On 30 June 1975,
Forrestal was reclassified a "Multi-purpose Aircraft Carrier",
CV-59. Also in 1975
Forrestal was selected to be host ship for the
International Naval Review in New York City on the nation's
Bicentennial. On 4 July 1976, on
Forrestals flight deck, President
Gerald Ford rang in the Bicentennial and reviewed over 40
tall ships from countries around the world. Shortly after the review,
Forrestal participated in a special shock test. It involved the detonation of high explosives near the hull to determine if a capital ship could withstand the strain of close quarter combat and still remain operational. In September 1977, following a nine-month overhaul,
Forrestal departed Norfolk and shifted her homeport to Mayport. The carrier left Mayport on Friday, 13 January 1978 for a three-week at-sea period in the
Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility (AFWTF) of the
Roosevelt Roads Operating Area to complete the third phase of Type Commander's Training (TYT-3), and to undergo the Operational Readiness Evaluation (ORE). On the evening of 15 January 1978 as an
A-7 Corsair II from
VA-81 crashed on the flight deck, killing two deck crewmen and injuring 10 others. The pilot was operating without communication gear due to an onboard malfunction, and as he was making his approach, he saw that the "ball" was lit (signalling that it was permissible to land). The pilot ejected safely after seeing that the deck was covered with parked and moving aircraft, by which time it was impossible to pull up. He was recovered, suffering only minor injuries, but his Corsair struck another A-7 and an
EA-6B before careening across the deck in a ball of flames. A small fire on the aft portion of the deck, caused by fuel spilled during the crash, was extinguished within seconds. At the time of the accident,
Forrestal was operating about off
St. Augustine, Florida. A memorial service for the dead was held on board on 19 January. The ship returned to Mayport on 3 February.
Forrestal left Mayport for the Mediterranean on 4 April 1978. At 22:00 on 8 April, just minutes after the ship had finished a general quarters drill, the crew was called to G.Q. again, but this time it was not a drill; a fire had broken out in the Number Three Main Machinery Room. Freshly painted
thermal insulation in Three Main engine room had been set smoldering by hot steam lines. Watch-standers within the space activated an extinguishing system and had the fire out within seconds. Three days later, the crew again was called to respond to another emergency G.Q. At midnight on 11 April, a fire was discovered in a catapult steam trunk in the forward part of the ship at about the
01 level, and another fire was found in an adjoining storeroom minutes later. The at-sea fire brigade, working with area repair lockers, had the fires out within the hour. On 10 May 1978 while in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flooding, which began in a pump room in the aft portion of the ship, rose to a height of before it was controlled. The flood spread into food storage rooms, destroying most of the ship's stocks of fresh milk and produce. Divers from the ship's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team dropped into the pump room to plug the leak. Total damage from the flooding was estimated at $30,000. From 19 to 29 May 1978,
Forrestal participated in
Operation Dawn Patrol, the first of three NATO exercises the ship would be involved in during the deployment. Dawn Patrol involved air and ground forces and over 80 ships from six NATO countries.
Forrestals role during the exercise included protecting a Turkish amphibious task group and working with and the
French aircraft carrier Foch to defend against simulated "enemy" ships and aircraft. During this sea period, two separate air crashes on successive days left one pilot dead and another injured. On 24 June 1978, LCDR T. P. Anderson, Operations Officer for Carrier Air Wing Seventeen, was killed when his A-7E Corsair II crashed into the sea during a practice bombing mission. Before the crash, the pilot ejected while the plane was inverted in less than ideal weather conditions. On 25 June, a pilot from
VA-83, also flying an A-7E, ejected shortly after takeoff due to a catapult malfunction, suffering minor injuries. He could be seen swimming away from the side of the ship as it passed near him. A rescue crew aboard an
SH-3D Sea King helicopter from HS-3 recovered the pilot and returned to the ship within eight minutes after the crash. Both accidents occurred as the ship was operating in the
Ionian Sea, east of
Sicily. From 4 to 19 September 1978,
Forrestal participated in the massive NATO exercise
Northern Wedding, which included over 40,000 men, 22 submarines, and 800 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft from nine NATO countries. Northern Wedding, which took place every four years, practiced NATO's ability to reinforce and resupply Europe in times of tension or war. During the exercise
Forrestal and the British aircraft carrier
HMS Ark Royal headed separate task groups, steaming in a two-carrier formation to gain sea control and deploying their aircraft in support of mock amphibious landings in the
Shetland Islands and
Jutland, Denmark. From 28 September to 10 October,
Forrestal participated in
Display Determination, the third and final NATO exercise of the deployment. The operation, involving ships, aircraft, and personnel from eight NATO countries, was designed to practice rapid reinforcement and resupply of the southern European region in times of tension or war.
Forrestal arrived in
Rota, Spain, on 11 October for the last overseas port stop of the deployment. On 13 October 1978, the ship put to sea to conduct a one-day exercise with a task group of deploying U.S. ships headed by the aircraft carrier . Air Wing Seventeen's planes conducted mock attacks on the task group to allow the ships to practice anti-air warfare.
Forrestal returned to Rota late in the evening on the 13th. Before dawn on 15 October,
Forrestal departed Rota and outchopped from the Sixth Fleet, having been relieved by
Saratoga. On the homeward transit,
Forrestal took an extreme northerly course as part of a special operation code-named Windbreak. Commander Second Fleet, Vice Adm.
Wesley L. McDonald, embarked in
Forrestal for the exercise. Windbreak was designed to introduce U.S. sailors and equipment to relatively unfamiliar waters and conditions, and to gauge
Soviet interest in U.S. ships in transit to and from the Mediterranean. During the exercise,
Forrestal traveled as far north as 62 degrees latitude, south of
Iceland, encountering seas to , winds in excess of , and a wind chill factor that drove the temperature as far down as . The waves were high enough to crash over the flight deck as the ship drove west. Also participating in Windbreak were the guided missile cruiser and the destroyer .
Forrestal returned to Mayport on 26 October 1978. On 13 November,
Forrestal commenced a four-month period of upkeep and repair known as an Extended Selected Restricted Availability (ESRA), to be conducted as the ship was moored alongside the carrier pier in Mayport.
Forrestal ended 1978 as she had started it, moored to the carrier pier in Mayport. On 27 August 1979
Forrestal had to make an emergency deployment due to
Hurricane David. It was feared the ship could be damaged and in turn damage the carrier pier as the storm surge from the hurricane thrust inland.
Forrestal traveled through the main part of the storm and emerged in the eye briefly before coming out of the opposite side as the storm moved northwest along the east coast. The ship carried a skeleton crew and no aircraft. After completing her 15th Mediterranean cruise from November 1979 to May 1980 she celebrated her silver anniversary in October 1980.
Forrestal got underway on her 16th Mediterranean deployment in March 1981 and returned to the carrier pier in Mayport on 15 September 1981 . ==1981–1987==