John Nathman, the Navy’s second-in-command, called America’s destruction “one vital and final contribution to our national defense.” before heading to the deep ocean, 300 miles off the Atlantic coast, for the tests, Dolan said. ![]() ![]() The Navy’s plan is to tow it to sea on April 11 - possibly stopping at Norfolk, Va. Since its decommissioning in 1996, the America has been moored with dozens of other inactive warships at a Navy yard in Philadelphia. In 1939, Adolf Hitler, fearful of a loss of morale among his people should Germany’s namesake ship be sunk, ordered the pocket battleship Deutschland renamed for a long-dead Prussian commander. Issues surrounding a vessel bearing the name of its country are often more sensitive than for other ships. ![]() He said he was “unhappy that a ship with that name is going to meet that fate, but happy she’ll be going down still serving the country.” Pelletier, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is a trustee of an association of veterans who served on the America. The Navy’s plan raises mixed emotions in Ed Pelletier, who served on the America as a helicopter crewman when the ship cruised the Mediterranean shortly after its commissioning in 1965.
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