“You can see the extensive tear down that went on. I don’t know what they did below the main deck, but they replaced an awful lot of the large machinery. If my memory serves me right, most of the structure that was replaced above the main deck was aluminum. Whatever they did we were faster when we went back into the water and could easily stay with the carrier during launch and recovery.”

“I was aboard from Oct. ‘ 58 until sept. ‘ 61 and was in the skeleton crew that stayed aboard through FRAM. I was a radionman and it was good duty for me, as my watch was in a nice clean office ashore. There were only two of us and we were excused from working aboard the ship.”