jersey where repairs were made. These were the first of an increasing number of mechanical failures that would plague the aging vessel over the next several years.

The Roosevelt later made her only Vietnam tour of duty between August 1966 and January 1967. She was initially scheduled to undergo an extensive reconstruction, but massive cost overruns in a similar project drained the naval budget, leaving little for Rosie's modernizations.

In July 1968, the Roosevelt once again entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for upgrades and refits. The forward centerline elevator was relocated, the port waist catapult was removed, the crew spaces were refurbished, and two of the four remaining five-inch anti-aircraft turrets were removed during the project. New firefighting equipment was also installed and the Roosevelt got underway once more in May 1969.

She returned to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1970 and again in October 1973 during the Yom Kippur War, serving as a transit "landing field" for aircraft being delivered to Israel. In January 1977, the Roosevelt collided with a Liberian freighter while sailing through the Straits of Messina between the southern coast of Italy and Sicily.

By then, the Roosevelt was hopelessly obsolete. When the second Nimitz class carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), was launched in September 1977, the Roosevelt was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy List. She was sold to the River Terminal Development Company and scrapped in the early 1980s.

Asbestos Risks

Because a fire on an ocean vessel can be extremely difficult to deal with, fireproofing is an important factor in shipbuilding. With asbestos' superb imperviousness to flames, it seemed eminently suitable for use in the construction of ships. At the time the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was built, asbestos-containing materials such as insulation were common uses in ship construction. The problem with its use is that along with its insulation abilities, asbestos has also been shown to be a cause of the debilitating illnesses asbestosis and mesothelioma.

When asbestos-containing materials become damaged or disturbed, tiny asbestos fibers tend to release into the air where they can be inhaled. Once they enter the body, the fibers often lodge themselves within the lining of the lungs and other organs and remain there for quite some time. Over the span of a couple decades, mesothelioma may develop.

Those who have served on a Navy vessel and believe asbestos was aboard their ship should seek routine medical examinations for signs of asbestos exposure. If you or a loved one have already been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, you may have legal options for compensation. Many have received financial assistance to help pay for medical expenses and lost wages. For more information, please fill out the request form on this page to receive a free informational packet about compensation and treatment options.

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