USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)

USS Ticonderoga refueling off the coast of Vietnam in 1966
History
United States
Name	Ticonderoga
Namesake	Battle of Ticonderoga
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding
Laid down	1 February 1943
Launched	7 February 1944
Commissioned	8 May 1944
Decommissioned	9 January 1947
Recommissioned	1 October 1954
Decommissioned	1 September 1973
Reclassified	CVA-14, 1 October 1952 CVS-14, 21 October 1969
Stricken	16 November 1973
Fate	Scrapped, 15 August 1974
General characteristics
Class and type	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	27,100 long tons (27,500 t) standard
Length	888 feet (271 m) overall
Beam	93 feet (28 m)
Draft	28 feet 7 inches (8.71 m)
Installed power	8 × boilers 150,000 shp (110 MW)
Propulsion	4 × geared steam turbines 4 × shafts
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement	3448 officers and enlisted
Armament	12 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns 32 × Bofors 40 mm guns 46 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
Armor	Belt: 4 in (102 mm) Hangar deck: 2.5 in (64 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) Conning tower: 1.5 inch
Aircraft carried	90–100 aircraft

USS Ticonderoga (CV/CVA/CVS-14) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named after the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in the American Revolutionary War. Ticonderoga was commissioned in May 1944, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning five battle stars. Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was recommissioned too late to participate in the Korean War, but was very active in the Vietnam War, earning three Navy Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12 battle stars.

Ticonderoga differed somewhat from the earlier Essex-class ships in that she was 16 ft (4.9 m) longer to accommodate bow-mounted anti-aircraft guns. Most subsequent Essex-class carriers were completed to this "long-hull" design and were referred to as the Ticonderoga class.^[1] At the end of her career, after a number of modifications, she was said to be in the Hancock class according to the Naval vessel register.^[2]

Ticonderoga was decommissioned in 1973 and sold for scrap in 1975.