USS Hornet (CV-12) Museum

USA / California / Alameda / West Hornet Avenue, 707
 military, aircraft carrier, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, watercraft, historic landmark, United States Navy, museum ship, U.S. National Historic Landmark
Laid down on August 3rd, 1942 as the Essex Class Aircraft Carrier USS Kearsarge at the Newport News Shipyard, construction had barely progressed two months when the USS Hornet (CV-8) was lost to enemy attack in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. In keeping with established tradition the name of the fallen Carrier was passed to the next ship of the type on the ways, and in January 1943 the Kearsarge took on the illustrious name of her forebear. Commissioned into US Navy service in November 1943 as a member of the US Atlantic Fleet, the Hornet and her crews remained in Atlantic waters long enough to complete their shakedown cruise before departing for duty with the Pacific Fleet and action against the Empire of Japan.

Arriving in theater in March 1944, Hornet stood out of Pearl Harbor as a member of the Pacific Fleet’s Fast Carrier Task Force, an assignment which would result in Hornet seeing nearly constant action for the next 16 months. Getting her first combat experience in the waters off New Guinea and the Caroline Islands, Hornet then moved North and played a major role in the campaign to retake the Marianas Islands. Launching multiple strike waves against Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Rota and ranging Northward to strike at Iwo and Chichi Jima, Hornet’s crew were given no respite from the pace of air operations as their ship rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force and moved to intercept the Imperial Japanese Navy’s First Mobile Fleet. In the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea which joined on June 18th, Hornet’s pilots notched more than a fair share of inexperienced Japanese Carrier Aviators in what is now known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” before combat operations ended with the Japanese Navy in retreat. Moving to the Philippine Islands in late 1944, Hornet and her airwing supported the Invasion of Leyte and participated in the subsequent Battle of Leyte Gulf that all but destroyed what remained of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Remaining in Philippine waters supporting the myriad of operations taking place across the archipelago, Hornet ranged as far West as Formosa and Indochina through January 1945 before briefly coming off the front lines for much needed refits at Ulithi Atoll. Back at sea less than 30 days later and shaping a Northward course for Japan itself, Hornet’s airwing conducted air raids on Tokyo for several days before she moved to support the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa where ground forces were bogged down in intense fighting. Hornet’s last action against her Imperial Japanese Navy counterparts came on the morning of April 6th as her aircraft were pulled from their close-air-support missions over Okinawa to intercept a large Japanese Naval Strike Force centered around the SuperBattleship HIJMS Yamato that was closing in on the disputed island. Hornet’s airwing contributed several of the bombs and torpedoes that totally decimated the last of Japan’s once-mighty navy, allowing the Carrier to once again return to Japanese waters and launch strikes on mainland Japan through late May 1945.

The sudden arrival of a major typhoon in June 1945 succeeded in doing what the combined armed forces of Japan could not, and after being pounded by high seas and winds for over 24hrs Hornet was knocked out of action after her forward bow collapsed. Ordered back to the United States for a full overhaul in preparation for the planned Invasion of Mainland Japan, Hornet was still under refit when hostilities ceased but nonetheless returned to far Eastern waters to serve as a transport for US forces returning stateside. Decommissioned into reserve in January 1947, the Hornet remained in mothballs for the four years before being selected for reactivation and reconstruction as a modern jet-age Aircraft Carrier at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After receiving an SCB-27A overhaul which streamlined her Island and gave her electronics and aircraft handling capabilities upgrades, the Hornet formally recommissioned into the US Atlantic Fleet in September 1953 and operated briefly in Atlantic waters before she joining the US 7th Fleet. Operating once again in Western Pacific waters, Hornet’s crew found themselves back in combat as her airwing clashed with Communist Chinese forces off Hainan Island in 1955, notching a further two aircraft kills to the ships already impressive record. Overhauled once again from 1956-57, Hornet was upgraded to SCB-125 standard and received among other things a fully-enclosed and aptly-named “hurricane” bow, upgraded aircraft handling systems and most noticeably an angled flight deck. Rejoining the 7th Fleet in 1957, Hornet continued her operations as a frontline Attack Carrier until 1959 when she was given a new mission as an Anti-Submarine Warfare Carrier and traded her fighter jets for anti-submarine warfare aircraft and helicopters.

Still engaged with the US 7th Fleet following her overhaul, Hornet spent the next ten years hunting Soviet Submarines in Western Pacific waters, splitting her time between homeports at Pearl Harbor and Sasebo on her regular deployments. At the same time, America’s burgeoning space program began to require the deployment of Naval assets to recover space capsules and crewmen from their mid-ocean landing sites, providing Hornet and several of her still-operational sisters with new assignments that suited their capabilities and large helicopter airwing. In what could be arguably be her most famous duties, Hornet and her crew were assigned to be the primary recovery platform for the Apollo 11 manned lunar mission and on July 24th 1969 Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were safely taken aboard Hornet following their successful mission. Less than four months later Hornet was again in action with the Apollo program, recovering Astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr., Alan L. Bean, and Richard F. Gordon, Jr. from the Apollo 12 command module following their own mission to the Moon.

Hornet’s actions with the Apollo program proved to be the swan song of her long active service career and after completing her final deployment in the waters around Hawaii she reported to the Puget Sound Navy Yard where she decommissioned for the final time on June 26th, 1970, ending her Naval Career after 21 years of operations. Remaining in reserve at Bremerton for the next nineteen years, Hornet was eventually stricken from the Naval Register and in June 1989 placed on the list to be scrapped, however actions undertaken by historic preservation groups succeeded in having the Carrier declared National Historic Landmark # 91002065 in December 1991 which spared the ship from the breakers and allowed preservation efforts to begin. Formally donated by the US Navy to the Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation in May 1998, Hornet was towed from Bremerton to her present location at the former Alameda Naval Base where she began her new career as a museum ship and monument in 1999.

www.uss-hornet.org/
www.navsource.org/archives/02/12.htm
www.hnsa.org/ships/hornet.htm
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hornet_(CV-12)
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°46'21"N   122°18'10"W

Comments

  • She is in far better condition, especially the interior, than one would know. This especially so when compared to Intrepid, Yorktown and Lexington. Many of the ships systems are operational due to volunteers. I have restored her for 10 years now.
  • Hornet was involved in Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions... Neil Armstrong's first steps back on Earth were on the USS Hornet.
  • Recently used as a New Years Eve venue. Great parties on board. http://www.uss-hornet.org/calendar/newyear/
  • I vastly prefer walking around the Hornet than Midway. It looked and smelled like a red-blooded, God-fearing US Navy aircraft carrier rather than a sanitized museum ship, and smoking on the fantail while enjoying views of San Francisco was amazing.
This article was last modified 6 years ago