USS Hornet (CV-12)

The Hornet in the Pacific Ocean in July 1969
History
United States
Name	Hornet
Namesake	Hornet[1]
Ordered	20 May 1940
Awarded	9 September 1940
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding
Laid down	3 August 1942
Launched	30 August 1943
Commissioned	29 November 1943
Decommissioned	15 January 1947
Renamed	From Kearsarge, October 1942
Identification	Hull number: CV-12
Recommissioned	11 September 1953
Decommissioned	26 June 1970
Reclassified	CVA-12, 1 October 1952 CVS-12, 27 June 1958
Stricken	25 July 1989
Honors and awards	See Awards
Status	Museum ship at the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	27,100 long tons (27,500 t) (standard) 36,380 long tons (36,960 t) (full load)
Length	820 feet (249.9 m) (wl) 872 feet (265.8 m) (o/a)
Beam	93 ft (28.3 m)
Draft	34 ft 2 in (10.41 m)
Installed power	8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 150,000 shp (110,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × geared steam turbines 4 × screw propellers
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Range	14,100 nmi (26,100 km; 16,200 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	2,600 officers and enlisted men
Armament	12 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns 32 × 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns 46 × 20 mm (0.8 in) AA guns
Armor	Waterline belt: 2.5–4 in (64–102 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) Hangar deck: 2.5 in (64 mm) Bulkheads: 4 in (102 mm)
Aircraft carried	36 × Grumman F4F Wildcat 36 × Douglas SBD Dauntless 18 × Grumman TBF Avenger

USS Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy (USN) during World War II. Completed in late 1943, the ship was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force (variously designated as Task Force 38 or 58) in the Pacific Ocean, the navy's primary offensive force during the Pacific War.

In early 1944, she participated in attacks on Japanese installations in New Guinea, Palau and Truk among others. Hornet then took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and most of the subsidiary operations, most notably the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June that was nicknamed the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" for the disproportionate losses inflicted upon the Japanese. The ship then participated in the Philippines Campaign in late 1944, and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign in the first half of 1945. She was badly damaged by a typhoon in June and had to return to the United States for repairs.

After the war she took part in Operation Magic Carpet, returning troops to the U.S. and was then placed in reserve in 1946. Hornet was reactivated during the Korean War of 1950–1953, but spent the rest of the war being modernized to allow her to operate jet-propelled aircraft. The ship was modernized again in the late 1950s for service as an anti-submarine carrier. She played a minor role in the Vietnam War during the 1960s and in the Apollo program, recovering the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts when they returned from the Moon.

Hornet was decommissioned in 1970. She was eventually designated as both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark, and she opened to the public as the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California, in 1998.