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Vets' Hopes Of Saving USS Saratoga Scuttled

Former Navy sailors and New Yorkers with an attachment to the USS Saratoga say they're saddened by the news that the mothballed aircraft carrier will be scrapped instead of converted into a floating museum.

The Navy announced earlier this month that the carrier would be sold to a Texas scrap company for a penny. The ship will be towed from its pier near Newport, Rhode Island to Texas, where it will be dismantled and sold for scrap.

Brad Senter is president of the USS Saratoga Association, the alumni group of those who served aboard the carrier between its launching in 1955 and decommissioning in 1994. He tells the Daily Gazette of Schenectady (http://bit.ly/TPDX0G ) that former Saratoga sailors are saddened by the news, but they knew it was coming.

The carrier was named for the 1777 Revolutionary War battle.

(C) 2014 AP

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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