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(Images are of lead ship
of the class, USS Essex, CV-9.)
The fourth Ticonderoga (CV 14) was laid down as Hancock on 1
February 1943 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry
Dock Co.; renamed Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943, launched on 7 February 1944,
sponsored by Miss Stephanie Sarah Pell, and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy
Yard on 8 May 1944, Capt. Dixie Kiefer in command.
Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting and
embarking Air Group 89. On 26 June 1944, the carrier shaped a course for the
British West Indies. She conducted air operations and drills en route and
reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 30th. For the next 15 days,
Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew into an
efficient wartime team. She departed the West Indies on 16 July and headed back
to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22d. Eight days later, the carrier headed
for Panama. She transited the canal on 4 September and steamed up the coast to
San Diego the following day. On the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where
she loaded provisions, fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well
as the Marine Corps aviation and defense units that went with them. On the 19th
she sailed for Hawaii where she arrived five days later.
Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and
USS Carina (AK-74) conducted experiments in the underway transfer of
aviation bombs from cargo ship to aircraft carrier. Following those tests, she
conducted air operations — day and night landing and antiaircraft defense drills
— until 18 October 1944 when she exited Pearl Harbor and headed for the western
Pacific. After a brief stop at Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived
at Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines on the 29th. There she embarked Rear
Admiral A. W. Radford, Commander, Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force (TF)
38 as a unit of Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group (TG) 38.3.
The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November. She joined the
other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for the ground forces
capturing Leyte. She launched her first air strike on the morning of 5 November.
The planes of her air group spent the next two days pummeling enemy shipping
near Luzon and air installations on that island. Her planes bombed and strafed
the airfields at Zablan, Mandaluyong, and Pasig. They also joined those of other
carriers in sending the heavy cruiser Nachi to a watery resting place. In
addition, Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japanese aircraft shot down and
one destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.
Around 1600 on the 5th, the enemy retaliated by sending up a flock of planes
piloted by members of the suicide corps dubbed kamikaze, or "Divine
Wind," in honor of the typhoon that had destroyed a Chinese invasion fleet four
centuries previously. Two of the suicide planes succeeded in slipping through
the American combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire to crash into USS
Lexington (CV 16). Ticonderoga emerged from that airborne banzai
charge unscathed and claimed a tally of two splashes. On 6 November, the warship
launched two fighter sweeps and two bombing strikes against the Luzon airfields
and enemy shipping in the vicinity. Her airmen returned later that day claiming
the destruction of 35 Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy ships in Manila
Bay. After recovering her planes, the carrier retired to the east for a fueling
rendezvous.
She refueled and received replacement planes on 7 November and then headed
back to continue pounding enemy forces in the Philippines. Early on the morning
of 11 November 1944, her planes combined with others of TF 38 to attack a
Japanese reinforcement convoy, just as it was preparing to enter Ormoc Bay from
the Camotes Sea. Together, the planes accounted for all the enemy transports and
four of the seven escorting destroyers. On the 12th and 13th, Ticonderoga
and her sisters launched strikes at Luzon airfields and docks and shipping
around Manila. This raid tallied an impressive score: light cruiser Kiso,
four destroyers, and seven merchant ships. At the conclusion of the raid, TF 38
retired eastward for a refueling breather. Ticonderoga and the rest of TG 38.3, however, continued
east to Ulithi where they arrived on the 17th to replenish, refuel, and rearm.
On 22 November, the aircraft carrier departed Ulithi once more and steamed
back toward the Philippines. Three days later, she launched air strikes on
central Luzon and adjacent waters. Her pilots finished off the heavy cruiser
Kumano, damaged in the Battle off Samar. Later, they attacked an enemy
convoy about 15 miles southwest of Kumano's not-so-safe haven in Dasol
Bay. Of this convoy, cruiser Yasoshima, a merchantman, and three landing
ships went to the bottom. Ticonderoga's air group rounded out their day
of destruction with an aerial rampage which cost the Japanese 15 planes shot
down and 11 destroyed on the ground.
While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga's ship's
company also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo launched by an
enemy plane broached in USS Langley's (CVL 27) wake to announce the
approach of an air raid . Ticonderoga's gunners raced to their battle
stations as the raiders made both conventional and suicide attacks on the task
group. Her sister ship USS
Essex (CV 9) erupted in flames when one of the kamikazes crashed
into her. When a second suicide plane tried to finish off the stricken carrier,
Ticonderoga's gunners joined those firing from other ships in cutting his
approach abruptly short. That afternoon, while damage control parties dressed
Essex's wounds, Ticonderoga extended her hospitality to that
damaged carrier's homeless airmen as well as to USS
Intrepid (CV 11) pilots in similar straits. The following day, TF 38
retired to the east.
TF 38 stood out of Ulithi again on 11 December and headed for the
Philippines. Ticonderoga arrived at the launch point early in the
afternoon of the 13th and sent her planes aloft to blanket Japanese airbases on
Luzon while Army planes took care of those in the central Philippines. For three
days, Ticonderoga airmen and their comrades wreaked havoc with a storm of
destruction on enemy airfields. She withdrew on the 16th with the rest of TF 38
in search of a fueling rendezvous. While attem pting to find calmer waters in
which to refuel, TF 38 steamed directly through a violent, but unheralded,
typhoon. Though the storm cost Admiral Halsey's force three destroyers and over
800 lives Ticonderoga and the other carriers managed to ride it out with
a minimum of damage. Having survived the tempest's fury, Ticonderoga
returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve.
Repairs occasioned by the typhoon kept TF 38 in the anchorage almost until
the end of the month. The carriers did not return to sea until 30 December 1944
when they steamed north to hit Formosa and Luzon in preparation for the landings
on the latter island at Lingayen Gulf. Severe weather limited the Formosa
strikes on 3 and 4 January 1945 and, in all likelihood, obviated the need for
them. The warships fueled at sea on the 5th. Despite rough weather on the 6th,
the strikes on Luzon airfields were carried out. That day, Ticonderoga's
airmen and their colleagues of the other air groups increased their score by
another 32 enemy planes. January 7th brought more strikes on Luzon
installations. After a fueling rendezvous on the 8th, Ticonderoga sped north at
night to get into position to blanket Japanese airfields in the Ryukyus during
the Lingayen assault the following morning. However, foul weather, the bugaboo
of TF 38 during the winter of 1944 and 1945, forced TG 38.3 to abandon the
strikes on the Ryukyu airfields and join TG 38.2 in pounding Formosa.
On 15 January 1945, fighters swept Japanese airfields on the Chinese coast
while the flattops headed for a position from which to strike Hong Kong. The
following morning, they launched antishipping bom bing raids and fighter sweeps
of air installations. Weather prevented air operations on the 17th and again
made fueling difficult. It worsened the next day and stopped replenishment
operations altogether, so that they were not finally concluded until the 19th.
The force then shaped a course generally northward to retransit Luzon Strait via
Balintang Channel.
The three task groups of TF 38 completed their transit during the night of
20 and 21 January. The next morning, their planes hit airfields on Formosa, in
the Pescadores, and at Sakishima Gunto. The good flying weather brought mixed
blessings. While it allowed American flight operations to continue through the
day, it also brought new gusts of the "Divine Wind." Just after noon, a
single-engined Japanese plane scored a hit on USS Langley with a
glide-bombing attack. Seconds later, a kamikaze swooped out of the clouds
and plunged toward Ticonderoga. He crashed through her flight deck
abreast of the No. Two 5-inch mount, and his bomb exploded just above her hangar
deck. Several planes stowed nearby erupted into flames. Death and destruction
abounded, but the ship's company fought valiantly to save the threatened
carrier. Capt. Kiefer conned his ship smartly. First, he changed course to keep
the wind from fanning the blaze. Then, he ordered magazines and other
compartments flooded to prevent further explosions and to correct a 10-degree
starboard list. Finally, he instructed the damage control party to continue
flooding compartments on Ticonderoga's port side. That operation induced
a 10-degree port list which neatly dumped the fire overboard! Fire-fighters and
plane handlers completed the job by dousing the flames and jettisoning burning
aircraft.
Wounded denizens of the deep often attract predators. Ticonderoga was
no exception. The other kamikazes pounced on her like a school of sharks
in a feeding frenzy. Her antiaircraft gunners struck back with desperate, but
methodical, ferocity and quickly swatted three of her tormentors into the sea. A
fourth plane slipped through her barrage and smashed into the carrier's
starboard side near the island. His bomb set more planes on fire, riddled her
flight deck, and injured or killed another 100 sailors, including Capt. Kiefer.
Yet, Ticonderoga's crew refused to submit. Spared further attacks, they
brought her fires completely under control not long after 1400; and
Ticonderoga retired painfully.
The stricken carrier arrived at Ulithi on 24 January but remained there only
long enough to move her wounded to hospital ship USS Samaritan (AH 10),
to transfer her air group to USS Hancock (CV 19), and to embark
passengers bound for home. Ticonderoga cleared the lagoon on 28 January
and headed for the United States. The warship stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor en
route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard where she arrived on 15 February 1945.
mid-1945
Her repairs were completed on 20 April 1945, and she cleared Puget Sound the
following day for the Alameda Naval Air Station. After embarking passengers and
aircraft bound for Hawaii, the carrier headed for Pearl Harbor where she arrived
on 1 May. The next day, Air Group 87 came on board and, for the next week,
trained in preparation for the carrier's return to combat. Ticonderoga
stood out of Pearl Harbor and shaped a course for the western Pacific. En route
to Ulithi, she launched her planes for what amounted to training strikes on
Japanese-held Taroa in the Marshalls. On 22 May, the warship arrived in Ulithi
and rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force as an element of Rear Admiral Radford's
TG 58.4.
Two days after her arrival, Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi with TF
68 and headed north to spend the last weeks of the war in Japanese home waters.
Three days out, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Spruance, the 5th Fleet reverted
back to 3d Fleet , and TF 68 became TF 38 again for the duration. On 2 and 3
June 1945, Ticonderoga fighters struck at airfields on Kyushu in an
effort to neutralize the remnants of Japanese air power — particularly the
Kamikaze Corps — and to relieve the pressure on American forces at
Okinawa. During the following two days, Ticonderoga rode out her second
typhoon in less than six months and emerged relatively unscathed. She provided
combat air patrol cover for the 6 June refueling rendezvous, and four of her
fighter s intercepted and destroyed three Okinawa-bound kamikazes. That evening,
she steamed off at high speed with TG 38.4 to conduct a fighter sweep of
air-fields on southern Kyushu on the 8th. Ticonderoga's planes then
joined in the aerial bombardment of Minami Daito Shima and Kita Daito Shima
before the carrier headed for Leyte where she arrived on the 13th.
During the two-week rest and replenishment period she enjoyed at Leyte,
Ticonderoga changed task organizations from TG 38.4 to Rear Admiral
Gerald F. Bogan's TG 38.3. On 1 July, she departed Leyte with TF 38 and headed
north to resume raids on Japan. Two days later, a damaged reduction gear forced
her into Apra Harbor, Guam, for repairs. She remained there until the 19th when
she steamed off to rejoin TF 38 and resume her role in the war against Japan. On
24 July 1945, her planes joined those of other fast carriers in striking ships
in the Inland Sea and airfields at Nagoya, Osaka, and Miko. During those raids,
TF 38 planes found the sad remnants of the once-mighty Japanese Fleet and bagged
battleships Ise, Hyuga, and Haruna as well as an escort
carrier, Kaiyo, and two heavy cruisers. On 28 July, her aircraft directed
their efforts toward the Kure Naval Base, where they pounded an aircraft
carrier, three cruisers, a destroyer, and a submarine. She shifted her attention
to the industrial area of central Honshu on the 30th, then to northern Honshu
and Hokkaido on 9 and 10 August. The latter attacks thoroughly destroyed the
marshaling area for a planned airborne suicide raid on the B-29 bases in the
Marianas. On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned to the Tokyo area and helped
to subject the Japanese capital to another severe drubbing.
The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and
9th, respectively, convinced the Japanese of the futility of continued
resistance. On the morning of 16 August 1945, Ticonderoga launched another strike against Tokyo.
During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effect that Japan
had capitulated.
Post-war
The shock of peace, though not so abrupt as that of war almost four years
previously, took some getting used to. Ticonderoga and her sister ships
remained on a full war footing. She continued patrols over Japanese territory
and sent reconnaissance flights in search of camps containing Allied prisoners
of war so that air-dropped supplies could be rushed to them. On 6 September,
four days after the formal surrender ceremony on board USS
Missouri (BB-63), Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay.
Her arrival at Tokyo ended one phase of her career and began another. She
embarked homeward-bound passengers and put to sea again on the 20th. After a
stop in Pearl Harbor, the carrier reached Alameda, Calif., on 5 October. She
disembarked her passenge rs and unloaded cargo before heading out on the 9th to
pick up another group of veterans. Ticonderoga delivered over a thousand
soldiers and sailors to Tacoma, Wash., and remained there through the 28th for
the Navy Day celebration. On 29 October 1945, the carrier departed Tacoma and
headed back to Alameda. En route, all of the planes of Air Group 87 were
transferred ashore so that the carrier could be altered to accommodate
additional passengers in the "Magic-Carpet" voyages to follow. Following the
completion of those modifications at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in
November, the warship headed for the Philippines and arrived at Samar on 20
November. She returned to Alameda on 6 December and debarked almost 4,000
returning servicemen. The carrier made one more "Magic-Carpet" run in December
1945 and January 1946 before entering the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to prepare
for inactivation. Almost a year later on 9 January 1947, Ticonderoga was placed out of
commission and berthed with the Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
1950s
On 31 January 1952, Ticonderoga came out of reserve and went into
reduced commission for the transit from Bremerton to New York. She departed
Puget Sound on 27 February and reached New York on 1 April. Three days later,
she was decommissioned at the New York Naval Shipyard to begin an extensive
conversion. During the ensuing 29 months, the carrier received the numerous
modifications — steam catapults to launch jets, a new nylon barricade, a new
deck-edge elevator and the latest electronic and fire control
equipment-necessary for her to become an integral unit of the fleet. On 11
September 1954, Ticonderoga was recommissioned at New York, Capt. William
A. Schoech in command.
In January 1955, the carrier shifted to her new home port of Norfolk, Va.,
where she arrived on the 6th. Over the next month, she conducted carrier
qualifications with Air Group 6 in the Virginia Capes operating area. On 3
February, she stood out of Hampton Roads for shakedown near Cuba, after which
she returned via Norfolk to New York for additional alterations. During the late
summer, the warship resumed carrier qualifications in the Virginia capes area.
After a visit to Philadelphia early in September, she participated in tests of
three new planes — the A4D-1 Skyhawk, the F4D-1 Skyray, and the
F3H-2N Demon. Ticonderoga then returned to normal operations along
the east coast until 4 November when she departed Mayport, Fla., and headed for
Europe. She relieved USS
Intrepid (CV 11) at Gibraltar 10 days later and cruised the length of
the Mediterranean during the following eight months. On 2 August 1956,
Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk and entered the shipyard to receive an
angled flight deck and an enclosed hurricane bow.
Those modifications were completed by early 1957 and, in April, she got
underway for her new home port of Alameda, Calif. She reached her destination on
30 May, underwent repairs, and finished out the summer with operations off the
California coast. On 16 September, she stood out of San Francisco Bay and shaped
course for the Far East. En route, she stopped at Pearl Harbor before continuing
west to Yokosuka, Japan, where she arrived on 15 October. For six months,
Ticonderoga cruised Oriental waters from Japan in the north to the
Philippines in the south. Upon arriving at Alameda on 25 April 1958, she
completed her first deployment to the western Pacific since recommissioning.
Between 1958 and 1963, Ticonderoga made four more peacetime deployments to the
western Pacific. During each, she conducted training operations with other units
of the 7th Fleet and made goodwill and liberty port calls throughout the Far
East.
Vietnam
Early in 1964, she began preparations for her sixth
cruise to the western Pacific and, following exercises off the west coast and in
the Hawaiian Islands, the carrier cleared Pearl Harbor on 4 May for what began
as another peaceful tour of duty in the Far East. The first three months of that
deployment brought normal operations, training and port calls. However, on 2
August, while operating in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, USS
Maddox (DD-731) reported being attacked by units of the North Vietnamese
Navy. Within minutes of her receipt of the message, Ticonderoga
dispatched four, rocket-armed F8E Crusaders to the destroyer's
assistance. Upon arrival, the Crusaders launched Zuni rockets
and strafed the North Vietnamese craft with their 20-millimeter cannons. The
Ticonderoga airmen teamed up with Maddox gunners to thwart the
North Vietnamese attack, leaving one boat dead in the water and damaging the
other two.
Two days later, late in the evening of the 4th,
Ticonderoga received urgent requests from USS Turner Joy (DD-951), by then on
patrol with Maddox, for air support in resisting what the destroyer alleged to
be another torpedo boat foray. The carrier again launched planes to aid the
American surface ships, and Turner Joy directed them. The Navy surface and air
team believed it had sunk two boats and damaged another pair. President Johnson
responded with a reprisal to what he felt at the time to be two unprovoked
attacks on American seapower and ordered retaliatory air strikes on selected
North Vietnamese motor torpedo boat bases. On 5 August, Ticonderoga and USS
Constellation (CV-46) launched 60 sorties against four bases and their
supporting oil storage facilities. Those attacks reportedly resulted in the
destruction of 25 PT-type boats, severe damage to the bases, and almost complete
razing of the oil storage depot. For her quick reaction and successful combat
actions on those three occasions, Ticonderoga received the Navy Unit Commendation.
After a return visit to Japan in September, the
aircraft carrier resumed normal operations in the South China Sea until winding
up the deployment late in the year. She returned to the Naval Air Station, North
Island, Calif., on 15 December 1964. Follow ing post-deployment and holiday
stand-down, Ticonderoga moved to the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard on 27 January
1965 to begin a five-month overhaul. She completed repairs in June and spent the
summer operating along the coast of southern California. On 28 September, the
aircraft carrier put to sea for another deployment to the Orient. She spent some
time in the Hawaiian Islands for an operational readiness exercise then
continued on to the Far East. She reached "Dixie Station" on 5 November and
immediately began combat air operations.
Ticonderoga's winter deployment of 1965 and 1966 was her first total
combat tour of duty during American involvement in the Vietnam War. During her
six months in the Far East, the carrier spent a total of 116 days in air
operations off the coast of Vietnam dividing her time almost evenly between
"Dixie" and "Yankee Stations," the carrier operating areas off South and North
Vietnam, respectively. Her air group delivered over 8,000 tons of ordnance in
more than 10,000 combat sorties, with a loss of 16 planes, but only five pilots.
For the most part, her aircraft hit enemy installations in North Vietnam and
interdicted supply routes into South Vietnam, including river-borne and
coastwise junk and sampan traffic as well as roads, bridges, and trucks on land.
Specifically, they claimed the destruction of 35 bridges as well as numerous
warehouses, barracks, trucks, boats, and railroad cars and severe damage to a
major North Vietnamese thermal power plant located at Uong Bi north of Haiphong.
After a stop at Sasebo, Japan, from 25 April to 3 May 1966, the warship put to
sea to return to the United States. On 13 May, she pulled into port at San Diego
to end the deployment.
Following repairs she stood out of San Diego on 9 July to begin a normal
round of west coast training operations. Those and similar evolutions continued
until 15 October, when Ticonderoga departed San Diego, bound via Hawaii
for the western Pacific. The carrier reached Yokosuka, Japan, on 30 October and
remained there until 5 November when she headed south for an overnight stop at
Subic Bay in the Philippines on the 10th and 11th. On the 13th,
Ticonderoga arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin and began the first of three
combat tours during her 1966-67 deployment. She launched 11,650 combat sorties,
all against enemy targets located in North Vietnam. Again, her primary targets
were logistics and communications lines and transportation facilities. For their
overall efforts in the conduct of day and night strikes on enemy targets,
Ticonderoga and her air group earned their second Navy Unit Commendation.
She completed her final line period on 27 April 1967 and returned to Yokosuka,
from which she departed again on 19 May to return to the United States. Ten days
later, the carrier entered San Diego and began a month-long, post-deployment
stand-down. At the beginning of July, the warship shifted to Bremerton, Wash.,
where she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for two months of repairs. Upon
the completion of yard work, she departed Bremerton on 6 September and steamed
south to training operations off the coast of southern California.
On 28 December 1967, Ticonderoga sailed for her fourth combat
deployment to the waters off the Indochinese coast. She made Yokosuka on 17
January 1968 and after two days of upkeep continued on to the Gulf of Tonkin
where she arrived on station on the 26th and began combat operations. Between
January and July Ticonderoga was on the line off the coast of Vietnam for
five separate periods totaling 120 days of combat duty. During that time, her
air wing flew just over 13,000 combat sorties against North Vietnamese and Viet
Cong forces, most frequently in the continuing attempts to interdict the enemy
lines of supply. In mid-April, following: her second line period, she made a
port visit to Singapore and then, after upkeep at Subic Bay, retur ned to duty
off Vietnam. On 9 July, during her fifth and final line period, Lt. Comdr. J. B.
Nichols claimed Ticonderoga's first MiG kill. The carrier completed that
line period and entered Subic Bay for upkeep on 25 July.
On the 27th, she headed north to Yokosuka where she spent a week for upkeep
and briefings before heading back to the United States on 7 August.
Ticonderoga reached San Diego on the 17th and disembarked her air group.
On the 22d, she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for post-deployment
repairs. She completed those repairs on 21 October 1968, conducted sea trials on
the 28th and 29th, and began normal operations out of San Diego early in
November. For the remainder of the year, she conducted refre sher training and
carrier qualifications along the coast of southern California.
During the first month of 1969, Ticonderoga made preparations for her
fifth consecutive combat deployment to the southeast Asia area. On 1 February,
she cleared San Diego and headed west. After a brief stop at Pearl Harbor a week
later, she continued her voyage to Yokosuka where she arrived on the 20th. The
carrier departed Yokosuka on the 28th for the coast of Vietnam where she arrived
on 4 March. Over the next four months, Ticonderoga served four periods on
the line off Vietnam, interdi cting communist supply lines and making strikes
against their positions.
During her second line period, however, her tour of duty off Vietnam came to
an abrupt end on 16 April when she was shifted north to the Sea of Japan. North
Korean aircraft had shot down a Navy reconnaissance plane in the area, and
Ticonderoga was called upon to beef up the forces assigned to the
vicinity. However, the crisis abated, and Ticonderoga entered Subic Bay
on 27 April for upkeep. On 8 May 1969, she departed the Philippines to return to
"Yankee Station" and resumed interdiction operations. Between her third and
fourth line periods, the carrier visited Sasebo and Hong Kong.
The aircraft carrier took station off Vietnam for her last line period of
the deployment on 26 June and there followed 37 more days of highly successful
air sorties against enemy targets. Following that tour, she joined TF 71 in the
Sea of Japan for the remainder of the deployment. Ticonderoga concluded the deployment, a highly
successful one for she received her third Navy Unit Commendation for her
operations during that tour of duty, when she left Subic Bay on 4 September
1969.
1970s
Ticonderoga arrived in San Diego on 18 September. After almost a
month of post-deployment stand-down, she moved to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard
in mid-October to begin conversion to an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft
carrier. Overhaul and conversion work began on 20 October 1969, and
Ticonderoga was redesignated CVS-14 on the 21st. She completed overhaul
and conversion on 28 May 1970 and conducted exercises out of Long Beach for most
of June. On the 26th, the new ASW support carrier entered her new home port, San
Diego. During July and August, she conducted refresher training, refresher air
operations, and carrier landing qualifications. The warship operated off the
California coast for the remainder of the year and participated in two
exercises, HUKASWEX 4-70 late in October and COMPUTEX 23-70 between 30 November
and 3 December.
During the remainder of her active career, Ticonderoga made two more
deployments to the Far East. Because of her change in mission, neither tour of
duty included combat operations off Vietnam. Both, however, included training
exercises in the Sea of Japan with ships of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense
Force. The first of these two cruises also brought operations in the Indian
Ocean with units of the Thai Navy and a transit of Sunda Strait during which a
ceremony was held to commemorate the loss of USS Houston (CA-30) and
HMAS Perth in 1942.
In between these two last deployments, she operated in the eastern Pacific
and participated in the recovery of the Apollo 16 moon mission capsule
and astronauts near American Samoa during April of 1972. The second deployment
came in the summer of 1972, and, in addition to the training exercises in the
Sea of Japan, Ticonderoga also joined ASW training operations in the
South China Sea. That fall, she returned to the eastern Pacific and, in
November, practiced for the recovery of Apollo 17. The next month,
Ticonderoga recovered her second set of space voyagers near American
Samoa. The carrier then headed back to San Diego where she arrived on 28
December.
Ticonderoga remained active for nine more months, first operating out
of San Diego and then making preparations for inactivation. On 1 September 1973,
the aircraft carrier was decommissioned after a board of inspection and survey
found her to be unfit for further naval service. Her name was struck from the
Navy list on 16 November 1973. Ther ship was disposed of, sold by Defense
Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping 1 September 1975.
Ticonderoga received five
battle stars during World War II and three Navy Unit Commendations, one
Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12 battle stars during the Vietnam War.
Sources: Public domain Dictionary of
American Naval Fighting Ships
and pictures from my father's 1943 Naval
Recognition Manual
Comments? email me
(photos of
WW2 ships welcome).
Copyright 2008, by
Acepilots.com.
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