Weeden9b

Here is a picture which really should be before the
other two in this message. It shows the empty dry-dock
with stocks laid out in the shape of Ranger's hull. It
also shows in the foreground the newly manufactured
bow (manufactured by Sumitomo shipyards in Japan
--they didn't have the carrier strength to permit us
to go back to a yard on the West Coast -- remember
this was the beginning of the Iranian hostage crisis).
If you look carefully on the bow, you will see a steel
"gift card" which reads "To CV61 From SRF (Ship Repair
Facility, Yokosuka)" Captain, later Admiral Roger
E. Box kept that token after the bow was attached, and
when I visited him after he made Admiral at Naval
Air station Coronado, he had it proudly displayed on a
credenza in his office.