During September, Saratoga was in Mediterranean waters to show the flag in response to a Soviet fleet operating in the area. Tensions increased when a Trans-World Airlines plane heading to Syria was hijacked. Saratoga countered with numerous surveillance and reconnaissance flights conducted by Carrier Wing Three against Soviet surface units in the area.
In May of 1972, Saratoga sailed from Mayport en route to Vietnam, arriving at "Yankee Station" for May 18th - this marked her first deployment in an active combat zone. Her air arm lost four aircraft and three pilots to enemy aircraft and ground-based Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) systems and flak cannon fire. In June of 1972, Saratoga was re-classified as a "Multi-Purpose Aircraft Carrier" which changed her designation to "CV-60". During a seventeen day period in September of 1972, Saratoga air wings flew over 800 combat sorties against targets in North Vietnam. In November her aircraft flew 83 Close-Air Support (CAS) sorties over the span of six hours in support of a force of 250 ARVN troops cut-off by the North Vietnamese. Saratoga departed "Yankee Station" for the United States and arrived at Mayport in February of 1973.
Another Mediterranean deployment met the ship in 1980. In September, she was given an overhaul and returned to Mediterranean waters for April 1984. Grumman F-14 Tomcats from her decks trailed a hijacked Egypt Air 737 airliner which held terrorists wanted in the connection of the Achille Lauro luxury liner hijacking. No missiles were fired and the hijackers were taken into customer by Italian authorities. In 1985, during its time in the Indian Ocean, Saratoga's air wing confronted several belligerent Libyan vessels with success. During June of 1987, Saratoga underwent an overhaul.
In January of 1991, Operation Desert Shield became "Operation Desert Storm". Aircraft from USS Saratoga flew against Iraq in the first step to knock out Saddam Hussein's invasion force and drive its elements out of U.S. ally (and oil-rich) Kuwait. Sara's aircraft dropped more than four million pounds of ordnance on enemy targets in both Kuwait and Iraq territories. With her work done, and Hussein's military neutered, Saratoga departed the Gulf region on March 11th, 1991. After seven months and 21 days, 11,700 arrested landings, 12,700 sorties flown, and having traveled a record 36,382 miles - Saratoga's return home was greeted by family and grateful citizens to a hero's welcome.
Saratoga, the Navy's oldest active duty carrier, sailed to the rendezvous point with her relief, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73). She then arrived pier-side for the last time in Sara's 38-year career at Naval Station Mayport in Florida on June 24th, 1994. Saratoga was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy List on August 20th, 1994 and remained at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island waiting her fate to become a floating museum or scrap.
In May of 2014 it was announced that USS Saratoga would be scrapped. In August of that same year, she set sail from Naval Air Station Newport to Brownsville, Texas where she was to be disposed of. Such ended the career of this reliable and magnificent fighting vessel - another in the long line of storied American aircraft carriers.
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