Model Forum / General / Models / May 2008

S Intrepid, survivor of war, faces new peril
By RICHARD PYLE
The Associated Press
May 24, 2008
Once it was Japanese torpedoes and kamikaze suicide planes. Then, the
threat of the wrecking ball. Now, it's money _ or the lack of it _
that could imperil the future of the USS Intrepid.
Nineteen months after tugboats pried it from the mud at its Hudson
River pier and towed it away for a much-needed renovation, the
legendary World War II aircraft carrier needs a sizable infusion of
cash to resume its postwar career as a floating military museum.
If all goes according to plan, the ship will be brought back in early
October and formally reopened to the public on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
That depends on finding the wherewithal to complete the job that was
first estimated at $65 million to $70 million and is now expected to
cost $110 million overall, said Bill White, president of the USS
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Of that total, $66 million is for
rebuilding its city-owned pier, and the rest for the museum ship
itself.
Already, in what he admits was a move he never expected would be
necessary, White has put the Intrepid's $15 million endowment up as
collateral to cover expenses. That money would be repaid, he said. In
addition, he asked the federal government to pony up more money for
costs of returning the ship, including $9 million to $12 million for
dredging a trench for it to rest in.
White insists, however, that both monetary goals and the November
deadline will be met.
'We are going to get this done, come hell or high water _ hopefully,
the latter,' he said in an interview this week.
Intrepid, one of the Navy's fabled Essex-class carriers widely
credited with winning the Pacific war, was launched in 1943 and fought
in every major battle prior to Japan's surrender in 1945. Repeatedly
it sustained heavy damage, was patched up and sent back into the fray.
Among five WWII carriers serving today as floating museums, none has a
combat record to match the ship that survived five kamikaze attacks
and lost 270 crew members.
Intrepid also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was twice a
recovery ship for Mercury astronauts before being retired in 1974.
A former restaurateur, White has raised millions for the Intrepid
museum and its related charitable enterprises serving families of dead
and wounded service members.
'We want people to understand that while $110 million is a lot of
money, it is difficult to put a price on honoring our nation's
heroes,' he said.
'The idea that this ship could survive all that it did in wartime and
60 years later face a new threat to its existence would be
unacceptable. To be without USS Intrepid is unimaginable and that is
never going to happen.'
The Intrepid now sits at a former Navy pier on Staten Island, looking
_ for the moment _ not all that much better than when real estate
tycoon Zachary Fisher ransomed it from a Philadelphia scrapyard in
1979, had it towed to New York and turned it into one of the city's
most popular tourist attractions.
While its 900-foot hull has been repaired and repainted Navy gray, the
interior is a jumbled work in progress, as workers open up crew
quarters and other spaces not previously accessible to the public and
create new exhibits on the hangar deck.
When the $10 million installation is complete, interactive digital
displays will be side by side with real WWII aircraft and a Soviet-
built MiG-21 in an open space running the length of the ship.
The emphasis, along with tourism, will be on education, in keeping
with K-12 science and history programs that the museum already
sponsors in city schools, drawing some 50,000 students a year, says
Intrepid director Susan Marenoff.
The ship's collection of some three dozen aircraft _ some of them rare
_ has undergone refurbishment elsewhere, and efforts are under way to
trace each one's history and find pilots who flew them to get their
stories on record.
Once ensconced at its Hudson River pier in 1981, the old warship
needed time to gain public acceptance. Except for the annual Fleet
Week visitation _ ongoing this week _ the U.S. Navy rarely shows up in
New York City and is largely ignored when it does.
Over time, both the Intrepid and its city-owned pier deteriorated so
badly that in November 2006, the ship was ingloriously dragged out of
the mud and towed to New Jersey for the two-year overhaul.
At every stage, the work has cost more than had been anticipated. Just
pulling the ship out of 17 feet of mud and bringing it back will cost
some $19 million, nearly four times the original estimate, White said.
That includes dredging the new trench where the ship will rest as the
mud again embraces and protects the aging hull.
The pier itself had to be replaced with a new 700-foot structure on
pilings sunk into the harbor bed, said Noreen Doyle, a vice president
of the