Wow...tough series of posts to follow, but I'll throw my two cents in there. My father was posted to the Sara(toga) in '78 as squadron complement. He worked on avionics. Anyway...at THAT point the Sara was quite long in the tooth. The gradual corrosion of the salt water on her hull had thinned it out to the point where...on several occasions...if the harbor wasn't especially deep and if the fuel stores (Since she was still a bunker oil fired ship), were still fairly full, she would take on water and settle on the silt. He happened twice in Jacksonville/Pensacola, and once in Naples, Italy.
My point is...though...I can find no reference in the TW2k references to the Saratoga, I'd let you all know that IRL he duty station was as part of the Med. Battle Group and she was he regular station. She likely would have either tangled with enemy forces in the Med. or been diverted to "The GAP" to engage Soviet North Fleet forces. With her hull in the condition that it was, a single solid missile impact would have broke her keel. Another carrier would have had to recover what was left of her airborne fighters and that would be that for the Sara.
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