David
Thu December 19, 2002 5:21pm
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Pfc. Jake Davis (center)
Pfc. Jake Davis (center) and Pfc. David Lynn (right), both of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, stand by as Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White tours their barracks room Aug. 2. The paratroopers answered the secretary?s questions about barracks maintenance, education within the Army and readiness of the 82nd Airborne Division. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Carmen L. Burgess
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David
Wed February 12, 2003 9:39pm
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National Defense Service
NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL
1. Description: On a bronze medal, 1 ? inches in diameter, an eagle displayed with inverted wings standing on a sword and palm branch, all beneath the inscription "NATIONAL DEFENSE". On the reverse is a shield taken from the Coat of Arms of the United States with an open wreath below it, the right side of oak leaves and the left side of laurel leaves.
2. Ribbon: The ribbon is 1 3/8 inches wide and consists of the following stripes: 7/16 inch Scarlet 67111; 1/32 inch White 67101; 1/32 inch Old Glory Blue 67178; 1/32 inch White; 1/32 inch Scarlet; center ? inch Golden Yellow 67104; 1/32 inch Scarlet; 1/32 inch White; 1/32 inch Old Glory Blue; 1/32 inch White; and 7/16 inch Scarlet.
3. Criteria:
a. The National Defense Service Medal was awarded for honorable active service for any period between 27 June 1950 and 27 July 1954, between 1 January 1961 and 14 August 1974, and between 2 August 1990 and 30 November 1995. For the purpose of the award, the following persons will not be considered as performing active service:
(1) Guard and Reserve forces personnel on short tours of duty to fulfill training obligations under an inactive duty training program.
(2) Any person on active duty for the sole purpose of undergoing a physical examination.
(3) Any person on temporary active duty to serve on boards, courts, commissions and like organizations or on active duty for purposes other than extended active duty.
b. The National Defense Service Medal may be awarded to members of the Reserve Components who are ordered to Federal active duty, regardless of duration, except for the categories listed above. Any member of the Guard or Reserve who, after 31 December 1960, becomes eligible for the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam Service Medal or the Southwest Asia Service Medal is also eligible for the National Defense Service Medal.
4. Components: The following are authorized components:
a. Medal (regular size): MIL-DTL-3943/234. NSN 8455-00-281-3214 for set which includes regular size medal and ribbon bar.
b. Medal (miniature size): MIL-DTL-3943/234. Available commercially from certified manufacturers.
c. Ribbon: MIL-DTL-11589/97. NSN 8455-00-264-1478.
d. Lapel Button: MIL-DTL-11484/185. Available commercially.
5. Background:
a. The National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) was established by President Eisenhower per Executive Order 10448, dated 22 April 1953, for service between 27 June 1950 and a date to be announced. On 17 June 1954, the Chief of Staff approved establishment of 27 July 1954 as the termination date for award of the NDSM. Executive Order 11265, dated 11 January 1966, amended Executive Order 10488, to include a termination date and authorized the Secretary of Defense to establish periods of eligibility subsequent to 31 December 1960. Eligibility for award, commencing with the period after 31 December 1960, was established by DOD Directive 1348.7, dated 1 April 1966, and terminated effective 15 August 1974, per letter from Manpower and Reserve Affairs, subject: Termination of Eligibility for the National Defense Service Medal, dated 30 June 1974. The NDSM was again authorized by memorandum, dated 20 February 1991, from Secretary of Defense Cheney for active service on or after 2 August 1990 with no termination date established. The termination date was later established as 30 November 1995.
b. The Heraldic Division, Quartermaster General?s Office, was requested to provide proposed designs for the NDSM and designs created by Mr. T. H. Jones were submitted to the G1 on 26 May 1953. A committee appointed by DOD, which included representatives of all services, met on 27 May 1953 and 3 June 1953 and selected the design for final approval. The eagle, our National emblem, together with the shield of the Coat of Arms of the United States is used to symbolize the defense of the United States. The combination of oak and palm leaves signify strength and preparedness.
c. Order of precedence and wear policy for medals awarded to Army personnel is contained in AR 670-1. Policy for awards, approving authority and supply of medals is contained in AR 600-8-22.
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David
Wed February 12, 2003 9:39pm
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Overseas Service Ribbon
ARMY SERVICE RIBBON
1. Description: The Army Overseas Service ribbon is 1 3/8 inches in with. It is composed of the following vertical stripes: 3/16 inch National Flag Blue 67124, 5/16 inch Grotto Blue 67165, 1/16 inch Golden Yellow 67104, 1/4 inch Brick Red 67113, 1/16 inch Golden Yellow, 5/16 inch Grotto Blue, and 3/16 inch National Flag Blue.
2. Components: Ribbon. MIL-D-11589/282. (There is no medal for this ribbon).
3. Criteria:
a. Effective August 1, 1981, the Army Overseas Service Ribbon is awarded to all members of the Active Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve in an active Reserve status for successful completion of overseas tours if the tour is not recognized by the award of a service or campaign medal.
b. The ribbon may be awarded retroactively to personnel who were credited with a normal overseas tour completion before August 1, 1981, provided they had an Active Army status on or after August 1, 1981.
c. Requirements for award of the ribbon are contained in AR 600-8-22.
4. Background:
a. The Army Overseas Service Ribbon was established by the Secretary of the Army on April 10, 1981.
b. Subsequent tours will be indicated by the use of numerals.
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David
Mon July 25, 2005 12:20pm
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Tours American Monument
The World War I Tours American Monument located in the city of Tours, France, one hundred and forty-six miles southwest of Paris.
The Monument commemorates the efforts of the 650,000 men who served during World War I in the Services of Supply of the American Expeditionary Forces and whose work behind the battle lines made possible the brilliant achievements of the American Armies in the field. It is located just east of the southern end of the Pont Wilson which crosses the Loire River in prolongation of the main street (Rue National) of Tours, and consists of a handsome fountain of white stone with a gold gilded statue of an American Indian holding an eagle. The surrounding area was developed into a small park by the Commission.
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David
Tue August 9, 2005 12:25pm
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USS Essex CV 9 31 Dec 194
USS Essex CV 9 31 Dec 1942 20 Jun 1969
Underway at 1615 hrs. during May 1943, in position 37 05'N, 74 15'E, as photographed from a blimp from squadron ZP-14. Among the aircraft parked on her flight deck are 24 SBD scout bombers (parked aft), about 11 F6F fighters (parked in after part of the midships area) and about 18 TBF/TBM torpedo planes (parked amidships).
displacement: 27,100 tons
length: 872 feet
beam: 93 feet; extreme width at flight deck: 147? feet
draft: 28 feet 7 inches
speed: 33 knots
complement: 3,448 crew
armament: 12 five-inch guns
class: Essex
The fourth Essex (CV-9) was launched 31 July 1942 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. sponsored by Mrs. Artemus L. Gates, wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air; and commissioned 31 December 1942, Captain D. B. Duncan command ing. She was reclassified (CVA-9) on 1 October 1952, and (CVS-9) on 8 March 1960.
Following her shakedown cruise Essex sailed to the Pacific in May 1943 to begin a succession of victories which would bring her to Tokyo Bay. Departing Pearl Harbor, she participated with Task Force 16 (TF 16) in carrier operations against Marcus Island (31 Aug ust 1943); was designated flagship of TF 14 and struck Wake Island (5-6 October); launched an attack with Task Group 50.3 (TG 50.3) against the Gilbert Islands where she also took part in her first amphibious assault, the landing on Tarawa (18-23 November). Refueling at se a, she cruised as flagship of TG 50.3 to attack Kwajalein (4 December). Her second amphibious assault delivered in company with TG 58.2 was against the Marshalls (29 January-2 February 1944).
Essex in TG 68.2 now joined with TG 58.1 and 58.3, to constitute the most formidable carrier striking force to date, in launching an attack against Truk (17-18 February 1944) during which eight Japanese ships weresunk. En route to the Marianas to sever Japanese supply lines, the carrier force was detected and received a prolonged aerial attack which it repelled in a businesslike manner and then continued with the scheduled attack upon Saipan, Tinian and Guam (23 February).
After this operation Essex proceeded to San Francisco for her single wartime overhaul. She then joined carriers USS Wasp (CV-18) and USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) in TG 12.1 to strike Marcus Island (19-20 May 1944) and Wake (23 May). She deployed with TF 58 to support the occupation of the Marianas (12 June-10 August); sortied with TG 38.3 to lead an attack against the Palau Islands (6-8 September), and Mindanao (9-10 September) with enemy shipping as the main target, and remained in the area to supp ort landings on Peleliu. On 2 October 1944, she weathered a typhoon and 4 days later departed with TF 38 for the Ryukyus.
For the remainder of 1944 she continued her frontline action, participating in strikes against Okinawa (10 October), and Formosa (12-14 October), covering the Leyte landings, taking part in the battle for Leyte Gulf (24-25 October), and continuing the search for enemy fleet units until 30 October when she returned to Ulithi, Caroline Islands, for replenishment. She resumed the offensive and delivered attacks on Manila and the northern Philippine Islands during November. On 25 November, for the first time in her far-ranging operations and destruction to the enemy, Essex received injury. A kamikaze hit the port edge of her flight deck landing among planes gassed for takeoff, causing extensive damage, killing 15, and wounding 44.
This "cramped her style" very little. Following quick repairs we find her with 3d Fleet off Luzon supporting the occupation of Mindoro (14-16 December). She rode out the typhoon of 18 December 1944 and made special search for survivors afterwards. With TG 3 8.3 she participated in the Lingayen Gulf operations, launched strikes against Formosa, Sakishima, Okinawa, and Luzon. Entering the South China Sea in search of enemy surface forces, the task force pounded shipping and conducted strikes on Formosa, the China coast, Hainan, and Hong Kong. Essex withstood the onslaught of the third typhoon in four months (20-21 January 1945) before striking again at Formosa, Miyako Shima and Okinawa (26-27 January).
During the remainder of the war she operated with TF 58, conducting attacks against the Tokyo area (16-17, and 25 February) both to neutralize the enemy's airpower before the landings on Iwo Jima and to cripple the aircraft manufacturing industry. She sent support missions against Iwo Jima and neighboring islands, but from 23 March to 28 May 1945 was employed primarily to support the conquest of Okinawa.
In the closing days of the war, Essex took part in the final telling raids against the Japanese home islands (10 July-15 August 1945). Following the surrender, she continued defensive combat air patrols until 3 September when she was ordered to Bremerton, Wash., for inactivation. On 9 January 1947, she was placed out of commission in reserve.
Modernization endowed Essex with a new flight deck, and a streamlined island superstructure, on 16 January 1951 when recommissioned, Captain A. W. Wheelock commanding.
After a brief cruise in Hawaiian waters she began the first of three tours in Far Eastern waters during the Korean war. She served as flagship for Carrier Division 1 and TF 77. She was the first carrier to launch F2H Banshee twinjet fighters on combat missions; on 16 September 1951 one of these planes, damaged in combat, crashed into aircraft parked on the forward flight deck causing an explosion and fire which killed seven. After repairs at Yokosuka she returned to frontline action on 3 October to launch strikes up to the Yalu River and provide close air support for U.N. troops.
On 1 December 1953 she started her final tour of the war, sailing the China Sea with the Peace Patrol. From November 1954 to June 1955 she engaged in training exercises, operated for three months with the 7th Fleet, assisted in the Tachen Islands evacuation, and engaged in air operations and fleet manuevers off Okinawa.
In July 1955 Essex entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for repairs and extensive alterations, including installation of an angled flight deck. Modernization completed, she rejoined the Pacific Fleet in March 1956. For the next 14 months the carrier operated off the west coast, except for a six-months cruise with the 7th Fleet in the Far East. Ordered to join the Atlantic Fleet for the first time in her long career, she sailed from San Diego on 21 June 1957, rounded Cape Horn, and arrived in Mayport, Fla., on 1 August.
In the fall of 1957 Essex participated as an anti-submarine carrier in the NATO exercises, Strike Back, and in February 1968 deployed with the 6th Fleet until May when she shifted to the eastern Mediterranean. Alerted to the Middle East crisis on 14 July 1958 she sped to support the U.S. Peace Force landing in Beirut, Lebanon, launching reconnaissance and patrol missions until 20 August. Once again she was ordered to proceed to Asian waters, and transitted the Suez Canal to arrive in the Taiwan operational area where she joined TF 77 in conducting flight operations before rounding the Horn and proceeding back to Mayport.
Essex joined with the 2d Fleet and British ships in Atlantic exercises and with NATO forces in the eastern Mediterranean during the fall of 1959. In December she aided victims of a disastrous flood at Frejus, France.
In the spring of 1960 she was converted into an ASW Support Carrier and was thereafter homeported at Quonset Point, R.I. She operated as flagship of Carrier Division 18 and Antisubmarine Carrier Group Three. She conducted rescue and salvage operations off the New Jersey coast for a downed blimp; cruised with midshipmen, and was deployed on NATO and CENTO exercises. In November 1960, she joined the French navy in Operation Jet Stream.
Essex was decommissioned 30 Jun 1969. She was stricken from the Navy List on 1 Jun 1973, and sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping 1 Jun 1975.
Essex received the Presidential Unit Citation, and 13 battle stars for World War II service; four battle stars and the Navy Unit Commendation for Korean war service.
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David
Tue August 9, 2005 12:28pm
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USS Yorktown CV 10 15 Apr
USS Yorktown CV 10 15 Apr 1943 27 Jun 1970
Underway in July 1953, after completion of her SCB-27A modernization.
displacement: 27,100 tons
length: 872 feet
beam: 93 feet; extreme width at flight deck: 147? feet
draft: 28 feet 7 inches
speed: 32.7 knots
complement: 3,448 crew
armament: 12 five-inch guns, 32 40mm.guns, 46 20mm. guns
aircraft: 80+
class: Essex
The fourth Yorktown (CV-10) was laid down on 1 December 1941 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. as Bon Homme Richard; renamed Yorktown on 26 September 1942; launched on 21 January 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt; and commissioned on 15 April 1943 at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Capt. Joseph J. ("Jocko") Clark in command.
Yorktown remained in the Norfolk area until 21 May 1943 at which time she got underway for shakedown training in the vicinity of Trinidad. She returned to Norfolk on 17 June and began post-shakedown availability. The aircraft carrier completed repairs on 1 July and began air operations out of Norfolk until the 6th. On the latter day, she exited Chesapeake Bay on her way to the Pacific Ocean.
She transited the Panama Canal on 11 July and departed Balboa on the 12th. The warship arrived in Pearl Harbor on 24 July 1943 and began a month of exercises in the Hawaiian Islands. On 22 August, she stood out of Pearl Harbor, bound for her first combat of the war. Her task force, TF 15, arrived at the launching point about 128 miles from Marcus Island early on the morning of 31 August. She spent most of that day launching fighter and bomber strikes on Marcus Island before beginning the retirement to Hawaii that evening. The aircraft carrier reentered Pearl Harbor on 7 September and remained there for two days.
On the 9th, she stood out to sea, bound for the west coast of the United States. She arrived in San Francisco on 13 September, loaded aircraft and supplies, and returned to sea on the 15th. Four days later, the aircraft carrier reentered Pearl Harbor. After 10 days in the Hawaiian Islands, Yorktown returned to sea to conduct combat operations on the 29th. Early on the morning of 5 October 1943, she began two days of air strikes on Japanese installations on Wake Island. After retiring to the east for the night, she resumed those air raids early on the morning of the 6th and continued them through most of the day. That evening, the task group began its retirement to Hawaii.Yorktown arrived at Oahu on 11 October and, for the next month, conducted air training operations out of Pearl Harbor.
On 10 November, Yorktown departed Pearl Harbor in company with Task Force (TF) 50 ? the Fast Carrier Forces, Pacific Fleet ? to participate in her first major assault operation, the occupation of certain of the Gilbert Islands. On the 19th, she arrived at the launch point near Jaluit and Mili and, early that morning, launched the first of a series of raids to suppress enemy air-power during the amphibious assaults on Tarawa, Abemama, and Makin. On the 20th, she not only sent raids back to the airfield at Jaluit but some of her planes also supported the troops wresting Makin from the Japanese. On 22 November, her air group concentrated upon installations and planes at Mili once again. Before returning to Pearl Harbor, the aircraft carrier made passing raids on the installations at Wotje and Kwajalein Atolls on 4 December 1943. The warship reentered Pearl Harbor on 9 December and began a month of air training operations in the Hawaiian Islands.
On 16 January 1944, the warship exited Pearl Harbor once again to support an amphibious assault, Operation Flintlock, the Marshall Islands operation. Her task group, Task Group (TG) 58.1, arrived at its launching point early on the morning of 29 January, and its carriers ? Yorktown, USS Lexington (CV-16), and USS Cowpens (CVL-25) ? began sending air strikes aloft at about 0520 for attacks on Taroa airfield located on Maloelap Atoll. Throughout the day, her aircraft hit Maloelap in preparation for the assaults on Majuro and Kwajalein scheduled for the 31st. On the 30th,Yorktown and her sister carriers shifted targets to Kwajalein to begin softening up one of the targets itself. When the troops stormed ashore on January 31st, Yorktown aviators continued their strikes on Kwajalein in support of the troops attacking that atoll. The same employment occupied the Yorktown air group during the first three days in February. On the 4th, however, the task group retired to the Fleet anchorage at recently secured Majuro Atoll.
Over the next four months, Yorktown participated in a series of raids in which she ranged from the Marianas in the north to New Guinea in the south. After eight days at Majuro, she sortied with her task group on 12 February 1944 to conduct air strikes on the main Japanese anchorage at Truk Atoll. Those highly successful raids occurred on 16 and 17 February. On the 18th, the carrier set a course for the Marianas and, on the 22d, conducted a single day of raids on enemy airfields and installations on Saipan. That same day, she cleared the area on her way back to Majuro. The warship arrived in Majuro lagoon on 26 February and remained there, resting and replenishing until 8 March. On the latter day, the carrier stood out of Majuro, rendezvoused with the rest of TF 58, and shaped a course for Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. She reached her destination on 13 March and remained there for 10 days before getting underway for another series of raids on the Japanese middle defense line. On 30 and 31 March, she launched air strikes on enemy installations located in the Palau Islands; and, on 1 April, her aviators went after the island of Woleai. Five days later, she returned to her base at Majuro for a week of replenishment and recreation.
On 13 April 1944, Yorktown returned to sea once more. On this occasion however, she laid in a course for the northern coast of New Guinea. On 21 April, she began launching raids in support of General Douglas MacArthur's assault on the Hollandia area. That day, her aviators attacked installations in the Wakde-Sarmi area of northern New Guinea. On the 22d and 23d, they shifted to the landing areas at Hollandia themselves and began providing direct support for the assault troops. After those attacks, she retired from the New Guinea coast for another raid on Truk lagoon, which her aircraft carried out on 29 and 30 April. The aircraft carrier returned to Majuro on 4 May; however, two days later she got underway again, bound for Oahu. The warship entered Pearl Harbor on 11 May and, for the next 18 days, conducted training operations in the Hawaiian Islands. On 29 May, she headed back to the central Pacific. Yorktown entered Majuro lagoon again on 3 June and began preparations for her next major amphibious support operation-the assault on the Marianas.
On 6 June 1944, the aircraft carrier stood out of Majuro with TF 58 and set a course for the Mariana Islands. After five days steaming, she reached the launch point and began sending planes aloft for the preliminary softening up of targets in preparation for the invasion of Saipan. Yorktown aircrews concentrated primarily upon airfields located on Guam. Those raids continued until the 13th when Yorktown, with two of the task groups of TF 58, steamed north to hit targets in the Bonin Islands. That movement resulted in a one-day raid on the 16th before the two task groups headed back to the Marianas to join in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Task Force 58 reunited on 18 June and began a short wait for the approaching Japanese Fleet and its aircraft.
On the morning of 19 June 1944, Yorktown aircraft began strikes on Japanese air bases on Guam in order to deny them to their approaching carrier-based air and to keep the land-based planes out of the fray. Duels with Guam-based aircraft continued until mid-morning. At about 1017, however, she got her first indication of the carrier plane attacks when a large bogey appeared on her radar screen. At that point she divided her attention, sending part of her air group back to Guam and another portion of it out to meet the raid closing from the west. Throughout the battle, Yorktown's planes continued both to strike the Guam airfields and intercept the carrier raids. During the first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Yorktown aircraft claimed 37 enemy planes destroyed and dropped 21 tons of bombs on the Guam air bases.
On the morning of the 20th Yorktown steamed generally west with TF 58 while search planes groped for the fleeing enemy task force. Contact was not made with the enemy until about 1540 that afternoon when a USS Hornet (CV-12) pilot spotted the retiring Combined Fleet units. Yorktown launched a 40-plane strike between 1623 and 1643 and sent it winging after the Japanese. Her planes found Admiral Ozawa's force at about 1840 and began a 20-minute attack during which they went after Zuikaku on whom they succeeded in scoring some hits. They, however, failed to sink that carrier. They also attacked several other ships in the Japanese force though no records show a confirmed sinking to the credit of the Yorktown air group. On 21 June, the carrier joined in the futile stern chase on the enemy carried out by TF 58 but gave up that evening when air searches failed to contact the Japanese. Yorktown returned to the Marianas area and resumed air strikes on Pagan on June 22 and 23. On the 24th, she launched another series of raids on Iwo Jima. On 25 June, she laid in a course for Eniwetok and arrived there two days later. On the 30th, the aircraft carrier headed back to the Marianas and the Bonins. She renewed combat operations on 3 and 4 July with a series of attacks on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima. On the 6th the warship resumed strikes in the Marianas and continued them for the next 17 days. On 23 July, she headed off to the west for a series of raids on Yap, Ulithi, and the Palaus. She carried out those attacks on 25 July and arrived back in the Marianas on the 29th.
On July 31, 1944, she cleared the Mariana Islands and headed, via Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor, back to the United States. Yorktown arrived in the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 17 August and began a two-month overhaul. She completed repairs on 6 October and departed Puget Sound on the 9th. She stopped at the Alameda Naval Air Station from 11 to 13 October to load planes and supplies and then set a course back to the western Pacific. After a stop at Pearl Harbor from the 18th to the 24th, Yorktown arrived back in Eniwetok on 31 October 1944. She departed the lagoon on 1 November and arrived at Ulithi on the 3d. There, she reported for duty with TG 38.4. That task group left Ulithi on 6 November, and Yorktown departed with it.
On 7 November, the aircraft carrier changed operational control to TG 38.1 and, for the next two weeks, launched air strikes on targets in the Philippines in support of the Leyte invasion. Detached from the task force on 23 November, Yorktown arrived back in Ulithi on the 24th. She remained there until 10 December at which time she put to sea to rejoin TF 38. She rendezvoused with the other carriers on 13 December and began launching air strikes on targets on the island of Luzon in preparation for the invasion of that island scheduled for the second week in January 1945. On December 17, the task force began its retirement from the Luzon strikes. During that retirement, TF 38 steamed through the center of the famous typhoon of December 1944. That storm sank three destroyers, USS Spence (DD-512), USS Hull (DD-350), and USS Monaghan (DD-354), and Yorktown participated in some of the rescue operations for the survivors of those three destroyers. She did not finally clear the vicinity of Luzon until the 23d. The warship arrived back in Ulithi on 24 December.
The aircraft carrier fueled and provisioned at Ulithi until 30 December 1944 at which time she returned to sea to join TF 38 on strikes at targets in the Philippines in support of the landings at Lingayen. The carriers opened the show on 3 January 1945 with raids on airfields on the island of Formosa. Those raids continued on the 4th, but a fueling rendezvous occupied Yorktown's time on the 5th. She sent her planes against Luzon targets and on antishipping strikes on the 6th and 7th. The 8th brought another fueling rendezvous; and, on the 9th, she conducted her last attack ? on Formosa ? in direct support of the Lingayen operation. On 10 January, Yorktown and the rest of TF 38 entered the South China Sea via Bashi Channel to begin a series of raids on Japan's inner defenses. On 12 January, her planes visited the vicinity of Saigon and Tourane Bay, Indochina, in hopes of catching major units of the Japanese fleet. Though foiled in their primary desire, TF 38 aviators still managed to rack up a stupendous score, 44 enemy ships of which 15 were combatants. She fueled on the 13th and, on the 15th, launched raids on Formosa and Canton in China. The following day, her aviators struck at Canton again and paid a visit to Hong Kong. Fueling took up her time on 17, 18, and 19 January; and, on the 20th, she exited the South China Sea with TF 38 via Balintang Channel. She participated in a raid on Formosa on the 21st and another on Okinawa on the 22d before clearing the area for Ulithi. On the morning of 26 January. she reentered Ulithi lagoon with TF 38.
Yorktown remained at Ulithi arming, provisioning, and conducting upkeep until 10 February 1945. At that time, she sortied with TF 58, the 3d Fleet becoming the 5th Fleet when Adm. Spruance relieved Adm. Halsey, on a series of raids on the Japanese and thence to support the assault on and occupation of Iwo Jima. On the morning of 16 February, the aircraft carrier began launching strikes on the Tokyo area of Honshu. On the 17th, she repeated those strikes before heading toward the Bonins. Her aviators bombed and strafed installations on Chichi Jima on the 18th. The landings on Iwo Jima went forward on 19 February, and Yorktown aircraft began support missions over the island on the 20th. Those missions continued until the 23d at which time Yorktown cleared the Bonins to resume strikes on Japan proper. She arrived at the launch point on the 25th and sent two raids aloft to bomb and strafe airfields in the vicinity of Tokyo. On the 26th, Yorktown aircrewmen conducted a single sweep of installations on Kyushu before TG 58.4 began its retirement to Ulithi. Yorktown reentered the anchorage at Ulithi on 1 March.
She remained in the anchorage for about two weeks. On 14 March 1945, the aircraft carrier departed the lagoon on her way to resume raids on Japan and to begin preliminary support work for the Okinawa operations scheduled for 1 April. On 18 March, she arrived in the operating area off Japan and began launching strikes on airfields on Kyushu, Honshu, and Shikoku. The task group came under air attack almost as soon as operations began. At about 0800, a twin-engine bomber, probably a Frances, attacked from her port side. The ship opened fire almost immediately and began scoring hits quickly. The plane began to burn but continued his run passing over Yorktown's bow and splashing in the water on her starboard side. Just seven minutes later, another Frances tried his luck; but he, too went down, a victim of the combined fire of the formation. No further attacks developed until that afternoon; and, in the meantime, Yorktown continued air operations. That afternoon, three Judys launched attacks on the carrier. The first two failed in their attacks and were shot down for their trouble. The third succeeded in planting his bomb on the signal bridge. It passed through the first deck and exploded near the ship's hull. It punched two large holes through her side, killed five men, and wounded another 26. Yorktown, however, remained fully operational, and her antiaircraft gunners brought the offender down. She continued air operations against the three southernmost islands of Japan on the 19th but retired for fueling operations on the 20th.
On March 21, 1945, she headed for Okinawa, on which island she began softening-up strikes on the 23d. Those attacks continued until the 28th when she started back to Japanese waters for an additional strike on the home islands. On the 29th, the carrier put two raids and one photographic reconnaissance mission into the air over Kyushu. That afternoon, at about 1410, a single Judy made an apparent suicide dive on Yorktown. Her antiaircraft gunners opened up on him and scored numerous hits. He passed over the ship, very near to her island, and splashed about 60 feet from her portside.
On 30 March, Yorktown and the other carriers of her task group began to concentrate solely on the island of Okinawa and its surrounding islets. For two days the 30th and 31st, they pounded the island in softening-up strikes. On 1 April, the assault troops stormed ashore; and, for almost six weeks, she sent her planes to the island to provide direct support for the troops operating ashore. About every three days, she retired to the east to conduct fueling rendezvous or to rearm and reprovision. The only exception to that routine came on 7 April when it was discovered that a Japanese task force built around the elusive battleship, Yamato, was steaming south for one last, desperate, offensive. Yorktown and the other carriers quickly launched strikes to attack that valued target. Air Group 9 aviators claimed several torpedo hits on Yamato herself just before the battleship exploded and sank as well as at least three 500-pound bomb hits on light cruiser Yahagi before that warship followed her big sister to the bottom. The pilots also made strafing runs on the escorting destroyers and claimed to have left one afire in a sinking condition. At the conclusion of that action, Yorktown and her planes resumed their support for the troops on Okinawa.
On 11 April, she came under air attack again when a single-engine plane sped in on her. Yorktown's antiaircraft gunners proved equal to the test, however, and splashed him just inside 2,000 yards' range. Sporadic air attacks continued until her 11 May departure from the Ruykyus, but Yorktown sustained no additional damage and claimed only one further kill with her antiaircraft battery. On 11 May, TG 58.4 was detached to proceed to Ulithi for upkeep, rest, and relaxation.
Yorktown entered the lagoon at Ulithi on 14 May 1945 and remained there until 24 May at which time she sortied with TG 58.4 to rejoin the forces off Okinawa. On 28 May, TG 58.4 became TG 38.4 when Adm. Halsey relieved Adm. Spruance and 5th Fleet again became 3d Fleet. That same day, the carrier resumed air support missions over Okinawa. That routine lasted until the beginning of June when she moved off with TF 38 to resume strikes on the Japanese homeland. On 3 June, her aircraft made four different sweeps of airfields. The following day, she returned to Okinawa for a day of additional support missions before steaming off to evade a typhoon. On the 6th and 7th, she resumed Okinawa strikes. She sent her aviators back to the Kyushu airfields and, on the 9th, launched them on the first of two days of raids on Minami Daito Shima. After the second day's strikes on June 10, Yorktown began retirement with TG 38.4 toward Leyte. She arrived in San Pedro Bay at Leyte on 13 June and began replenishment, upkeep, rest, and relaxation.
The warship remained at Leyte until 1 July when she and TG 38.4 got underway to join the rest of the fast carriers in the final series of raids on the Japanese home islands. By 10 July, she was off the coast of Japan launching air strikes on the Tokyo area of Honshu. After a fueling rendezvous on the 11th and 12th, she resumed strikes on Japan, this on the southern portion of the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Those strikes lasted from the 13th to the 15th. A fueling retirement and heavy weather precluded air operations until the 18th at which time her aviators returned to the Tokyo area. From the 19th to the 22d, she made a fueling and underway replenishment retirement and then, on the 24th, resumed air attacks on Japan. For two days, planes of her air group pounded installations around the Kure naval base. Another fueling retirement came on the 26th, but the 27th and 28th found her planes in the air above Kure again. On the 29th and 30th, she shifted targets back to the Tokyo area before another fueling retirement and another typhoon took her out of action until the beginning of the first week in August. On 8 and 9 August, the carrier launched her planes at northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido. On the 10th, she sent them back to Tokyo. The 11th and 12th brought another fueling retirement and a typhoon evasion, but, on the 13th, her aircraft hit Tokyo for the last time. On the 14th, she retired to fuel destroyers again; and, on the 15th, Japan agreed to capitulate so that all strikes planned for that day were canceled.
From 16 to 23 August 1945, Yorktown and the other carriers of TF 58 steamed around more or less aimlessly in waters to the east of Japan awaiting instructions while peace negotiations continued. Then, on the 23d, she received orders to head for waters east of Honshu where her aircraft were to provide cover for the forces occupying Japan. She began providing that air cover on the 25th and continued to do so until mid-September. After the formal surrender on board USS Missouri (BB-63) on 2 September, the aircraft carrier also began air-dropping supplies to Allied prisoners of war still living in their prison camps. On 16 September, Yorktown entered Tokyo Bay with TG 38.1. She remained there, engaged in upkeep and crew recreation through the end of the month. On 1 October, the carrier stood out of Tokyo Bay on her way to Okinawa. She arrived in Buckner Bay on 4 October, loaded passengers on the 5th, and got underway for the United States on the 6th.
After a non-stop voyage, Yorktown entered San Francisco Bay on 20 October 1945, moored at the Alameda Naval Air Station, and began discharging passengers. She remained at the air station until 31 October at which time she shifted to Hunters Point Navy Yard to complete minor repairs. On 2 November, while still at the navy yard, she reported to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet, for duty in conjunction with the return of American servicemen to the United States. That same day, she stood out of San Francisco Bay, bound for Guam on just such a mission. She arrived in Apra Harbor on 15 November and, two days later, got underway with a load of passengers. She arrived back in San Francisco on 30 November and remained there until 8 December. On the latter day, the warship headed back to the Far East. Initially routed to Samar in the Philippines, she was diverted to Manila en route. She arrived in Manila on 26 December and departed there on the 29th. She reached San Francisco again on 13 January 1946. Later that month, she moved north to Bremerton, Wash., where she was placed in commission, in reserve, on 21 June. She remained there in that status through the end of the year. On 9 January 1947,Yorktown was placed out of commission and was berthed with the Bremerton Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Yorktown remained in reserve for almost five years. In June of 1952, she was ordered reactivated, and work began on her at Puget Sound. On 15 December 1952, she was placed in commission, in reserve, at Bremerton. Her conversion continued into 1953 and she conducted post-conversion trials late in January. On 20 February 1953, Yorktown was placed in full commission, Capt. William M. Nation in command. The aircraft carrier conducted normal operations along the west coast through most of the summer of 1953. On 3 August, she departed San Francisco on her way to the Far East. She arrived in Pearl Harbor and remained there until the 27th at which time she continued her voyage west. On 5 September, the carrier arrived in Yokosuka Japan. She put to sea again on the 11th to join TF 77 in the Sea of Japan. The Korean War armistice had been signed two months earlier; and, therefore, the carrier conducted training operations rather than combat missions. She served with TF 77 until 18 February 1954 at which time she stood out of Yokosuka on her way home. She made a stop at Pearl Harbor along the way and then moored at Alameda once more on 3 March. After a brief repair period at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Yorktown put to sea to serve as a platform for the filming of the movie Jet Carrier. She conducted further, more routine, operations along the west coast until 1 July at which time she headed back to the Orient. She stopped at Pearl Harbor from 8 to 28 July before continuing on to Manila, where she arrived on 4 August 1954.
Yorktown operated out of the Manila-Subic Bay area, conducting 7th Fleet maneuvers, for the duration of the deployment. She did, however, take periodic breaks from that schedule to make frequent port visits to Yokosuka; and, during the Christmas holidays, she made a liberty call at Hong Kong on the Chinese coast. In January of 1955, she was called upon to help cover the evacuation of Nationalist Chinese from the Tachen Islands located near the communist-controlled mainland.
Yorktown entered Yokosuka for the last time on 16 February 1955 and departed again on the 18th to return home. After an overnight stop at Pearl Harbor on 23 and 24 February, she resumed her voyage east and arrived in Alameda on 28 February. On 21 March 1955, she was placed in commission, in reserve, at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where she was to receive extensive modifications ? most significantly, an angled flight deck to increase her jet aircraft launching capability. She completed her conversion that fall and, on 14 October 1955, was placed back in full commission.
The aircraft carrier resumed normal operations along the west coast soon after recommissioning. That assignment lasted until mid-March 1956. On the 19th, she stood out of San Francisco Bay on her way to her third tour of duty with the 7th Fleet since her reactivation in 1953. Yorktown stopped at Pearl Harbor from 24 March to 9 April and then continued her voyage west. She arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, on 18 April and departed again on the 29th. The warship operated with the 7th Fleet for the next five months. During that time, she conducted operations in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. She also visited such places as Sasebo, Manila, Subic Bay, and Buckner Bay at Okinawa. On 7 September, the aircraft carrier stood out of Yokosuka and pointed her bow to the east. After a non-stop voyage, she arrived back at Alameda on 13 September. She resumed west coast operations for about two months. On 13 November, she embarked upon a round-trip to Pearl Harbor, from which she returned to Alameda on 11 December 1956.
Yorktown resumed normal operations out of Alameda upon her return and remained so employed until March of 1957. On 9 March, she departed Alameda for yet another tour of duty in the Far East. She made stops at Oahu and Guam along the way and arrived at Yokosuka on 19 April. She put to sea to join TF 77 on 25 April and served with that task force for the next three months. On 13 August, the warship departed Yokosuka for the last time, made a brief pause at Pearl Harbor, and arrived in Alameda on the 25th.
On 1 September 1957, her home port was changed from Alameda to Long Beach, and she was reclassified an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft carrier with the new designation CVS-10. On the 23d, she departed Alameda and, four days later, entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for overhaul and for modification to an ASW carrier. That yard period lasted until the beginning of February 1958. She departed the naval ammunition depot at Bangor, Wash., on 7 February and entered Long Beach five days later. For the next eight months, Yorktown conducted normal operations along the west coast. On 1 November, she departed San Diego to return to the western Pacific. After a stop at Pearl Harbor from the 8th to the 17th, Yorktown continued her voyage west and arrived in Yokosuka on the 25th. During that deployment, the aircraft carrier qualified for the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal on three occasions. The first time came on 31 December and 1 January 1959 when she participated in an American show of strength in response to the communist Chinese shelling of the offshore islands, Quemoy and Matsu, held by Nationalist Chinese forces. During January she also joined contingency forces off Vietnam during internal disorders caused by communist guerrillas in the southern portion of that country. That month also saw her earn the expeditionary medal for service in the Taiwan Strait. The remainder of the deployment ? save for another visit to Vietnamese waters late in March ? consisted of a normal round of training evolutions and port visits. She concluded that tour of duty at San Diego on 21 May. The warship resumed normal operations along the west coast, and that duty consumed the remainder of 1959.
In January of 1960, Yorktown headed back to the Far East via Pearl Harbor. During that deployment, she earned additional stars for her Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for duty in Vietnamese waters at various times in March, April, May, and June. She returned to the west coast late in the summer and, late in September, began a four-month overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
Yorktown emerged from the shipyard in January 1961 and returned to Long Beach on the 27th. She conducted refresher training and then resumed normal west coast operations until late July. On 29 July, the aircraft carrier stood out of Long Beach, bound once again for the Orient. She made an extended stopover in the Hawaiian Islands in August and, consequently, did not arrive in Yokosuka until 4 September. That tour of duty in the Far East consisted of a normal schedule of antiair and antisubmarine warfare exercises as well as the usual round of port visits. She concluded the deployment at Long Beach on 2 March 1962. Normal west coast operations occupied her time through the summer and into the fall. On 26 October, the warship left Long Beach in her wake and set a course for the Far East. During that deployment, she served as flagship for Carrier Division (CarDiv) 19. She participated in a number of ASW and AAW exercises, including the SEATO ASW exercise, Operation Sea Serpent. The deployment lasted until 6 June 1963 at which time the carrier set a course back to Long Beach.
Yorktown arrived back in her home port on 18 June 1963 and resumed normal operations for the remainder of the year. Those operations continued throughout most of 1964 as well. However, on 22 October, she pointed her bow westward again and set out for a tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. Another period of operations in the Hawaiian Islands delayed her arrival in Japan until 3 December. The 1964 and 1965 deployment brought Yorktown her first real involvement in the Vietnamese civil war. In February, March, and April, she conducted a series of special operations in the South China Sea in waters near Vietnam ? presumably ASW services for the fast carriers conducting air strikes against targets in Vietnam in support of the increased American involvement in the civil war in that country. She concluded her tour of duty in the Far East on 7 May 1965 when she departed Yokosuka to return to the United States. The carrier arrived in Long Beach on 17 May.
For the remainder of her active career, Yorktown's involvement in combat operations in Vietnam proved a dominant feature of her activities. After seven months of normal operations out of Long Beach, she got underway for the western Pacific again on 5 January 1966. She arrived in Yokosuka on 17 February and joined TF 77 on Yankee Station later that month. Over the next five months, the aircraft carrier spent three extended tours of duty on Yankee Station providing ASW and sea-air rescue services for the carriers of TF 77. She also participated in several ASW exercises, including the major SEATO exercise, Operation Sea Imp. The warship concluded her last tour of duty on Yankee Station early in July 1966, and, after a stop at Yokosuka, headed home on the 15th. She disembarked her air group at San Diego on 27 July and reentered Long Beach that same day. She resumed normal operations ? carrier qualifications and ASW exercises ? for the remainder of the year and during the first two months of 1967.
On 24 February 1967, Yorktown entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for a seven-month overhaul. She completed repairs early in October and, after refresher training, resumed normal west coast operations for most of what remained of 1967. On 28 December, she stood out of Long Beach, bound for her last tour of duty in the western Pacific. After a stop at Pearl Harbor, she arrived in the Far East late in January. Instead of putting in at a Japanese port for turnover Yorktown headed directly to the Sea of Japan to provide ASW and search and rescue (SAR) support for the contingency force assembled in the wake of the North Korean capture of USS Pueblo (AGER-2). She remained on that assignment for 30 days. On 1 March, she was released from that duty, and the warship headed for Subic Bay in the Philippines. During the remainder of the deployment, the aircraft carrier did another three tours of duty with TF 77 on Yankee Station. In each instance, she provided ASW and SAR support for the fast carriers launching air strikes on targets in Vietnam. She concluded her last tour of duty in Vietnamese waters on 16 June and set a course for Yokosuka where she stopped from 19 to 21 June 1967 before heading back to the United States.
Yorktown arrived back in Long Beach on 5 July and entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard that same day for almost three months of repairs. She completed repairs on 30 September 1967 and resumed normal operations. Late in November and early in December, she served as a platform for the filming of another movie, Tora! Tora! Tora!, which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In December she served as one of the recovery ships for the Apollo 8 space shot. The two unique missions mentioned above were conducted out of Pearl Harbor. She departed Pearl Harbor of 2 January 1969 and, after a two-week stop in Long Beach, continued her voyage to join the Atlantic Fleet.
Steaming all the way around South America, the aircraft carrier arrived in her new home port of Norfolk Va., on 28 February 1969. She conducted operations along the east coast and in the West Indies until late summer. On 2 September, Yorktown departed Norfolk for a northern European cruise and participation in the major fleet exercise Operation Peacekeeper. During the exercise, she provided ASW and SAR support for the task force. The exercise ended on 23 September and Yorktown began a series of visits to northern European ports. After a visit each to Brest, France, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Yorktown put to sea for a series of hunter/killer ASW exercises between 18 October and 11 November. She resumed her itinerary of port visits on 11 November 1969 at Kiel, Germany. After that, she stopped at Copenhagen, Denmark, and at Portsmouth, England, before getting underway for home on 1 December. She reentered Norfolk on 11 December and began her holiday leave period.
In February 1970, Yorktown transferred to Quonset Point, R.I., and was relieved by USS Intrepid (CVS 11) as the flagship for Commander Carrier Group 16. On 27 June 1970, Yorktown was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pa., and was berthed with the Philadelphia Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She remained there almost three years before her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 June 1973. During 1974, the Navy Department approved the donation of Yorktown to the Patriot's Point Development Authority, Charleston, S.C. She was towed from Bayonne, N.J., to Charleston S.C., in June of 1975. She was formally dedicated as a memorial on the 200th anniversary of the Navy, 13 October 1975.
Yorktown (CV-10) earned 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation during World War II and five battle stars for Vietnam service.
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David
Tue August 9, 2005 12:37pm
Rating: 10
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USS Ticonderoga CV 14 8 M
USS Ticonderoga CV 14 8 May 1944 1 Sep 1973
USS Ticonderoga (CV 14) off the Virginia Capes. September 1955.
displacement: 27,100 tons
length: 888 feet
beam: 93 feet; extreme width at flight deck: 147? feet
draft: 28 feet 7 inches
speed: 33 knots
complement: 3,448 crew
armament: 12 five-inch guns, 72 40mm guns
aircraft: 80+
class: Essex
The fourth Ticonderoga (CV 14) was laid down as Hancock on 1 February 1943 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; renamed Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943, launched on 7 February 1944, sponsored by Miss Stephanie Sarah Pell, and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 8 May 1944, Capt. Dixie Kiefer in command.
Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting and embarking Air Group 89. On 26 June 1944, the carrier shaped a course for the British West Indies. She conducted air operations and drills en route and reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 30th. For the next 15 days, Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew into an efficient wartime team. She departed the West Indies on 16 July and headed back to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22d. Eight days later, the carrier headed for Panama. She transited the canal on 4 September and steamed up the coast to San Diego the following day. On the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where she loaded provisions, fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well as the Marine Corps aviation and defense units that went with them. On the 19th she sailed for Hawaii where she arrived five days later.
Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and USS Carina (AK-74) conducted experiments in the underway transfer of aviation bombs from cargo ship to aircraft carrier. Following those tests, she conducted air operations ? day and night landing and antiaircraft defense drills ? until 18 October 1944 when she exited Pearl Harbor and headed for the western Pacific. After a brief stop at Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines on the 29th. There she embarked Rear Admiral A. W. Radford, Commander, Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force (TF) 38 as a unit of Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group (TG) 38.3.
The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November. She joined the other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for the ground forces capturing Leyte. She launched her first air strike on the morning of 5 November. The planes of her air group spent the next two days pummeling enemy shipping near Luzon and air installations on that island. Her planes bombed and strafed the airfields at Zablan, Mandaluyong, and Pasig. They also joined those of other carriers in sending the heavy cruiser Nachi to a watery resting place. In addition, Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japanese aircraft shot down and one destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.
Around 1600 on the 5th, the enemy retaliated by sending up a flock of planes piloted by members of the suicide corps dubbed kamikaze, or "Divine Wind," in honor of the typhoon that had destroyed a Chinese invasion fleet four centuries previously. Two of the suicide planes succeeded in slipping through the American combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire to crash into USS Lexington (CV 16). Ticonderoga emerged from that airborne banzai charge unscathed and claimed a tally of two splashes. On 6 November, the warship launched two fighter sweeps and two bombing strikes against the Luzon airfields and enemy shipping in the vicinity. Her airmen returned later that day claiming the destruction of 35 Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy ships in Manila Bay. After recovering her planes, the carrier retired to the east for a fueling rendezvous.
She refueled and received replacement planes on 7 November and then headed back to continue pounding enemy forces in the Philippines. Early on the morning of 11 November 1944, her planes combined with others of TF 38 to attack a Japanese reinforcement convoy, just as it was preparing to enter Ormoc Bay from the Camotes Sea. Together, the planes accounted for all the enemy transports and four of the seven escorting destroyers. On the 12th and 13th, Ticonderoga and her sisters launched strikes at Luzon airfields and docks and shipping around Manila. This raid tallied an impressive score: light cruiser Kiso, four destroyers, and seven merchant ships. At the conclusion of the raid, TF 38 retired eastward for a refueling breather. Ticonderoga and the rest of TG 38.3, however, continued east to Ulithi where they arrived on the 17th to replenish, refuel, and rearm.
On 22 November, the aircraft carrier departed Ulithi once more and steamed back toward the Philippines. Three days later, she launched air strikes on central Luzon and adjacent waters. Her pilots finished off the heavy cruiser Kumano, damaged in the Battle off Samar. Later, they attacked an enemy convoy about 15 miles southwest of Kumano's not-so-safe haven in Dasol Bay. Of this convoy, cruiser Yasoshima, a merchantman, and three landing ships went to the bottom. Ticonderoga's air group rounded out their day of destruction with an aerial rampage which cost the Japanese 15 planes shot down and 11 destroyed on the ground.
While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga's ship's company also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo launched by an enemy plane broached in USS Langley's (CVL 27) wake to announce the approach of an air raid . Ticonderoga's gunners raced to their battle stations as the raiders made both conventional and suicide attacks on the task group. Her sister ship USS Essex (CV 9) erupted in flames when one of the kamikazes crashed into her. When a second suicide plane tried to finish off the stricken carrier, Ticonderoga's gunners joined those firing from other ships in cutting his approach abruptly short. That afternoon, while damage control parties dressed Essex's wounds, Ticonderoga extended her hospitality to that damaged carrier's homeless airmen as well as to USS Intrepid (CV 11) pilots in similar straits. The following day, TF 38 retired to the east.
TF 38 stood out of Ulithi again on 11 December and headed for the Philippines. Ticonderoga arrived at the launch point early in the afternoon of the 13th and sent her planes aloft to blanket Japanese airbases on Luzon while Army planes took care of those in the central Philippines. For three days, Ticonderoga airmen and their comrades wreaked havoc with a storm of destruction on enemy airfields. She withdrew on the 16th with the rest of TF 38 in search of a fueling rendezvous. While attem pting to find calmer waters in which to refuel, TF 38 steamed directly through a violent, but unheralded, typhoon. Though the storm cost Admiral Halsey's force three destroyers and over 800 lives Ticonderoga and the other carriers managed to ride it out with a minimum of damage. Having survived the tempest's fury, Ticonderoga returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve.
Repairs occasioned by the typhoon kept TF 38 in the anchorage almost until the end of the month. The carriers did not return to sea until 30 December 1944 when they steamed north to hit Formosa and Luzon in preparation for the landings on the latter island at Lingayen Gulf. Severe weather limited the Formosa strikes on 3 and 4 January 1945 and, in all likelihood, obviated the need for them. The warships fueled at sea on the 5th. Despite rough weather on the 6th, the strikes on Luzon airfields were carried out. That day, Ticonderoga's airmen and their colleagues of the other air groups increased their score by another 32 enemy planes. January 7th brought more strikes on Luzon installations. After a fueling rendezvous on the 8th, Ticonderoga sped north at night to get into position to blanket Japanese airfields in the Ryukyus during the Lingayen assault the following morning. However, foul weather, the bugaboo of TF 38 during the winter of 1944 and 1945, forced TG 38.3 to abandon the strikes on the Ryukyu airfields and join TG 38.2 in pounding Formosa.
During the night of 9 and 10 January, TF 38 steamed boldly through the Luzon Strait and then headed generally southwest, diagonally across the South China Sea. Ticonderoga provided combat air patrol coverage on the 11th and helped to bring down four enemy planes which attempted to snoop the formation. Otherwise, the carriers and their consorts proceeded unmolested to a point some 150 to 200 miles off the coast of Indochina. There, on the 12th, they launched their approximately 850 planes and made a series of anti-shipping sweeps during which they sank a whopping 44 ships, totaling over 130,000 tons. After recovering planes in the late afternoon, the carriers moved off to the northeast. Heavy weather hindered fueling operations on the 13th and 14th, and air searches failed to turn up any tempting targets.
On 15 January 1945, fighters swept Japanese airfields on the Chinese coast while the flattops headed for a position from which to strike Hong Kong. The following morning, they launched antishipping bom bing raids and fighter sweeps of air installations. Weather prevented air operations on the 17th and again made fueling difficult. It worsened the next day and stopped replenishment operations altogether, so that they were not finally concluded until the 19th. The force then shaped a course generally northward to retransit Luzon Strait via Balintang Channel.
The three task groups of TF 38 completed their transit during the night of 20 and 21 January. The next morning, their planes hit airfields on Formosa, in the Pescadores, and at Sakishima Gunto. The good flying weather brought mixed blessings. While it allowed American flight operations to continue through the day, it also brought new gusts of the "Divine Wind." Just after noon, a single-engined Japanese plane scored a hit on USS Langley with a glide-bombing attack. Seconds later, a kamikaze swooped out of the clouds and plunged toward Ticonderoga. He crashed through her flight deck abreast of the No. Two 5-inch mount, and his bomb exploded just above her hangar deck. Several planes stowed nearby erupted into flames. Death and destruction abounded, but the ship's company fought valiantly to save the threatened carrier. Capt. Kiefer conned his ship smartly. First, he changed course to keep the wind from fanning the blaze. Then, he ordered magazines and other compartments flooded to prevent further explosions and to correct a 10-degree starboard list. Finally, he instructed the damage control party to continue flooding compartments on Ticonderoga's port side. That operation induced a 10-degree port list which neatly dumped the fire overboard! Fire-fighters and plane handlers completed the job by dousing the flames and jettisoning burning aircraft.
Wounded denizens of the deep often attract predators. Ticonderoga was no exception. The other kamikazes pounced on her like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy. Her antiaircraft gunners struck back with desperate, but methodical, ferocity and quickly swatted three of her tormentors into the sea. A fourth plane slipped through her barrage and smashed into the carrier's starboard side near the island. His bomb set more planes on fire, riddled her flight deck, and injured or killed another 100 sailors, including Capt. Kiefer. Yet, Ticonderoga's crew refused to submit. Spared further attacks, they brought her fires completely under control not long after 1400; and Ticonderoga retired painfully.
The stricken carrier arrived at Ulithi on 24 January but remained there only long enough to move her wounded to hospital ship USS Samaritan (AH 10), to transfer her air group to USS Hancock (CV 19), and to embark passengers bound for home. Ticonderoga cleared the lagoon on 28 January and headed for the United States. The warship stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor en route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard where she arrived on 15 February 1945.
Her repairs were completed on 20 April 1945, and she cleared Puget Sound the following day for the Alameda Naval Air Station. After embarking passengers and aircraft bound for Hawaii, the carrier headed for Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 1 May. The next day, Air Group 87 came on board and, for the next week, trained in preparation for the carrier's return to combat. Ticonderoga stood out of Pearl Harbor and shaped a course for the western Pacific. En route to Ulithi, she launched her planes for what amounted to training strikes on Japanese-held Taroa in the Marshalls. On 22 May, the warship arrived in Ulithi and rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force as an element of Rear Admiral Radford's TG 58.4.
Two days after her arrival, Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi with TF 68 and headed north to spend the last weeks of the war in Japanese home waters. Three days out, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Spruance, the 5th Fleet reverted back to 3d Fleet , and TF 68 became TF 38 again for the duration. On 2 and 3 June 1945, Ticonderoga fighters struck at airfields on Kyushu in an effort to neutralize the remnants of Japanese air power ? particularly the Kamikaze Corps ? and to relieve the pressure on American forces at Okinawa. During the following two days, Ticonderoga rode out her second typhoon in less than six months and emerged relatively unscathed. She provided combat air patrol cover for the 6 June refueling rendezvous, and four of her fighter s intercepted and destroyed three Okinawa-bound kamikazes. That evening, she steamed off at high speed with TG 38.4 to conduct a fighter sweep of air-fields on southern Kyushu on the 8th. Ticonderoga's planes then joined in the aerial bombardment of Minami Daito Shima and Kita Daito Shima before the carrier headed for Leyte where she arrived on the 13th.
During the two-week rest and replenishment period she enjoyed at Leyte, Ticonderoga changed task organizations from TG 38.4 to Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan's TG 38.3. On 1 July, she departed Leyte with TF 38 and headed north to resume raids on Japan. Two days later, a damaged reduction gear forced her into Apra Harbor, Guam, for repairs. She remained there until the 19th when she steamed off to rejoin TF 38 and resume her role in the war against Japan. On 24 July 1945, her planes joined those of other fast carriers in striking ships in the Inland Sea and airfields at Nagoya, Osaka, and Miko. During those raids, TF 38 planes found the sad remnants of the once-mighty Japanese Fleet and bagged battleships Ise, Hyuga, and Haruna as well as an escort carrier, Kaiyo, and two heavy cruisers. On 28 July, her aircraft directed their efforts toward the Kure Naval Base, where they pounded an aircraft carrier, three cruisers, a destroyer, and a submarine. She shifted her attention to the industrial area of central Honshu on the 30th, then to northern Honshu and Hokkaido on 9 and 10 August. The latter attacks thoroughly destroyed the marshaling area for a planned airborne suicide raid on the B-29 bases in the Marianas. On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned to the Tokyo area and helped to subject the Japanese capital to another severe drubbing.
The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, respectively, convinced the Japanese of the futility of continued resistance. On the morning of 16 August 1945, Ticonderoga launched another strike against Tokyo. During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effect that Japan had capitulated.
The shock of peace, though not so abrupt as that of war almost four years previously, took some getting used to. Ticonderoga and her sister ships remained on a full war footing. She continued patrols over Japanese territory and sent reconnaissance flights in search of camps containing Allied prisoners of war so that air-dropped supplies could be rushed to them. On 6 September, four days after the formal surrender ceremony on board USS Missouri (BB-63), Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay.
Her arrival at Tokyo ended one phase of her career and began another. She embarked homeward-bound passengers and put to sea again on the 20th. After a stop in Pearl Harbor, the carrier reached Alameda, Calif., on 5 October. She disembarked her passenge rs and unloaded cargo before heading out on the 9th to pick up another group of veterans. Ticonderoga delivered over a thousand soldiers and sailors to Tacoma, Wash., and remained there through the 28th for the Navy Day celebration. On 29 October 1945, the carrier departed Tacoma and headed back to Alameda. En route, all of the planes of Air Group 87 were transferred ashore so that the carrier could be altered to accommodate additional passengers in the "Magic-Carpet" voyages to follow. Following the completion of those modifications at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in November, the warship headed for the Philippines and arrived at Samar on 20 November. She returned to Alameda on 6 December and debarked almost 4,000 returning servicemen. The carrier made one more "Magic-Carpet" run in December 1945 and January 1946 before entering the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to prepare for inactivation. Almost a year later on 9 January 1947, Ticonderoga was placed out of commission and berthed with the Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
On 31 January 1962, Ticonderoga came out of reserve and went into reduced commission for the transit from Bremerton to New York. She departed Puget Sound on 27 February and reached New York on 1 April. Three days later, she was decommissioned at the New York Naval Shipyard to begin an extensive conversion. During the ensuing 29 months, the carrier received the numerous modifications ? steam catapults to launch jets, a new nylon barricade, a new deck-edge elevator and the latest electronic and fire control equipment-necessary for her to become an integral unit of the fleet. On 11 September 1954, Ticonderoga was recommissioned at New York, Capt. William A. Schoech in command.
In January 1955, the carrier shifted to her new home port of Norfolk, Va., where she arrived on the 6th. Over the next month, she conducted carrier qualifications with Air Group 6 in the Virginia Capes operating area. On 3 February, she stood out of Hampton Roads for shakedown near Cuba, after which she returned via Norfolk to New York for additional alterations. During the late summer, the warship resumed carrier qualifications in the Virginia capes area. After a visit to Philadelphia early in September, she participated in tests of three new planes ? the A4D-1 Skyhawk, the F4D-1 Skyray, and the F3H-2N Demon. Ticonderoga then returned to normal operations along the east coast until 4 November when she departed Mayport, Fla., and headed for Europe. She relieved USS Intrepid (CV 11) at Gibraltar 10 days later and cruised the length of the Mediterranean during the following eight months. On 2 August 1956, Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk and entered the shipyard to receive an angled flight deck and an enclosed hurricane bow.
Those modifications were completed by early 1957 and, in April, she got underway for her new home port of Alameda, Calif. She reached her destination on 30 May, underwent repairs, and finished out the summer with operations off the California coast. On 16 September, she stood out of San Francisco Bay and shaped course for the Far East. En route, she stopped at Pearl Harbor before continuing west to Yokosuka, Japan, where she arrived on 15 October. For six months, Ticonderoga cruised Oriental waters from Japan in the north to the Philippines in the south. Upon arriving at Alameda on 25 April 1958, she completed her first deployment to the western Pacific since recommissioning.
Between 1958 and 1963, Ticonderoga made four more peacetime deployments to the western Pacific. During each, she conducted training operations with other units of the 7th Fleet and made goodwill and liberty port calls throughout the Far East. Early in 1964, she began preparations for her sixth cruise to the western Pacific and, following exercises off the west coast and in the Hawaiian Islands, the carrier cleared Pearl Harbor on 4 May for what began as another peaceful tour of duty in the Far East. The first three months of that deployment brought normal operations, training and port calls. However, on 2 August, while operating in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, USS Maddox (DD-731) reported being attacked by units of the North Vietnamese Navy. Within minutes of her receipt of the message, Ticonderoga dispatched four, rocket-armed F8E Crusaders to the destroyer's assistance. Upon arrival, the Crusaders launched Zuni rockets and strafed the North Vietnamese craft with their 20-millimeter cannons. The Ticonderoga airmen teamed up with Maddox gunners to thwart the North Vietnamese attack, leaving one boat dead in the water and damaging the other two.
Two days later, late in the evening of the 4th, Ticonderoga received urgent requests from USS Turner Joy (DD-951), by then on patrol with Maddox, for air support in resisting what the destroyer alleged to be another torpedo boat foray. The carrier again launched planes to aid the American surface ships, and Turner Joy directed them. The Navy surface and air team believed it had sunk two boats and damaged another pair. President Johnson responded with a reprisal to what he felt at the time to be two unprovoked attacks on American seapower and ordered retaliatory air strikes on selected North Vietnamese motor torpedo boat bases. On 5 August, Ticonderoga and USS Constellation (CV-46) launched 60 sorties against four bases and their supporting oil storage facilities. Those attacks reportedly resulted in the destruction of 25 PT-type boats, severe damage to the bases, and almost complete razing of the oil storage depot. For her quick reaction and successful combat actions on those three occasions, Ticonderoga received the Navy Unit Commendation.
After a return visit to Japan in September, the aircraft carrier resumed normal operations in the South China Sea until winding up the deployment late in the year. She returned to the Naval Air Station, North Island, Calif., on 15 December 1964. Follow ing post-deployment and holiday stand-down, Ticonderoga moved to the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard on 27 January 1965 to begin a five-month overhaul. She completed repairs in June and spent the summer operating along the coast of southern California. On 28 September, the aircraft carrier put to sea for another deployment to the Orient. She spent some time in the Hawaiian Islands for an operational readiness exercise then continued on to the Far East. She reached "Dixie Station" on 5 November and immediately began combat air operations.
Ticonderoga's winter deployment of 1965 and 1966 was her first total combat tour of duty during American involvement in the Vietnam War. During her six months in the Far East, the carrier spent a total of 116 days in air operations off the coast of Vietnam dividing her time almost evenly between "Dixie" and "Yankee Stations," the carrier operating areas off South and North Vietnam, respectively. Her air group delivered over 8,000 tons of ordnance in more than 10,000 combat sorties, with a loss of 16 planes, but only five pilots. For the most part, her aircraft hit enemy installations in North Vietnam and interdicted supply routes into South Vietnam, including river-borne and coastwise junk and sampan traffic as well as roads, bridges, and trucks on land. Specifically, they claimed the destruction of 35 bridges as well as numerous warehouses, barracks, trucks, boats, and railroad cars and severe damage to a major North Vietnamese thermal power plant located at Uong Bi north of Haiphong. After a stop at Sasebo, Japan, from 25 April to 3 May 1966, the warship put to sea to return to the United States. On 13 May, she pulled into port at San Diego to end the deployment.
Following repairs she stood out of San Diego on 9 July to begin a normal round of west coast training operations. Those and similar evolutions continued until 15 October, when Ticonderoga departed San Diego, bound via Hawaii for the western Pacific. The carrier reached Yokosuka, Japan, on 30 October and remained there until 5 November when she headed south for an overnight stop at Subic Bay in the Philippines on the 10th and 11th. On the 13th, Ticonderoga arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin and began the first of three combat tours during her 1966-67 deployment. She launched 11,650 combat sorties, all against enemy targets located in North Vietnam. Again, her primary targets were logistics and communications lines and transportation facilities. For their overall efforts in the conduct of day and night strikes on enemy targets, Ticonderoga and her air group earned their second Navy Unit Commendation. She completed her final line period on 27 April 1967 and returned to Yokosuka, from which she departed again on 19 May to return to the United States. Ten days later, the carrier entered San Diego and began a month-long, post-deployment stand-down. At the beginning of July, the warship shifted to Bremerton, Wash., where she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for two months of repairs. Upon the completion of yard work, she departed Bremerton on 6 September and steamed south to training operations off the coast of southern California.
On 28 December 1967, Ticonderoga sailed for her fourth combat deployment to the waters off the Indochinese coast. She made Yokosuka on 17 January 1968 and after two days of upkeep continued on to the Gulf of Tonkin where she arrived on station on the 26th and began combat operations. Between January and July Ticonderoga was on the line off the coast of Vietnam for five separate periods totaling 120 days of combat duty. During that time, her air wing flew just over 13,000 combat sorties against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, most frequently in the continuing attempts to interdict the enemy lines of supply. In mid-April, following: her second line period, she made a port visit to Singapore and then, after upkeep at Subic Bay, retur ned to duty off Vietnam. On 9 July, during her fifth and final line period, Lt. Comdr. J. B. Nichols claimed Ticonderoga's first MiG kill. The carrier completed that line period and entered Subic Bay for upkeep on 25 July.
On the 27th, she headed north to Yokosuka where she spent a week for upkeep and briefings before heading back to the United States on 7 August. Ticonderoga reached San Diego on the 17th and disembarked her air group. On the 22d, she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for post-deployment repairs. She completed those repairs on 21 October 1968, conducted sea trials on the 28th and 29th, and began normal operations out of San Diego early in November. For the remainder of the year, she conducted refre sher training and carrier qualifications along the coast of southern California.
During the first month of 1969, Ticonderoga made preparations for her fifth consecutive combat deployment to the southeast Asia area. On 1 February, she cleared San Diego and headed west. After a brief stop at Pearl Harbor a week later, she continued her voyage to Yokosuka where she arrived on the 20th. The carrier departed Yokosuka on the 28th for the coast of Vietnam where she arrived on 4 March. Over the next four months, Ticonderoga served four periods on the line off Vietnam, interdi cting communist supply lines and making strikes against their positions.
During her second line period, however, her tour of duty off Vietnam came to an abrupt end on 16 April when she was shifted north to the Sea of Japan. North Korean aircraft had shot down a Navy reconnaissance plane in the area, and Ticonderoga was called upon to beef up the forces assigned to the vicinity. However, the crisis abated, and Ticonderoga entered Subic Bay on 27 April for upkeep. On 8 May 1969, she departed the Philippines to return to "Yankee Station" and resumed interdiction operations. Between her third and fourth line periods, the carrier visited Sasebo and Hong Kong.
The aircraft carrier took station off Vietnam for her last line period of the deployment on 26 June and there followed 37 more days of highly successful air sorties against enemy targets. Following that tour, she joined TF 71 in the Sea of Japan for the remainder of the deployment. Ticonderoga concluded the deployment, a highly successful one for she received her third Navy Unit Commendation for her operations during that tour of duty, when she left Subic Bay on 4 September 1969.
Ticonderoga arrived in San Diego on 18 September. After almost a month of post-deployment stand-down, she moved to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in mid-October to begin conversion to an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft carrier. Overhaul and conversion work began on 20 October 1969, and Ticonderoga was redesignated CVS-14 on the 21st. She completed overhaul and conversion on 28 May 1970 and conducted exercises out of Long Beach for most of June. On the 26th, the new ASW support carrier entered her new home port, San Diego. During July and August, she conducted refresher training, refresher air operations, and carrier landing qualifications. The warship operated off the California coast for the remainder of the year and participated in two exercises, HUKASWEX 4-70 late in October and COMPUTEX 23-70 between 30 November and 3 December.
During the remainder of her active career, Ticonderoga made two more deployments to the Far East. Because of her change in mission, neither tour of duty included combat operations off Vietnam. Both, however, included training exercises in the Sea of Japan with ships of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. The first of these two cruises also brought operations in the Indian Ocean with units of the Thai Navy and a transit of Sunda Strait during which a ceremony was held to commemorate the loss of USS Houston (CA-30) and HMAS Perth in 1942.
In between these two last deployments, she operated in the eastern Pacific and participated in the recovery of the Apollo 16 moon mission capsule and astronauts near American Samoa during April of 1972. The second deployment came in the summer of 1972, and, in addition to the training exercises in the Sea of Japan, Ticonderoga also joined ASW training operations in the South China Sea. That fall, she returned to the eastern Pacific and, in November, practiced for the recovery of Apollo 17. The next month, Ticonderoga recovered her second set of space voyagers near American Samoa. The carrier then headed back to San Diego where she arrived on 28 December.
Ticonderoga remained active for nine more months, first operating out of San Diego and then making preparations for inactivation. On 1 September 1973, the aircraft carrier was decommissioned after a board of inspection and survey found her to be unfit for further naval service. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 16 November 1973. Ther ship was disposed of, sold by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping 1 September 1975.
Ticonderoga received five battle stars during World War II and three Navy Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12 battle stars during the Vietnam War.
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