USS Princeton (CV-37, later CVA-37, CVS-37 and LPH-5), 1945-1971

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USS Princeton, a 27,100-ton Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier built at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in November 1945, a few months after the end of World War II. She operated in the Atlantic until June 1946, then went to the Pacific, where she spent the rest of her long career. Princeton deployed to the western Pacific twice during the later 1940s, initially in 1946 and again in 1948. The Truman Administration's defense cutbacks brought her decommissioning in June 1949, but she was recalled to active service upon the outbreak of war in Korea a year later.

Princeton recommissioned in August 1950 with a largely Naval Reserve crew and began the first of three Korean War combat tours late in the year. She operated with Task Force 77 in support of United Nations forces in Korea from December 1950 to August 1951, from April to October 1952 and from March 1953 to the end of the conflict that summer. The carrier was redesignated CVA-37 in October 1952.

In January 1954, Princeton was again reclassified from attack aircraft carrier to anti-submarine warfare support aircraft carrier, with new hull number CVS-37. In this role, she operated in the eastern Pacific and in Asiatic waters, deploying to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf area in 1957-58. Though scheduled for decommissioning after that, Princeton was instead redesignated LPH-5 in March 1959 and converted into an amphibious assault ship.

As an LPH, she carried U.S. Marines and their helicopters in the then-new mission of vertical envelopment of amphibious warfare objectives. Princeton continued her pattern of alternating eastern and western Pacific operations and was heavily envolved in the war in Southeast Asia. She landed Marines at Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, in May 1965 and transported Marine aircraft from the U.S. to the combat zone during the summer of that year. Again deploying to the Vietnam area in February-August 1966, she supported Marine and U.S. Army units in several combat operations. During the rest of the decade, Princeton continued her active participation in the Vietnam War during annual Western Pacific tours. In April 1969 she also served as a space recovery ship for the Apollo 10 lunar mission. After two and a half decades of service, USS Princeton was decommissioned and striken from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1970. She was sold for scrapping in May 1971.

  
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