Decommissioned USS Independence arrives in Texas

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The decommissioned USS Independence has arrived at its last port of call.

The mothballed 61,000-ton Forrestal-class aircraft carrier passed through the jetties of the Brownsville Ship Channel on Thursday afternoon. A group of the ship's past crew members stood and watched as the ship was towed up the channel toward International Shipbreaking Ltd., the recycling company that won the contract to scrap the ship.

The ship had left Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, on March 11 and was towed around Cape Horn in South America to the Port of Brownsville.

The USS Independence was launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1958, commissioned the following year and decommissioned in 1998. It was among several U.S. military ships to carry the name Independence.