USS Saratoga CVA-60 Forrestal Supercarrier 1958 Mediterranean Cruise Bullion Navy Patch
Condition: Unused, and in good. There some fraying from age/handling. See pictures.
The patch is 4 3/4 by 5 inches. Embroider patch and the picture shows the side of a single patch so you can see the backside. This is an authentic patch from the 1950s.
USS Saratoga (CV-60), formerly CVB-60 and CVA-60, was a Forrestal class supercarrier. She was the last aircraft carrier in the US Navy to be laid down as an axial-deck ship, and was converted while under construction to an angled deck ship.
The CV-60 is the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War
Service history
For the next several months, Saratoga conducted various engineering, flight, steering, structural, and gunnery tests. On 18 August, she sailed for Guantanamo Bay and her shakedown cruise. On 19 December, she reentered the New York Naval Shipyard and remained there until 28 February 1957. Upon completion of yard work, she got underway on a refresher training cruise to the Caribbean Sea before entering her home port, Mayport, Florida.
On 6 June, President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower and members of his cabinet boarded Saratoga to observe operations on board the giant carrier. For two days, she and eighteen other ships demonstrated air operations, antisubmarine warfare, guided missile operations, and the Navy's latest bombing and strafing techniques. Highlighting the President's visit was the nonstop flight of two F8U Crusaders, spanning the nation in three hours and twenty-eight minutes, from the Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) off the West Coast to the flight deck of the Saratoga in the Atlantic.
The carrier departed Mayport on 3 September 1957 for her maiden transatlantic voyage. Saratoga sailed into the Norwegian Sea and participated in Operation Strikeback, joint naval maneuvers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries. She returned briefly to Mayport before entering the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for repairs.
On 1 February 1958, Saratoga departed Mayport for the Mediterranean Sea and her first deployment with the Sixth Fleet. From this date through 31 December 1967 she was to spend a part of each year in the Mediterranean on a total of eight cruises. The remainder of the time, she either operated off the coast of Florida or was in port undergoing restricted availability.
1960s
On the night of May 24th/25th 1960, the Saratoga collided with the German freighter Bernd Leonhardt off North Carolina. The freighter's bridge and superstructure were damaged by the carrier's flight-deck.[2][3] The results of an investigation was never published, but repairs of the freighter, amounting to about 2.5 million German marks, were paid by the Navy.[4]
While deployed with the Sixth Fleet on 23 January 1961, a serious fire broke out in Saratoga's number two machinery space which took seven lives. The fire, believed caused by a ruptured fuel oil line, was brought under control by the crew, and the ship proceeded to Athens, Greece, where a survey of the damage could be made. The ship continued on its patrol mission with reduced steam generation capability, returning to the U.S. as scheduled to offload its air group before repairs.
After an extensive shipyard period in the second half of 1964, Sara departed for the Mediterranean, arriving just before Christmas 1964. Ports visited over the next 6 months were Naples, Athens, Cannes, Valencia, Spain, Istanbul, and Malta. Another routine Med cruise was undertaken in 1966. The Med cruise from June to December 1967 was anything but routine. Immediately after entering the Med, Saratoga was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, where her medical facility was used to treat survivors of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty. Later on She was involved in a near collision with a Russian Destroyer which was cutting across Saratoga's bow during flight operations. During the return voyage in early December, 1967 Saratoga spent several days in a fierce Atlantic storm, which caused heavy damage to external catwalks on the flight deck, garbage chute and boat sponsons. She arrived in Mayport on December 6.
On 2 January 1968, Saratoga sailed for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and an overhaul and modernization program which was to last 11 months. On 31 January 1969, she departed Philadelphia for Guantanamo, via Hampton Roads and Mayport, and extensive refresher training of the crew and air detachments.
On 17 May, Armed Forces Day, she was the host ship for President Richard Nixon during the firepower demonstration conducted by Carrier Air Wing Three in the Virginia Capes area. On 9 July, she departed Mayport for her ninth Mediterranean deployment. Underway, a Soviet surface force and a November class submarine passed in close proximity, en route to Cuba. Off the Azores on 17 July, Saratoga was shadowed by Kipelovo-based Soviet aircraft. They were intercepted, photographed, and escorted while in the vicinity of the carrier. She operated with Task Group 60.2 of the Sixth Fleet in the eastern Mediterranean during September in a "show of force" in response to the large build-up of Soviet surface units there, the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines plane to Syria and the political coup in Libya. Numerous surveillance and reconnaissance flights were conducted by Carrier Wing Three aircraft against Soviet surface units, including the helicopter carrier Moskva, operating southeast of Crete. Saratoga operated in this area again in October because of the crisis in Lebanon.