USS Forrestal (CVA/CV-59) Embroidered Apron

USS Forrestal (CVA/CV-59) was the first purpose-built supercarrier of the postwar era, commissioned in 1955 and named for James V. Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense. Designated first as an attack carrier (CVA) and later as a multi-mission carrier (CV), she set the template for every fleet carrier that followed — the angled deck, the size, the capability — and deployed repeatedly to the Mediterranean and Atlantic through the Cold War decades. In July 1967, a catastrophic fire on her flight deck off Vietnam cost the lives of 134 sailors and changed how the Navy approaches damage control. Forrestal served for nearly four decades before decommissioning in 1993, a career that ran from the dawn of the supercarrier age to the end of the Cold War. This apron honors her legacy and all who served aboard her.