USS Macon (CA-132)

The USS Macon (CA -132 ) was a heavy cruiser of the United States Navy and was a member of the Baltimore class. It was named after the city of Macon, Georgia.

History

The Macon was laid in 1943 by New York Shipbuilding on keel and ran some 16 months later from the stack. The official commissioning ceremony was on 26 August 1945.

After the first test drives the Macon served as a test ship for experimental equipments that were retrofitted in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Among other things, she was awarded in 1948 an elevated landing platform for helicopters, which are not proven and therefore never reached production stage: You narrowed the Bestreichungswinkel the aft gun turret too much. In addition, the cruiser was used as a training ship for reserve personnel, 1948, a training cruise for midshipmen the ship to Europe. On April 12, 1950, there was finally decommissioned and affiliated in Philadelphia reserve fleet.

As in the immediate aftermath, however, the Korean War broke out and inserts there the fleet of the U.S. Navy heavily used, the Macon was quite fast, on October 16, 1950 reactivated. After the test runs, it was used as the flagship of Cruiser Division 6 of the Atlantic. By 1959, the cruiser moved annually into the Mediterranean, among other things, he was in 1956 during the Suez crisis locally. In addition, further new equipment was tested on board. So in early 1956 was installed starting system for cruise missiles SSM -N -8A Regulus on board and remained there during the rest period of service. During the last Mediterranean voyage the Macon also rescued the crew of the fire got into the Italian freighter Maria Amata.

In January 1960, the ship conducted a recent trip to South America and was again put on 10 March 1961 in reserve and completely removed from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1969. In 1973 the ship was dismantled and then passed to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where the steel was used for testing purposes.