Once again, thanks for sharing your photos!! I really enjoy this thread. Trivia question...What Aircraft Carrier has more history thru out their voyage?
Did you mean life instead of voyage?Originally Posted by chefjavier
It could any one of a number of ships.
The WWII USS Enterprise CV-6. And a ship I served on USS Hanco*k CVA-19. Intrepid, Midway..the Modern day Enterprise & Kitty Hawk . Both in commission nearly 48 years. There are many more
Yes on the life of the ship. Every carrier has his own history but some them have more they endure. My friends and I were discussing which ship has the honor but I got a few from the USS Intrepid CV11 help me out!
Intrepid? ..Over rated. The Midway has a much longer history. Hells bells the Hanco*k has a longer more active history. Look it up..below. I served on CVA-19 in 1974 & '75. Hanna made 7 Vietnam deployments in addition to her WWII service.
Midway;
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/...41-midway.html
I'll post Fightin' Hannas history since you cant post the work Hanco*k..
We called her "Fightin' Hanna..She was the queen of the sea!
The fourth Hanco*k (CV-19) was laid down as Ticonderoga 26 January 1943 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Mass.; renamed Hanco*k 1 May 1943, launched 24 January 1944; sponsored by Mrs. DeWitt C. Ramsey, wife of Rear Adm. Ramsey, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; and commissioned 15 April 1944, Captain Fred C. ****ey in command.
After fitting out in the Boston Navy Yard and shake-down training off Trinidad and Venezuela, Hanco*k returned to Boston for alterations 9 July. She departed Boston 31 July 1944 en route to Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and San Diego, and from there sailed 24 September to join Adm. W. F. Halsey's Third Fleet at Ulithi 5 October. She was assigned to Rear Adm. Bogan's Carrier Task Group 38.2.
Hanco*k got underway the following afternoon for a rendezvous point 375 miles west of the Marianas where units of Vice Adm. Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force 38 were assembling in preparation for the daring cruise to raid Japanese air and sea bases in the Ryukyus, Formosa, and the Philippines. Thus enemy air power was paralyzed during General MacArthur's invasion of Leyte. When the armada arrived off the Ryukyu Islands 10 October 1944, Hanco*k's planes rose off her deck to wreak destruction upon Okinawan airfields and shipping. Her planes destroyed seven enemy aircraft on the ground and assisted in the destruction of a submarine tender, 12 torpedo boats, two midget submarines, four cargo ships, and a number of sampans. Next on the agenda were Formosan air bases where 12 October Hanco*k's pilots downed six enemy planes and destroyed nine more on the ground. She also reported one cargo ship definitely sunk, three probably destroyed, and several others damaged.
As they repelled an enemy air raid that evening, Hanco*k's gunners accounted for a Japanese plane and drove countless others off during seven hours of uninterrupted general quarters. The following morning her planes resumed their assault, knocking out ammunition dumps, hangars, barracks, and industrial plants ashore and damaging an enemy transport. As Japanese planes again attacked the Americans during their second night off Formosa, Hanco*k's antiaircraft fire brought down another raider which splashed about 500 yards off her flight deck. On the morning of the third day of operations against this enemy stronghold, Hanco*k lashed out again at airfields and shipping before retiring to the southeast with her task force. As the American ships withdrew, a heavy force of Japanese aircraft roared in for a parting crack. One dropped a bomb off Hanco*k's port bow a few seconds before the carrier's guns splashed the attacker into the sea. Another bomb penetrated a gun platform but exploded harmlessly in the water. The surviving attackers then turned tail, and the task force was thereafter unmolested as they sailed toward the Philippines to support the landings at Leyte.
On 18 October 1944, she launched planes against airfields and shipping at Laoag, Aparri, and Camiguin Island in Northern Luzon. Her planes struck the islands of Cebu, Panay, Negros, and Masbate, pounding enemy airfields and shipping. The next day she retired toward Ulithi with Vice Admiral John S. McCain's Carrier Task Group 38.1.
She received orders 23 October to turn back to the area off Samar to assist in the search for units of the Japanese fleet reportedly closing Leyte to challenge the American fleet and to destroy amphibious forces which were struggling to take the island from Japan. Hanco*k did not reach Samar in time to assist the heroic escort carriers and destroyers of "Taffy 3" during the main action of the Battle off Samar but her planes did manage to lash the fleeing Japanese Center Force as it passed through the San Bernardino Straits. Hanco*k then rejoined Rear Adm. Bogan's Task Group with which she struck airfields and shipping in the vicinity of Manila 29 October 1944. During operations through 19 November, her planes gave direct support to advancing Army troops and attacked Japanese shipping over a 350-mile area. She became flagship of Fast Carrier Task Force 38, 17 November 1944 when Vice Adm. McCain came on board.
Unfavorable weather prevented operations until 25 November when an enemy aircraft roared toward Hanco*k in a suicide dive out of the sun. Anti aircraft fire exploded the plane some 300 feet above the ship but a section of its fuselage landed amid ships and a part of the wing hit the flight deck and burst into flames. Prompt and skillful teamwork quickly extinguished the blaze and prevented serious damage.
Hanco*k returned to Ulithi 27 November 1944 and departed from that island with her task group to maintain air patrol over enemy airfields on Luzon to prevent enemy suicide attacks on amphibious vessels of the landing force in Mindoro. The first strikes were launched 14 December against Clark and Angeles Airfields as well as enemy ground targets on Salvador Island. The next day her planes struck installations at Masinloc, San Fernando, and Cabatuan, while fighter patrols kept the Japanese airmen down. Her planes also attacked shipping in Manila Bay.
Hanco*k encountered a severe typhoon 17 December and rode out the storm in waves which broke over her flight deck, some 55 feet above her waterline. She put into Ulithi 24 December and got underway six days later to attack airfields and shipping around the South China Sea. Her planes struck hard blows at Luzon airfields 7 and 8 January 1945 and turned their attention back to Formosa 9 January hitting fiercely at airfields and the Tokyo Seaplane Station. An enemy convoy north of Camranh Bay, Indochina, was the next victim with two ships sunk and 11 damaged. That afternoon Hanco*k launched strikes against airfields at Saigon and shipping on the northeastern bulge of French Indochina. Strikes by the fast and mobile carrier force continued through 16 January, hitting Hainan Island in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Pescadores Islands, and shipping in the harbor of Hong Kong. Raids against Formosa were resumed 20 January 1945. The next afternoon one of her planes returning from a sortie made a normal landing, taxied to a point abreast of the island, and disintegrated in a blinding explosion which killed 50 men and injured 75 others. Again outstanding work quickly brought the fires under control in time to land other planes which were still aloft. She returned to formation and launched strikes against Okinawa the next morning.
Hanco*k reached Ulithi 25 January 1945 where Vice Adm. McCain left the ship and relinquished command of the 5th Fleet. She sortied with the ships of her task group 10 February and launched strikes against airfields in the vicinity of Tokyo 16 February. During that day her air group downed 71 enemy planes, and accounted for 12 more the next. Her planes hit the enemy naval bases at Chichi Jima and Haha Jima 19 February. These raids were conducted to isolate Iwo Jima from air and sea support when Marines hit the beaches of that island to begin one of the most bloody and fierce campaigns of the war. Hanco*k took station off this island to provide tactical support through 22 February, hitting enemy airfields and strafing Japanese troops ashore.
Returning to waters off the enemy home islands, Honco*k launched her planes against targets on northern Honshu, making a diversionary raid on the Nansei-shoto islands 1 March before returning to Ulithi 4 March.
Back in Japanese waters Hanco*k joined other carriers in strikes against Kyushu airfields, southwestern Honshu and shipping in the Inland Sea of Japan, 18 March 1945. Hanco*k was refueling the destroyer USS Halsey Powell (DD 686) on 20 March when suicide planes attacked the task force. One plane dove for the two ships but was disintegrated by gunfire when about 700 feet overhead. Fragments of the plane hit Hanco*k's deck while its engine and bomb crashed the fantail of the destroyer. Hanco*k's gunners shot down another plane as it neared the release point of its bombing run on the carrier. Hanco*k was reassigned to Carrier Task Group 58.3 with which she struck the Nansei-shoto islands 23 through 27 March and Minami Daito Jima and Kyushu at the end of the month.
When the 10th Army landed on the western coast of Okinawa 1 April Hanco*k was on hand to provide close air support. A suicide plane cartwheeled across her flight deck 7 April and crashed into a group of planes while its bomb hit the port catapult to cause a tremendous explosion. Although 62 men were killed and 71 wounded, heroic efforts doused the fires within half an hour enabling her to be back in action before an hour had passed.
Hanco*k was detached from her task group 9 April 1945 and steamed to Pearl Harbor for repairs. She sailed back into action 13 June and left lethal calling cards at Wake Island 20 June en route to the Philippines. Hanco*k sailed from San Pedro Bay with the other carriers 1 July and attacked Tokyo airfields 10 July. She continued to operate in Japanese waters until she received confirmation of Japan's capitulation 15 August 1945 when she recalled her planes from their deadly missions before they reached their targets. However planes of her photo division were attacked by seven enemy aircraft over Sagami Wan. Three were shot down and a fourth escaped in a trail of smoke. Later that afternoon planes of Hanco*k's air patrol shot down a Japanese torpedo plane as it dived on a British task force. Her planes flew missions over Japan in search of prison camps, dropping supplies and medicine, 25 August. Information collected during these flights led to landings under command of Commodore R. W. Simpson which brought doctors and supplies to all Allied prisoner of war encampments.
When the formal surrender of the Japanese Imperial Government was signed on board battleship USS Missouri, Hanco*k's planes flew overhead. The carrier entered Tokyo Bay 10 September 1945 and sailed 30 September embarking 1,500 passengers at Okinawa for transportation to San Pedro, Calif., where she arrived 21 October. Hanco*k was fitted out for "Magic Carpet" duty at San Pedro and sailed for Seeadler Harbor, M**** Admiralty Islands, 2 November. On her return voyage she carried 4,000 passengers who were debarked at San Diego 4 December. A week later Hanco*k departed for her second "Magic Carpet" voyage, embarking 3,773 passengers at Manila for return to Alameda, Calif., 20 January 1946. She embarked Air Group 7 at San Diego 18 February for air operations off the coast of California. She sailed from San Diego 11 March to embark men of two air groups and aircraft at Pearl Harbor for transportation to Saipan, arriving 1 April 1946. After receiving two other air groups on board at Saipan, she loaded a cargo of aircraft at Guam and steamed by way of Pearl Harbor to Alameda, Calif., arriving 23 April 1946. She then steamed to Seattle, Wash., 29 April to await inactivation. The proud ship decommissioned and entered the reserve fleet at Bremerton, Wash.
Hanco*k commenced conversion and modernization to an attack aircraft carrier in Puget Sound 15 December 1951 and was reclassified CVA-19, 1 October 1952. She recommissioned 15 February 1954, Captain W. S. Butts in command. She was the first carrier of the United States Fleet with steam catapults capable of launching high performance jets.
She was off San Diego 7 May 1954 for operations along the coast of California that included the launching 17 June of the first aircraft to take off from a United States carrier by means of a steam catapult. After a year of operations along the Pacific coast that included testing of Sparrow I and Regulus missiles and Cutlass jet aircraft, she sailed 10 August 1955 for 7th Fleet operations ranging from the shores of Japan to the Philippines and Okinawa. She returned to San Diego 15 March 1956 and decommissioned 13 April for conversion that included the installation of an angled flight deck.
Hanco*k recommissioned 15 November 1956 for training out of San Diego until 6 April 1957 when she again sailed for Hawaii and the Far East. She returned to San Diego 18 September 1957 and again departed for Japan 15 February 1958. She was a unit of powerful carrier task groups taking station off Taiwan when the Nationalist Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu were threatened with Communist invasion in August 1958. The carrier returned to San Diego 2 October 1958 for overhaul in the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, followed by rigorous at-sea training out of San Diego. On 1 August 1959, she sailed to reinforce the 7th Fleet as troubles in Laos demanded the watchful presence of powerful American forces in water off southeast Asia. She returned to San Francisco 18 January 1960 and put to sea early in February to participate in a new demonstration of communications by reflecting ultra-high-frequency waves off the moon. She again departed in August to steam with the 7th Fleet in waters off Laos until lessening of tension in that area permitted operations ranging from Japan to the Philippines.
Hanco*k returned to San Francisco in March 1961, then entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for an overhaul that gave her new electronics gear and many other improvements. She again set sail for Far Eastern waters 2 February 1962, patrolling in the South China Sea as crisis and strife mounted both in Laos and in South Vietnam. She again appeared off Quemoy and Matsu in June 1962 to stem a threatened Communist invasion there, then trained along the coast of Japan and in waters reaching to Okinawa. She returned to San Francisco 7 October 1962, made a brief cruise to the coast of Hawaii while qualifying pilots then again sailed 7 June 1963 for the Far East.
Hanco*k joined in combined defense exercises along the coast of South Korea, then deployed off the coast of South Vietnam after the coup which resulted in the death of President Diem. She entered the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard 16 January 1964 for modernization that included installation of a new ordnance system, hull repairs, and aluminum decking for her flight deck. She celebrated her 20th birthday 2 June 1964 while visiting San Diego. The carrier made a training cruise to Hawaii, then departed Alameda 21 October 1964 for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet in the Far East.
Hanco*k reached Japan 19 November and soon was on patrol at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. She remained active in Vietnamese waters fighting to thwart Communist aggression until heading for home early in the spring of 1965.
November found the carrier steaming back to the war zone. She was on patrol off Vietnam 16 December 1965; and, but for brief respites at Hong Kong, the Philippines, or Japan, Hanco*k remained on station launching her planes for strikes at enemy positions ashore until returning to Alameda, Calif., 1 August 1966. Her outstanding record during this combat tour won her the Navy Unit Commendation.
Following operations off the west coast, Hanco*k returned to Vietnam early in 1967 and resumed her strikes against Communist positions. After fighting during most of the first half of 1967, she returned to Alameda 22 July and promptly began preparations for returning to battle.
Aircraft from Hanco*k, along with those from USS Ranger (CV 61) and USS Oriskany (CV 34), joined with other planes for air strikes against North Vietnamese missile and antiaircraft sites south of the 19th parallel in response to attacks on unarmed U.S. reconnaissance aircraft on 21-22 November 1970. Hanco*k alternated with Ranger and with USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) on Yankee station until 10 May 1971 when she was relieved by USS Midway (CV 41).
Hanco*k, along with USS Coral Sea (CV 43 ), was back on Yankee station by 30 March 1972 when North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam. In response to the invasion, Naval aircraft from ******* and other carriers flew tactical sorties during Operation Freedom Train against military and logistics targets in the southern part of North Vietnam. By the end of April, the strikes covered more areas in North Vietnam throughout the area below 20° 25'N. Between 25 and 30 April, aircraft from Hanco*k's VA-55, VA-164, and VA-211 struck enemy-held territory around Kontum and Pleiku.
Hanco*k was again deployed to the waters off South Vietnam again in 1975. Departing Subic Bay, R.P., 23 March, she, along with the carriers Coral Sea, Midway, USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and the amphibious assault ship USS Okinawa (LPH 3 ), stood by for the possible evacuation of refugees after North Vietnam overran two-thirds of the south. Nearly 9,000 were evacuated: 1,373 U.S. personnel and 6,422 of other nationalities. On 12-14 May, she was alerted, although not utilized, for the recovery of SS Mayaguez, a U.S. merchantman with 39 crew, seized in international waters on 12 May by the Communist Khmer Rouge.
Hanco*k was decommissioned 30 January 1976. She was stricken from the Navy list the following day, and sold for scrap by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) 1 September 1976.
Hanco*k was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation and received four battle stars for service in World War II.
You would have to divide into Nuclear and Non Nuclear mate, two totally different eras.
The Nuclear Era would have to be The Kitty Hawk and the Big E just my opinion.
And there are probably at least half a dozen of the pre Nuclear age I think.
Hump
It's hard to say Hanc-ock isn't it Popeye
Oh yea..The Intrepid was a great ship.No doubt!!.But she is more famous because she is a museum in New York City...
What about the USS Lexington, USS Hornet, USS Yorktown, and USS Forestal?
Good idea Hump..I'll work on that tomorrow my time.
I loved that friggin' stikin' Hanco*k..Loved it!
The Intrepid short..history. The Intrepid made only two Vietnam war deployments in addition to it's WWII service.
Intrepid earned 5 battle stars for WWII service. The Hanna earned 4.
The fourth Intrepid was launched 26 April 1943, by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; sponsored by Mrs. John Howard Hoover; and commissioned 16 August, Captain Thomas L. Sprague in command.
After training in the Caribbean Intrepid departed Norfolk 3 December 1943 for San Francisco, then to Hawaii. She arrived Pearl Harbor 10 January 1944 and prepared for the invasion of the Marshall Islands, the next objective in the Navy's mighty is land-hopping campaign. She sortied from Pearl Harbor with carriers USS Cabot (CVL 28) and USS Essex (CV 9) 16 January to raid islands at the northeastern corner of Kwajalein Atoll 29 January 1944 and pressed the attack until the last opposition had vanished 2 February. The raids destroyed all of the 83 Japanese planes based on Roi and Namur before the first landings were made on adjacent islets 31 January. That morning Intrepid's planes strafed Ennuebing Island until 10 minutes before the first Marines reached the beaches. Half an hour later that islet, which protected Roi's southwestern flank and controlled the North Pass into Kwajalein Lagoon, was secured, enabling Marines to set up artillery to support their assault on Roi.
Her work in the capture of the Marshall Islands finished, Intrepid headed for Truk, the tough Japanese base in the center of Micronesia. Three fast carrier groups arrived undetected daybreak of the 17th, sinking two destroyers and 200,000 ton s of merchant shipping in 2 days of almost continuous attacks. Moreover, the carrier raid demonstrated Truk's vulnerability and thereby greatly curtailed its usefulness to the Japanese as a base.
The night of 17 February 1944 an aerial torpedo struck Intrepid's starboard quarter, 15 feet below her waterline, flooding several compartments and jamming her rudder hard to port. By racing her port screw and idling her starboard engine, Captain Sprague kept her on course until two days later strong winds swung her back and forth and tended to weathercock her with her bow pointed toward Tokyo. Sprague later confessed: "Right then I wasn't interested in going in that direction." At this point the crew fashioned a jury-rig sail of hatch covers and scrap canvas which swung Intrepid about and held her on course. Decorated by her crazy-quilt sail, Intrepid stood into Pearl Harbor 24 February 1944.
After temporary repairs, Intrepid sailed for the West Coast 16 March and arrived Hunter's Point, Calif., the 22d. She was back in fighting trim a June and departed for two months of operations out of Pearl Harbor, then to the Marshalls.
Intrepid's planes struck Japanese positions in the Palaus 6 and 7 September 1944 concentrating on airfields and artillery emplacements on Peleliu. The next day her fast carrier task force steamed west toward the southern Philippines to strike airfields on Mindanao 9 and 10 September. Then, after raids on bases in the Visayan Sea 12 through 14 September, she returned to the Palaus 17 September to support Marines in overcoming fanatical opposition from hillside caves and mangrove swamps on Peleliu.
When the struggle on that deadly island settled down to rooting Japanese defenders out of the ground on a man to man basis, Intrepid steamed back to the Philippines to prepare the way for liberation. She struck throughout the Philippines, also pounding Okinawa and Formosa to neutralize Japanese air threats to Leyte.
As Intrepid's planes flew missions in support of the Leyte landings 20 October 1944, Japan's Navy, desperately striving to hold the Philippines, was converging on Leyte Gulf from three directions. Ships of the U.S. Navy parried thrusts in four ma jor actions collectively known as the Battle for Leyte Gulf.
The morning of 24 October, an Intrepid plane spotted Admiral Kurita's flagship, Yamato. Two hours later, planes from Intrepid and Cabot braved intense antiaircraft fire to begin a day-long attack on Center Force. Wave after wave followed until by sunset American carrier-based planes had sunk mighty battleship Musashi with her mammoth 18-inch guns and had damaged her sister ship Yamato along with battleships Nagato and Haruna and heavy cruiser Myoko forcing the latter to withdraw.
That night Admiral Halsey's 3d Fleet raced north to intercept Japan's Northern Force which had been spotted of the northeastern tip of Luzon. At daybreak the tireless fliers went aloft to attack the Japanese ships then off Cape Engano. One of Intrepid's planes got a bomb into light carrier Zuiho to begin the harvest. Then American bombers sank her sister ship Chitosi, and a plane from either Intrepid or USS San Jacinto (CVL 30) scored with a torpedo in large carrier Zuikaku knocking out her communications and hampering her steering. The Japanese destroyer Ayitsuki went to the bottom and at least 9 of Ozawa's 15 planes were shot down.
On through the day the attack continued and, after five more strikes, Japan had lost four carriers and a destroyer. The still potent Center Force, after pushing through San Bernardino Strait, had steamed south along the coast of Samar where it was held at bay by a little escort carrier group of six "baby flattops", three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts until help arrived to send it fleeing in defeat back towards Japan.
As Intrepid's planes hit Clark Field 30 October a burning kamikaze crashed into one of the carrier's port gun tubs killing 10 men and wounding 6. Soon skillful damage control work enabled the flattop to resume flight operations. Intrepid's planes continued to hit airfields and shipping in the Philippines.
Shortly after noon 25 November 1944, a heavy force of Japanese planes struck back at the carriers. Within five minutes two kamikazes crashed into the carrier killing 6 officers and 5 bluejackets. Intrepid never lost propulsion nor left her station in the task group; and. in less than two hours, had extinguished the last blaze. The next day, Intrepid headed for San Francisco, arriving 20 December for repairs.
Back in fighting trim in mid-February 1945, the carrier steamed for Ulithi, arriving 13 March. The next day she pushed on eastward for powerful strikes against airfields on Kyushu, Japan, 18 March. That morning a twin engine Betty broke through a curtain of defensive fire turned toward Intrepid and exploded only 50 feet off Intrepid's forward boat crane. A shower of flaming gasoline and plane parts started fires on the hangar deck, out damage control experts quickly snuffed them out.
Intrepid's planes joined attacks on remnants of the Japanese fleet anchored at Kure damaging 18 enemy naval vessels including super battleship Yamato and carrier Amagi. Then the carriers turned to Okinawa as D-Day of the most ambitious amphibious assault of the Pacific war approached. Their planes lashed the Ryukyus 26 and 27 March, softening up enemy defensive works. Then, as the invasion began 1 April 1945, they flew support missions against targets on Okinawa and made neutralizing raids against Japanese airfields in range of the embattled island.
During an air raid 16 April, a Japanese plane dove into Intrepid's flight deck forcing the engine and part of her fuselage right on through, killing eight men and wounding 21. In less than an hour the flaming gasoline had been extinguished, and only three hours after the crash, planes were again landing on the carrier.
The following day, Intrepid retired homeward via Ulithi and Pearl Harbor arriving San Francisco 19 May for repairs. Intrepid stood out of San Francisco 29 June 1945 and enlivened her westward voyage 6 August as her planes smashed Japanese on by-passed Wake Island. The next day she arrived Eniwetok where she received word 15 August to "cease offensive operations."
The veteran carrier got under way 21 August to support the occupation of Japan. She departed Yokosuka 2 December and arrived San Pedro, Calif., 15 December 1945.
Intrepid shifted to San Francisco Bay 4 February 1948. Her status was reduced to "in commission in reserve" 15 August before decommissioning 22 March 1947 and joining the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Intrepid recommissioned at San Francisco 9 February 1952 and got underway 12 March for Norfolk. She decommissioned in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard 9 April 1952 for conversion to a modern attack aircraft carrier. Reclassified CVA-11 1 October, she recommissioned in reserve 18 June 1954. She became the first carrier in history to launch aircraft with American-built steam catapults 13 October 1954. Two days later she went into full commission as a unit of the Atlantic Fleet.
After shakedown out of Guantanamo Bay, Intrepid departed Mayport, Fla., 28 May 1955 for the first of two deployments in the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet, mainstay in preventing Communist aggression in Europe and the Middle East. She returned to Norfolk from the second of these cruises 5 September 195. The carrier got under way 29 September for a seven-month modernization overhaul in the New York Navy Yard, followed by refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay.
Boasting a reinforced angle flight deck and a mirror landing system, Intrepid departed the United States in September 1957 for NATO's Operation Strikeback, the largest peacetime naval exercise up to that time in history.
Operating out of Norfolk in December she conducted Operation Crosswind, a study of the effects of wind on carrier launches. Intrepid proved that carriers can safely conduct flight operations without turning into the wind and even launch planes while steaming downwind.
During the next four years Intrepid alternated Mediterranean deployments with operations along the Atlantic coast of the United States and exercises in the Caribbean. On 8 December 1961 she was reclassified to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier, CVS-11. She entered the Norfolk Navy Yard 10 March 1962 to be overhauled and refitted for her new antisubmarine warfare role. She left the shipyard 2 April 1962, carrying Air Antisubmarine Group 56.
After training exercises, Intrepid was selected as the principal ship in the recovery team for Astronaut Scott Carpenter and his Project Mercury space capsule. Shortly before noon on 24 May 1962, Carpenter splashed down in Aurora 7 several hundred miles from Intrepid. Minutes after he was located by land-based search aircraft, two helicopters from Intrepid, carrying NASA officials, medical experts, Navy frogmen, and photographers, were airborne and headed to the rescue. One of the choppers picked Carpenter up over an hour later and flew him to the carrier which safely returned him to the United States.
After training midshipmen at sea in the summer and a thorough overhaul at Norfolk in the fall, the carrier departed Hampton Roads 23 January 1963 for warfare exercises in the Caribbean. Late in February she interrupted these operations to join a sea hunt for Venezuelan freighter, Anzoátegui whose mutinous second mate had led a group of pro-Castro terrorists in hijacking the vessel. After the Communist pirates had surrendered at Rio de Janeiro, the carrier returned to Norfolk 23 March 1963.
Intrepid operated along the Atlantic Coast for the next year from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean perfecting her antisubmarine techniques. She departed Norfolk 11 June 1964 carrying midshipmen to the Mediterranean for a hunter-killer at sea training with the 6th Fleet. While in the Mediterranean, Intrepid aided in the surveillance of a Soviet task group. En route home her crew learned that she had won the coveted Battle Efficiency "E" for antisubmarine warfare during the previous fiscal year.
Intrepid operated along the east coast during the fall. Early in September she entertained 22 NATO statesmen as part of their tour of U.S. military installations. She was at Yorktown, Va., 18 to 19 October 1964 for ceremonies commemorating Lord Cornwallis' surrender 183 years before.
During a brief deployment off North Carolina, swift and efficient rescue procedures on the night of 21 November 1964 saved the life of an airman who had plunged overboard while driving an aircraft towing tractor.
Early in the next year Intrepid began preparations for a vital role in NASA's first manned Gemini flight. On 23 March 1965 Lt. Cmdr. John W. Young and Maj. Virgil I. Grissom in Molly Brown splashed down some 50 miles from Intrepid after history's first controlled re-entry into the earth's atmosphere ended in the pair's nearly perfect three-orbit flight. A Navy helicopter lifted the astronauts from the spacecraft and flew them to Intrepid for medical examination and de briefing. Later Intrepid retrieved Molly Brown and returned the spaceship and astronauts to Cape Kennedy, Fla.
After this mission Intrepid entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard in April for a major overhaul to bring her back to peak combat readiness.
This was the final Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) job performed by the New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, N.Y., slated to close after more than a century and a half of service to the nation. In September, Intrepid, with her work approximately 75 percent completed, eased down the East River to moor at the Naval Supply Depot at Bayonne, N.J., for the completion of her multi-million dollar overhaul. After builder's sea trials and fitting out at Norfolk she sailed to Guantanamo on shakedown.
Mid-1966 found Intrepid with the Pacific Fleet off Vietnam. Here her gallant pilots delivered powerful blows for freedom and scored what is believed to be one of the fastest aircraft launching times recorded by an American carrier. Nine A-4 Skyhawks and six A-1 Skyraiders, loaded with bombs and rockets, were catapulted in seven minutes, with only 28-second intervals between launches. A few days later planes were launched at 26-second intervals. After seven months of outstanding service with the 7th Fleet off Vietnam, Intrepid returned to Norfolk having earned her Commanding Officer, Captain John W. Fair, the Legion of Merit for combat operations in Southeast Asia.
In June of 1967, Intrepid returned to the western Pacific by way of the Suez Canal just prior to its closing during the Arab-Israeli crisis. In mid-1970, Intrepid was homeported at Quonset Point, R.I., relieving USS Yorktown (CVS 10) as the flagship for Commander Carrier Division Sixteen. Intrepid was decommissioned for the final time 15 Mar 1974.
Destined to be scrapped shortly thereafter, a campaign led by the Intrepid Museum Foundation saved the carrier and established it as a floating museum which opened in New York City in August 1982. In 1986, Intrepid was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Friend, the link below will give you the history of all USN CV(N)s...
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/carriers/cv-list.asp
Does the USS Enterprise is in the Nuclear group?
Big E is the Enterprise.
Great post Popeye, looks like he stirred something in your blood mate. Old navy saying, "When ships were made of wood and Men were made of steel. Keep it up Buddy
O.k. Popeye here's a walk down memory lane mate. CV 19 USS Hanc0ck Enjoy!!!
You've probably got most of these but it's good to show them around mate.
God the US Navy Carriers took a few hits during Midway & Korea were there any that didn't sustain damage during that time.
I think the second Hornet got through with minor if any damage.
I just saw the movie "Rescue Dawn". The film is about the story ofA Skyraider from Attack Squadron FIFTEEN (VA-15) catches a wire during carrier operations.
US Navy LT Dieter Dengler, a A-1 Skyraider pilot during the Vietnam War.
He was shot down but he managed to crash-land his Skyraider in Laos.
The day after he was shot down, Lt. Dengler was apprehended by Pathet Laos troops. Dengler was eventually brought to a prison camp near the village of Par Kung, Laos where he met other six POW´s. In June 29, 1966 the group manage to escape from the POW camp killing 5 of the guards.
Dengler and Martin another american POW went off by themselves with the intention of heading for the Mekong River to escape to Thailand, but they never got more than a few miles from the camp from which they had escaped. the others POW´s divided in two groups.
Yes I saw that movie also, talk about crazy prison guards.
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