Construction and Commissioning
Essex was laid down on 28 April 1941 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. After the Pearl Harbor attack her building contract (along with the same for CV-10 and CV-12) was reworked. After an accelerated construction, she was launched on 31 July 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Artemus L. Gates, the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air. She was commissioned on 31 December 1942 with Captain Donald B. Duncan commanding.Service history
World War II
Essex — in TG 58.2 – now joined with TG 58.1 and TG 58.3 to constitute Task Force 58 (the "Fast Carrier Task Force"), to launch an attack against Truk (17–18 February) during which eight Japanese ships were sunk. En route to the Mariana Islands 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. Following her overhaul, Essex became the carrier for Air Group 15, the "Fabled Fifteen," commanded by the U.S. Navy's top ace of the war, David McCampbell. She then joined carriers Wasp and San Jacinto in TG 12.1 to strike Marcus Island (19–20 May) 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 support landings on Peleliu. On 2 October, she weathered a typhoon and four days later departed with Task Force 38 (TF 38) for the Ryukyus. (TF 38 was actually the same formation as TF 58, the nomenclature being changed to reflect the rotation of command staffs employed by the Navy for efficiency in executing multiple operations; this rotation allowed constant front-line deployment of the ships and their crews while providing operational planning time at better-equipped, rear-area base facilities for the command structure not currently afloat).
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 damage. A kamikaze hit the port edge of her flight deck landing among planes gassed for takeoff, causing extensive damage, killing 15, and wounding 44.
For 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 air power 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 – 28 May was employed primarily to support the conquest of Okinawa.
Korean War
On 1 December 1953, she started her final tour of the war, sailing in the East China Sea with what official U.S. Navy records describe as the "Peace Patrol". From November 1954 – June 1955, she engaged in training exercises, operated for three months with the United States Seventh Fleet, assisted in the Tachen Islands evacuation, and engaged in air operations and fleet maneuvers off Okinawa.
Pacific Fleet
In July 1955, Essex entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for repairs and extensive alterations. The SCB-125 modernization program included installation of an angled flight deck and an enclosed hurricane bow, as well as relocation of the aft elevator to the starboard deck edge. 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-month 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, Florida on 1 August.Atlantic and Mediterranean
Essex joined with the 2nd 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 Fréjus, France.
In the spring of 1960, she was converted into an ASW Support Carrier and was thereafter homeported at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Since that time she operated as the flagship of CarDiv 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 that took her through the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean. Ports of call included Karachi and the British Crown Colony of Aden. In November she joined the French navy in Operation "Jet Stream".
Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis
Later in 1961, Essex completed a "People to People" cruise to Northern Europe with ports of call in Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Greenock, Scotland. During the Hamburg visit over one million visitors toured Essex. During her departure, Essex almost ran aground in the shallow Elbe River. On her return voyage to CONUS, she ran into a severe North Atlantic storm (January 1962) and suffered major structural damage. In early 1962, she went into drydock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a major overhaul.
Essex had just finished her six-month long overhaul and was at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for sea trials when President John F. Kennedy placed a naval "quarantine" on Cuba in October 1962, in response to the discovered presence of Soviet missiles in that country (see Cuban Missile Crisis). (The word quarantine was used rather than blockade for reasons of international law—Kennedy reasoned that a blockade would be an act of war, and war had not been declared between the U.S. and Cuba.)[2] Essex spent over a month in the Caribbean as one of the US Navy ships enforcing this "quarantine", returning home just before Thanksgiving.
Nautilus incident
While conducting replenishment exercises with NATO forces in November 1966, Essex collided with the submerged submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571). The Nautilus sustained extensive sail damage, returning to port unassisted. Aboard Essex, the hull was opened and the ship's speed indicator equipment was destroyed, but the carrier was still able to make port unassisted. Essex subsequently reported to the Boston Naval Shipyard for extensive overhaul and hull repairs.Apollo missions
Essex was the prime recovery carrier for the Apollo 7 mission. She recovered the Apollo 7's crew on 22 October 1968 after a splashdown north of Puerto Rico.
Essex was the main vessel on which future Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong served during the Korean War.
Decommissioning and Disposal
Awards
- Presidential Unit Citation
- Navy Unit Commendation
- Meritorious Unit Citation
- Navy Expeditionary Medal (two awards)
- Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 13 battle stars
- World War II Victory Medal
- Navy Occupation Medal with "ASIA" clasp
- China Service Medal
- National Defense Service Medal with star (two awards)
- Korean Service Medal with four battle stars
- Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with two stars (three awards)
- Philippine Presidential Unit Citation
- Philippine Liberation Medal
- United Nations Service Medal
Notes
- Wyden (1979), pp.125–127, 130, 214, 240–241.
- Kennedy, Robert F. (1969)
References
- Kennedy, Robert F. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1969. ISBN 978-0-333-10312-8.
- Wyden, Peter. Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. ISBN 0-671-24006-4, ISBN 0-224-01754-3, ISBN 978-0-671-24006-6.
- Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7432-5631-5 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-7434-9232-4 (Pocket Books, 2006)
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