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Photo # 80-G-469319:  SB2C aircraft over USS Hornet, January 1945

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Hornet (CV-12, later CVA-12 & CVS-12), 1943-1998

USS Hornet, an 27,100-ton Essex class aircraft carrier, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Commissioned in November 1943, she left the Atlantic in February 1944 to join the war against Japan. Her first combat operations were raids against enemy-held islands in the central Pacific, followed in June 1944 by participation in the Marianas invasion and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Hornet's raids continued through the rest of the year, with the attacks moving further west to support the capture of the Palaus and the recovery of the Philippines. Her planes also participated in the October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf.

In January 1945, Hornet entered the South China Sea for strikes on and near the Asian coast. Over the next several months, she also hit Formosa and the Japanese Home Islands and covered landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. On 6 April 1945 her planes helped sink the huge Japanese battleship Yamato. Hornet continued her operations in the Okinawa and Japan areas until her flight deck was damaged in a typhoon in early June, generating a trip back to the U.S. for repairs and an overhaul. The war was over by the time this work was completed, and the carrier spent the rest of 1945 bringing men home from the Pacific. After almost a year of inactivity, Hornet decommissioned and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet in January 1947.

Briefly recommissioning in March 1951, Hornet went to the New York Naval Shipyard, where she spent two years receiving an SCB-27A modernization. Returning to the active fleet in September 1953 with a stronger flight deck, new island and the new attack carrier designation CVA-12, the ship began a World cruise in May 1954 that included duty in the Mediterranean Sea and with the Seventh Fleet in Asian waters. On 25 July 1954, while Hornet was operating in the South China Sea, her planes shot down two Chinese fighters. After another western Pacific deployment in 1955, the carrier was modernized again, this time receiving an angled flight deck and enclosed bow to facilitate operation of higher-performance aircraft. She had two more Seventh Fleet tours in 1957 and 1958.

In mid-1958, Hornet was converted to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier and redesignated CVS-12. In her new role, she continued to make regular Seventh Fleet deployments through the next decade and lent support to combat operations off Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. She also served as recovery ship for several space flights, including the Apollo 11 and 12 trips to the Moon in 1969. USS Hornet decommissioned for the last time in June 1970. Following nearly two decades in "mothballs", she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1989 and sold for breaking up in April 1993. However, the old carrier was saved from the scrap heap by the efforts of historically-minded citizens and in 1998 became a memorial and museum ship at Alameda, California. Hornet serves in that capacity to this day.

This page features selected views of USS Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12).

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 80-G-K-14466 (Color)

USS Hornet (CV-12)

Operating near Okinawa, 27 March 1945.
The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 3a.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-17108 (Color)

USS Hornet (CVA-12)

En route to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 10 January 1954, during shakedown following completion of her SCB-27A modernization.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 600 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 97469

USS Hornet (CVS-12)


Operating off the coast of North Vietnam, 5 September 1967.
Photographed by PHCM Cox.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1116887

USS Hornet (CVS-12)


Underway on 9 August 1968, shortly before she began her final Seventh Fleet deployment.
Photographed by PHCS W.M. Cox.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 117KB; 600 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1116887.

 
Photo #: 80-G-469319

USS Hornet (CV-12)


Curtiss SB2C-3 "Helldiver" aircraft bank over the carrier before landing, following strikes on Japanese shipping in the China Sea, circa mid-January 1945.
Photographed by Lieutenant Commander Charles Kerlee, USNR.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 111KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-413915

40mm Quad Machine Gun Mount


Firing on board USS Hornet (CV-12), circa February 1945, probably during gunnery practice.
The original picture caption identifies the photo as having been taken during Task Force 58's raid on Japan, 16 February 1945. However, helmetless members of the gun crew, and rolled up shirt sleeves, strongly indicate that the occasion was in warmer climes and not while in combat.
View looks aft on the port side, with the carrier's port quarter 5"/38 guns just beyond the 40mm mount. Note ready-service ammunition and spent shell casings at right; men passing 4-round clips to loaders at left.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-5702 (Color)

USS Hornet (CV-12)

View looking aft from the ship's island as she steams with other carriers during a western Pacific gunnery practice session, circa June 1945.
Next ship astern is USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31), firing her 5"/38 battery to starboard. Two small aircraft carriers (CVL) are beyond her.
Note yellow flight deck markings on Hornet and TBM and SB2C aircraft parked aft.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-663584

USS Hornet (CVA-12)


McDonnell F2H-3 "Banshee" jet fighters parked on the carrier's flight deck, during Seventh Fleet operations in the Far East, 1 October 1954.
Plane closest to the camera is Bureau # 127542.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: USN 1142142

USS Hornet (CVS-12)


Receives fuel and ordnance from USS Sacramento (AOE-1), during replenishment operations in the South China Sea, June 1967.
Photographed by JOC R.D. Moeser.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 165KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1142142.

 
Photo #: KN-18093

Apollo 11 Moon Flight, July 1969


President Richard M. Nixon talks with the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., on the hangar deck of USS Hornet (CVS-12), in the Pacific Ocean, 24 July 1969. The astronauts are inside the mobile quarantine station that temporarily housed them after their return from the Moon.
Photographed by PHCS R.L. Lawson.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-KN-18093.
Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

 
Photo #: USN 1165636

Grumman E-1B "Tracer" aircraft


On the flight deck of USS Hornet (CVS-12), during Operation HUKASWEx. Photo is dated January 1970.
Plane closest to the camera is Bureau # 147227.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1165636.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 29 December 2000
Link added 8 October 2001