USS Forrestal (CVA-59) 1967 Cruise Varsity Jacket

USS Forrestal (CVA-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. Her angled flight deck and immense size set the template for every fleet carrier that followed. Forrestal served until her decommissioning in 1993.

This heavyweight letterman jacket honors Forrestal's 1967 line period on Yankee Station off Vietnam — the deployment during which a catastrophic flight-deck fire on 29 July 1967 claimed the lives of 134 sailors and reshaped how the Navy approaches damage control. We remember her crew.