STARS AND STRIPES February 28

STARS AND STRIPES
February 28, 1959

IT'S NOT HARD TO GET LOST ABOARD GIANT CARRIER RANGER

Ranger Scheduled for Far East Operations

The Ranger is modern in every respect. Hundreds of miles of electrical cable are used to connect the thousands of electronic devices aboard. The entire length and width of her giant hull is completely air conditioned.

Almost everything that can be found in the average American city can be found on the Ranger.

Aboard the shop are a post office, bakery, shoe repair shop, library, soda fountain, laundry, tailor shop, butcher shop, a radio and television station, a hospital complete with operating room and many other facilities.

The tremendous engines that give the Ranger a speed of more than 30 knots could provide far more power and electricity than could be used by the average American city.

And her crew of 3,500 men eat tons of food each week that is prepared in four separate galleys.

But all these things are aboard the Ranger only to make her what she is--the most powerful ship that ever sailed any ocean.

Her power comes from the more than 100 planes that are carried aboard ship.

Pilots of the Ranger's air group fly supersonic F4D-1 Skyray,F8U-1 Crusader and FJ-4B Fury jet fighters, along with A3D-2 Skywarrior long-range jet bombers, which are capable of delivering atomic weapons, and all purpose prop-driven AD-6 Skyraiders.

Get lost aboard a ship? It's easy if you're aboard the aircraft carrier Ranger, one of the largest and most powerful warships afloat.
A sailor escorting a Stars and Stripes reporter-photographer team on a tour of the giant ship promptly got lost in a part of the Ranger he had never seen before.

The 1,046-foot long, 252-foot wide Ranger is divided into 2,000 compartments where her crew of 3,500 live and work.

Each compartment is actually a room, and the Ranger has more rooms than the world's largest hotel. They vary in size from mammoth working spaces to small storerooms and living quarters.

The newcomer aboard is faced with what seems the ultimate in confusion. Boarding the Ranger he finds himself confronted by a maze of companion ways, hatches, ladders and compartments.

Each compartment is labeled with a lengthy designation consisting of numbers and letters.

These are the road signs of the ship. Once a sailor learns what the numbers and letters stand for he is able to read the maps on each of the ship's decks.

But The Ranger is so vast that few of the sailors aboard know the entire ship. Even sailors who have been in the ship's company on the giant vessel for months often become confused while in unfamiliar areas.

In order for a sailor to make his way from his living or working compartment to the ship's gym, library, one of the snack bars or some other recreation area he may have to travel up or down several decks and through a quarter-mile or so of the steel passageways that are the streets of the floating city.

The Ranger may be big and confusing but her crew has few complaints. As one sailor put it: "What other ship has escalators air conditioning and foam rubber mattresses?"