heh I know this is an old old thread, but I just happened to run into it googleing my ships name and thought I'd throw a reply out there to you all.
I served aboard the valley forge from 94 to 98.
I'm pretty amazed at some of the commments in this thread as some of them are spot on, almost too spot on haha.
The lack of a VLS system was the real nail in the coffin for the valley girl. As was also mentioned her spy and sonar arrays were early models and not up to date.
She would have been relegated to crack pacs and UN sanctions bording duties if she was kept in commission. Her ability to act in her original capacity as an anti-air platform was still somewhat viable but because she lacked the latest spy and VLS systems it pretty much put her miles behind the capabilities of the latest tyco's. The lack of flexiblity and the cost of operations (at least in my opinion) justified taking her off line.
The way they did it though seems like a waste to me. I put a lot of blood in to that hunk of steel and to think it was used as target practice makes me snicker and cry at the same time.
4 years of your life tied to a ship tends to create a bond that never quite leaves you no matter how old you get hehe.
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