USS Forrestal, Navy's first 'supercarrier,' sold for 1 cent

The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, out of service for 20 years, is being sold to a Brownsville, Texas, scrap company for a penny, the Navy says. All Star Metals bid $0.01 for the job, the Navy said in a news release Tuesday. The company's offer was based on its estimate of how much it can net from the sale of metal from the Forrestal. The Forrestal, the first of the Navy's "supercarriers," was launched in December 1954 in Newport News, Va., and commissioned on Sept. 29, 1955. It was named after James V. Forrestal, the last Navy secretary to sit in the cabinet and the first secretary of defense, who committed suicide in 1949. The carrier was decommissioned in 1993. The Navy offered to donate it as a museum or memorial but no suitable organizations offered to take the vessel. The Forrestal is currently docked in Philadelphia.