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USS Hornet (CV 12 / CVA 12 / CVS 12):
USS Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier of the
Essex class. Construction started in August 1942. She was originally named
USS Kearsarge, but was renamed in honor of the USS Hornet (CV-8), which was
lost in October 1942, becoming the eighth ship to bear the name.
Hornet was commissioned in November 1943, and after three months of training
joined the U.S. forces in the Pacific War. She played a major part in the
Pacific battles of World War II, and also took part in Operation Magic
Carpet, returning troops back to the U.S. Following World War II, she served
in the Vietnam War, and also played a part in the Apollo program, recovering
astronauts as they returned from the Moon.
Hornet was finally decommissioned in 1970. She was eventually designated as
both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark, and
in 1998 she opened to the public as the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda,
California.
Construction: 1940 to 1943
The contract to build Kearsarge had been given to Newport News Shipbuilding
on 9 September 1940, and her keel was laid down on 3 August 1942. The seventh
Hornet (CV-8) was sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz on 26 October 1942, and
the CV-12 hull was renamed Hornet (the name Kearsarge is still stamped into
her keel plate). She was launched on 30 August 1943 and commissioned on 29
November 1943. Her first commander was Captain (later Rear Admiral) Miles R.
Browning.
World War II: 1944 to 1947
The Hornet conducted shakedown training off Bermuda before departing Norfolk
on 14 February 1944 to join the Fast Carrier Task Force on 20 March at Majuro
Atoll in the Marshall Islands. After lending air support to protect the
invasion beaches in New Guinea, she conducted massive aerial raids against
Japanese bases in the Caroline Islands and prepared to support the amphibious
assault for the occupation of the Marianas Islands.
On 11 June, Hornet launched raids on Tinian and Saipan. The following day she
conducted heavy bombing attacks on Guam and Rota. On 15–16 June, she blasted
enemy air fields at Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima to prevent air attacks on troops
invading Saipan in the Marianas. The afternoon of 18 June, Hornet formed with
the Fast Carrier Task Force to intercept the Japanese First Mobile Fleet,
headed through the Philippine Sea for Saipan. The Battle of the Philippine
Sea began on 19 June, when Hornet launched strikes to destroy as many
land-based Japanese planes as possible before the carrier-based Japanese
aircraft came in effectively.
The enemy approached the American carriers in four massive waves, full of
young and inexperienced pilots. Fighter aircraft from Hornet and other U.S.
carriers, whose veteran pilots' skills were honed to perfection, broke up and
savaged all the attacks before the Japanese aerial raiders reached the task
force. Nearly every Japanese aircraft was shot down in the great air battles
of 19 June that became commonly known as "The Marianas Turkey
Shoot." As the Japanese Mobile Fleet fled in defeat on 20 June, the
carriers launched long-range airstrikes that sank the Japanese aircraft
carrier Hiyō and so damaged two tankers that they were abandoned and
scuttled. Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa's own flag log for 20 June 1944
showed his surviving carrier air power as only 35 operational aircraft out of
the 430 planes with which he had commenced the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Hornet, based at Eniwetok in the Marshalls, raided enemy installations
ranging from Guam to the Bonins, then turned her attention to the Palaus,
throughout the Philippine Sea, and to enemy bases on Okinawa and Formosa. Her
aircraft gave direct support to the troops invading Leyte on 20 October 1944.
During the Battle for Leyte Gulf she launched damaging raids on the Japanese
center force in the Battle off Samar, and hastened the retreat of the enemy
fleet through the Sibuyan Sea towards Borneo.
In the following months, Hornet attacked enemy shipping and airfields
throughout the Philippines. This included participation in a raid that
destroyed an entire Japanese convoy in Ormoc Bay. On 30 December, she
departed Ulithi in the Carolines for raids against Formosa, Indo-China, and
the Pescadores Islands. En route back to Ulithi, Hornet 's
planes conducted photo reconnaissance of Okinawa on 22 January 1945 to aid
the planned invasion of that "last stepping-stone to Japan".
Hornet again departed Ulithi on 10 February for full-scale aerial assaults on
Tokyo, then supported the amphibious landing assault on Iwo Jima on 19–20
February.
Repeated raids were made against the Tokyo plains industrial complex, and
Okinawa was hard hit. On 1 April, Hornet planes gave direct support to the
amphibious assault landings on Okinawa. On 6 April, her aircraft joined in
attacks which sank the mighty Japanese battleship Yamato and her task force
as it closed on Okinawa. The following two months found Hornet alternating
between close support to ground troops on Okinawa and hard-hitting raids to
destroy the industrial capacity of Japan. She was caught in a howling typhoon
4–5 June which collapsed some 25 ft (8 m) of her forward flight deck.
For 16 continuous months, she was in action in the forward areas of the
Pacific combat zone, sometimes within 40 mi (60 km) of the Japanese home
islands. Under air attack 59 times, she was never hit. Her aircraft destroyed
1,410 Japanese aircraft; only Essex exceeded this record. 10 of her pilots
attained "Ace in a Day" status; 30 of her 42 VF-2 F6F Hellcat
pilots were aces. In one day, her aircraft shot down 72 enemy aircraft, and
in one month, they shot down 255 aircraft. Hornet supported nearly every
Pacific amphibious landing after March 1944. Her air groups destroyed or
damaged 1,269,710 tons (1,151,860 tonnes) of enemy shipping, and scored the
critical first hits in sinking Yamato.
Hornet earned nine battle stars for her service in World War II. Seven battle
stars were earned as the sole receiver in 1944. Two were earned together as
Hornet and her air groups when the Navy changed their nomenclature in 1945.
She was one of nine carriers to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
Following the typhoon that collapsed the forward edge of her flight deck,
Hornet was routed back to the Philippines and from there to San Francisco,
arriving on 7 July. Her overhaul was complete by 13 September when she
departed as a part of Operation Magic Carpet that saw her return troops home
from the Marianas and Hawaiian Islands. She returned to San Francisco on 9
February 1946. She decommissioned there on 15 January 1947, and joined the
Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Peacetime tensions: 1951 to 1959
Hornet was recommissioned on 20 March 1951, then sailed from San Francisco
for the New York Naval Shipyard where she was decommissioned on 12 May for
conversion to an attack aircraft carrier CVA-12. On 11 September 1953, she
was recommissioned as an attack carrier. The ship then trained in the
Caribbean Sea before departure from Norfolk on 11 May 1954 on an eight-month
global cruise.
After operations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, Hornet joined
the mobile 7th Fleet in the South China Sea to search for survivors of a
Cathay Pacific Airways passenger plane, shot down by Chinese aircraft near
Hainan Island. On 25 July, Hornet aircraft supported planes from Philippine
Sea as they shot down two attacking Chinese fighters. After tensions eased,
she returned to San Francisco on 12 December, trained out of San Diego, then
sailed on 4 May 1955 to join the 7th Fleet in the Far East.
Hornet helped to cover the evacuation of Vietnamese from the
Communist-controlled north to South Vietnam, then ranged from Japan to
Formosa, Okinawa, and the Philippines in readiness training with the 7th
Fleet. She returned to San Diego on 10 December and entered the Puget Sound
Naval Shipyard the following month for conversion that included a hurricane
bow and the installation of an angled flight deck, which permits the
simultaneous launching and recovery of aircraft.
Following her modernization overhaul, Hornet operated along the California
coast. She departed San Diego on 21 January 1957 to bolster the strength of
the 7th Fleet until her return from the troubled Far East on 25 July.
Following a similar cruise, 6 January–2 July 1958, the ship was redesignated
CVS-12 (anti-submarine warfare support carrier). In August, she entered Puget
Sound Naval Shipyard for the conversion work to an ASW carrier. On 3 April
1959, she sailed from Long Beach to join the 7th Fleet in antisubmarine
warfare tactics ranging from Japan to Okinawa and the Philippines. She
returned home in October, for training along the western seaboard.
Vietnam and the Space Race: 1960 to 1970
In the following years, Hornet was regularly deployed to the 7th Fleet for
operations ranging from the coast of South Vietnam, to the shores of Japan,
the Philippines and Okinawa; and she also played a key part in the Apollo
program, as a recovery ship for unmanned and manned spaceflights.
On 25 August 1966, she was on recovery station for the flight of AS-202, the
second unmanned flight of a production Apollo Command and Service Module. The
moonship rocketed three-quarters of the way around the globe in 93 minutes
before splashdown near Wake Island. Scorched from the heat of its re-entry
into the Earth's atmosphere, the Apollo space capsule, designed to carry
American astronauts to the moon, was brought aboard Hornet after its test;
that command module is currently on display aboard Hornet.
Hornet returned to Long Beach on 8 September, but headed back to the Far East
on 27 March 1967. She reached Japan exactly a month later and departed the
Sasebo base on 19 May for the war zone. She operated in Vietnamese waters
throughout the first half of 1967.
Hornet recovered the astronauts from the first moon landing mission, Apollo
11, on 24 July 1969. President Nixon was on board to welcome the returning astronauts
back to Earth, where they lived in quarantine aboard Hornet prior to transfer
to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston. The first steps on Earth of
returning moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with Command Module
Pilot Michael Collins, are marked on her hangar deck, as part of her Apollo
program exhibit.
Hornet once again served in the space program with the recovery of Apollo 12
on 24 November. Returning astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr., Alan L. Bean, and
Richard F. Gordon, Jr., were picked up from their splashdown point near
American Samoa.
Retirement: 1970 to present
Hornet was decommissioned 26 June 1970 and mothballed at the Puget Sound
Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility. Hornet was struck from
the Naval Vessel Register on 25 July 1989. In 1991, she was designated a
National Historic Landmark.
The aircraft carrier was donated to the Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation on
26 May 1998. On 17 October 1998, she was opened to the public as USS Hornet
Museum in Alameda, California. "Hornet" was designated a California
State Historic Landmark in 1999. She is listed on the National Register of
Historic places, #91002065.
Building on her status as an authentically restored aircraft carrier, Hornet
could be seen featuring in a number of film and television shows. Several TV
shows, including a number of phantom-themed shows, have been recorded on
board; and in 1997 she was the subject of an episode of the TV series JAG. In
2004 she was the set for scenes from the movie xXx: State of the Union, which
starred Ice Cube, and portions of the 2007 film Rescue Dawn, which starred
Christian Bale, were shot on board. Hornet was both the subject and the
setting of the independent film Carrier (2006).
source: wikipedia
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another history:
The eighth Hornet (CV-12) was laid down 3
August 1942; launched 30 August 1943 by the Newport News Shipbuilding &
Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; sponsored by Mrs. Frank M. Knox, wife of the
Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned 29 November 1943, Captain Miles M.
Browning in command.
Hornet conducted shakedown training off Bermuda before departing Norfolk 14
February 1944 to join the Fast Carrier Task Force 20 March at Majuro Atoll in
the Marshalls. After lending air support to protect the invasion beaches in
New Guinea, she conducted massive aerial raids against Japanese bases in the
Caroline Islands and prepared to support the amphibious assault for the
occupation of the Marianas Islands.
On 11 June 1944 Hornet launched raids on Tinian and Saipan. The following day
she conducted heavy bombing attacks on Guam and Rota. During 15 to 16 June,
she blasted enemy air fields at Iwo and Chichi Jima to prevent air attacks on
troops invading Saipan in the Marianas. The afternoon of 18 June 1944 Hornet
formed with the Fast Carrier Task Force to intercept the Japanese First
Mobile Fleet, headed through the Philippine Sea for Saipan. The Battle of the
Philippine Sea opened 19 June 1944 when Hornet launched strikes to destroy as
many land-based Japanese planes as possible before the carrier-based Japanese
aircraft came in.
The enemy approached the American carriers in four massive waves, full of
young but inexperienced pilots. Fighter aircraft from Hornet and other U.S.
carriers, whose veteran pilots were honed to perfection, broke up and savaged
all the attacks before the Japanese aerial raiders reached the task force.
Nearly every Japanese aircraft was shot down in the great air battles of 19
June 1944 that became commonly known as "The Marianas Turkey Shoot."
As the Japanese Mobile Fleet fled in defeat on 20 June, the carriers launched
long-range airstrikes that sank Japanese carrier Hiji and so damaged two
tankers that they were abandoned and scuttled. Admiral Ozawa's own flag log
for 20 June 1944 showed his surviving carrier air power as only 35
operational aircraft out of the 430 planes with which he had commenced the
Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Hornet, basing from Eniwetok in the Marshalls, raided enemy installations
ranging from Guam to the Bonins, then turned her attention to the Palaus,
throughout the Philippine Sea, and to enemy bases on Okinawa and Formosa. Her
aircraft gave direct support to the troops invading Leyte 20 October 1944.
During the Battle for Leyte Gulf she launched raids for damaging hits to the
Japanese center force in the Battle off Samar, and hastened the retreat of
the enemy fleet through the Sibuyan Sea towards Borneo.
In the following months Hornet attacked enemy shipping and airfields
throughout the Philippines. This included participation in a raid that
destroyed an entire Japanese convoy in Ormoc Bay. On 30 December 1944 she
departed Ulithi in the Carolines for raids against Formosa, Indo-China, and
the Pescadores Islands. En route back to Ulithi, Hornet planes made photo
reconnaissance of Okinawa 22 January 1945 to aid the planned invasion of that
"last stepping-stone to Japan."
Hornet again departed Ulithi 10 February for full-scale aerial assaults on
Tokyo, then supported the amphibious landing assault on Iwo Jima 19-20
February 1945.
Repeated raids were made against the Tokyo plains industrial complex, and
Okinawa was hard hit. On 1 April 1945 Hornet planes gave direct support to
the amphibious assault landings on Okinawa. On 6 April her aircraft joined in
attacks which sank the mighty Japanese battleship Yamato and her entire task
force as it closed Okinawa. The following 2 months found Hornet alternating
between close support to ground troops on Okinawa and hard-hitting raids to
destroy the industrial capacity of Japan. She was caught in a howling typhoon
4 to 5 June 1945 which collapsed some 25 feet of her forward flight deck.
Hornet was routed back to the Philippines and from there to San Francisco,
arriving 7 July 1945. Her overhaul was complete by 13 September 1945 when she
departed as a part of the "Magic Carpet" operation that saw her
return home troops from the Marianas and Hawaiian Islands. She returned to
San Francisco 9 February 1946. She decommissioned there 15 January 1947, and
joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Hornet recommissioned 20 March 1951, then sailed from San Francisco for the
New York Naval Shipyard where she decommissioned 12 May 1951 for conversion
to an attack aircraft carrier (CVA-12). She recommissioned 11 September 1953
and trained in the Caribbean Sea before departure from Norfolk 11 May 1954 on
an 8-month global cruise.
After operations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, Hornet joined
the mobile 7th fleet in the South China Sea to search for survivors of a
Cathay-Pacific Airways passenger plane, shot down by communist Chinese
aircraft near Hainan Island. On 25 July, Hornet aircraft supported planes
from Philippine Sea (CVA-47) as they shot down two attacking Chinese
communist fighters. After tensions eased, she returned to San Francisco 12
December 1954, trained out of San Diego, then sailed 4 May 1955 to join the
7th fleet in the Far East.
Hornet helped cover the evacuation of Vietnamese from the Communist
controlled north to freedom in South Vietnam, then ranged from Japan to
Formosa, Okinawa, and the Philippines in readiness training with the 7th
fleet. She returned to San Diego 10 December 1955 and entered the Puget Sound
Naval Shipyard the following month for conversion that included a hurricane
bow and the installation of an angled flight deck which permits the
simultaneous launching and recovery of aircraft.
Following her modernization overhaul, Hornet operated along the California
coast. She departed San Diego 21 January 1957 to bolster the strength of the
7th fleet until her return from the troubled Far East 25 July. Following a
similar cruise, 6 January-2 July 1958, she was converted to an Antisubmarine
Warfare Support Carrier (CVS-12) In the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. On 3
April 1959 she sailed from Long Beach to join the 7th fleet in antisubmarine
warfare tactics ranging from Japan to Okinawa and the Philippines. She
returned home in October, for training along the western seaboard.
In the following years, Hornet was regularly deployed to the 7th fleet for
operations ranging from the coast of South Vietnam, to the shores of Japan,
the Philippines and Okinawa. On 25 August 1966 she was on recovery station
for the unmanned Apollo moonship that rocketed three-quarters of the way
around the globe in 93 minutes before splashdown near Wake Island. Scorched
from the heat of its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, the Apollo space
capsule, designed to carry American astronauts to the moon, was brought
aboard Hornet after its test.
Hornet returned to Long Beach 8 September, but headed back to the Far East 27
March 1967. She reached Japan exactly a month later and departed Sasebo 19
May for the war zone. She operated in Vietnamese waters throughout the
remainder of spring and during much of the summer of 1967.
Hornet was decommissioned on 26 June 1970 and, after being struck from the
navy list on 25 July 1989, she was preserved as a museum ship at Alameda,
Calif., where she remains to this day. The aircraft carrier was designated a
National Historic Landmark on 4 December 1991.
Hornet received the Presidential Unit Citation and seven battle stars for
service in World War II.
source: US Naval History & Heritage Command
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