The Navy sank two of its retired Spruance-class destroyers in a day of surface and air warfare training about 275 miles off the North Carolina coast, sending the largest destroyers ever built to the dark ocean floor 12,000 feet below.

The guided missile destroyers Comte de Grasse and Stump, both 28 years old and once based in Norfolk, were felled June 7, the Navy acknowledged this week.

Part of the death knell for the Comte de Grasse was brought by another near-relic: a flight of the last remaining F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, due to retire in September. Navy S-3 Vikings dropped ordnance as well.

An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, flying at 6,000 feet and B-1B Lancer at a loftier 21,000 feet, took a crack at the Stump.

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