The Battle-Scarred Warship That Fought Imperial Japan & Retrieved Apollo 11 Astronauts

The USS Hornet

The USS Hornet sits quiet now in Alameda, but this old warship has stories that would make your jaw drop. From picking up Apollo astronauts to battles that changed World War II, she’s seen more action than most ships could handle.

Here’s the story of America’s most decorated floating museum.

Born From War’s Necessity

The Navy had planned to call her Kearsarge, but fate had other plans.

When the previous USS Hornet got torn apart by Japanese bombs and torpedoes at Santa Cruz in October 1942, they slapped the Hornet name on this new Essex-class carrier still taking shape at Newport News Shipbuilding.

They laid her keel on August 3, 1942, slid her into the water on August 30, 1943, and put her into service on November 29, 1943, making her the eighth ship to carry the Hornet name.

She was bigger and tougher than any carrier before her, part of the Essex class that would become America’s floating fist for decades.

The numbers tell the story: 27,000 tons, 872 feet long, 147 feet 6 inches wide, with a crew of over 3,400 sailors packed aboard.

Her first skipper, Miles Browning, rushed her through training in just two weeks, the shortest shakedown cruise in Navy history, before heading straight to war.

Pacific Thunder

By early 1944, barely broken in, Hornet jumped into the Pacific War with both feet as part of the Fast Carrier Task Force, the Navy’s sledgehammer against Japanese islands.

Her planes hammered Japanese bases across New Guinea, Palau, and Truk, softening them up for the Marines to take.

Her air group packed a mean punch with fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo planes that could reach out and touch someone hundreds of miles away.

With these flying killers, carriers like Hornet changed naval warfare forever, turning these ships from mere scout platforms into the baddest weapon on the sea.

Her first combat runs from March 29 to May 1, 1944, blasted Palau, Hollandia, and Truk in quick, brutal hits. Her deck crews worked like mad, launching planes at first light and catching them after sunset, day after day.

During one strike against Manila, her pilots sank three cargo ships and claimed to blow up 116 enemy planes, most caught helpless on the ground.

The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot

In June 1944, Hornet jumped into what they later called the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,” officially known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

The one-sided slaughter saw American pilots and gunners knock down Japanese planes by the hundreds in one of the most lopsided beatdowns in naval history.

This battle broke the back of Japanese naval air power for good. The combat-hardened pilots flying from Hornet’s deck proved that American carrier forces now owned the skies.

Hornet’s pilots shot down 72 enemy planes in a single day during this fight, a number that boggles the mind.

On June 19, 1944, her fighters tore into four huge waves of Japanese attacks. The enemy pilots were so green they didn’t stand a prayer. At 9:30 that morning, Hornet’s fighters claimed 45 kills while losing just two of their own birds.

Philippines and Beyond

Late 1944 saw Hornet join the Philippines Campaign, launching the first carrier strikes to help take back the islands from Japanese control.

Her planes ripped apart enemy defenses, hammered their ships, and covered the troops storming the beaches.

By 1945, her aircraft were hitting the Japanese home islands, the first American carrier planes over Tokyo since the Doolittle Raid years before.

Her air groups shot down 668 planes, wrecked another 742 on the ground, sank a carrier, a cruiser, 42 cargo ships and 10 destroyers, and even helped sink the monster Japanese battleship Yamato.

From January 3-22, 1945, her planes struck targets across the Philippines, Formosa, the China Sea, and the Ryukyus in a nonstop drumbeat of destruction. For 18 solid months, she never once touched land, staying at sea and in the fight without a break.

Her pilots stacked up ten “Ace in a Day” awards, the rare honor of shooting down five or more planes in just 24 hours.

Operation Magic Carpet

When the war ended in August 1945, Hornet switched from dealing death to bringing boys home.

She joined Operation Magic Carpet, the massive effort to haul American servicemen back to the States from overseas bases.

After 18 months of nonstop combat that earned her seven battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation, Hornet’s decks now carried happy troops heading home instead of warplanes heading to battle.

By January 15, 1947, her wartime job done, the Navy mothballed her at Naval Station San Diego, seemingly the end of a short but glorious run.

Cold War Resurrection

The Korean War changed everything. On March 20, 1951, the Navy pulled Hornet back into service as the Cold War heated up.

But instead of rushing to battle, she sailed to New York Naval Shipyard where they put her back in drydock on May 12 for a major SCB-27A upgrade program.

This massive overhaul beefed up her flight deck to handle heavier jet aircraft weighing up to 52,000 pounds, added stronger elevators, and installed more powerful catapults.

On October 1, 1952, she got a new name tag: attack aircraft carrier (CVA-12). The rebuilt Hornet came back to life on September 11, 1953, basically a new warship ready for the jet age.

Her new H8 slotted-tube catapults could throw jet planes off her deck at speeds that would have ripped the old gear to pieces.

Around the World

On May 11, 1954, Hornet left Norfolk on an ambitious eight-month trip around the globe, taking her through the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and finally to the Far East.

What started as a peaceful show-the-flag cruise turned tense on July 25 when Chinese Communist fighters shot down a Cathay Pacific Airways passenger plane near Hainan Island.

Hornet planes backed up fighters from USS Philippine Sea as they shot down two attacking Chinese jets while looking for survivors of the downed airliner.

After this brush with Cold War trouble, she sailed back to San Francisco, arriving December 12, 1954.

During this cruise, she helped boat people escape from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. She cruised waters from Japan to Taiwan, Okinawa, and across the Philippines, showing the flag.

The world cruise made her the first of the rebuilt Essex carriers to hit all the world’s hot spots in a single trip.

Angled Deck Upgrade

In January 1956, Hornet entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for another major facelift, this time under the SCB-125 program.

This upgrade gave her the angled flight deck that let planes take off and land at the same time, plus a new closed-in “hurricane bow” that helped her cut through rough seas.

Other new toys included a mirror landing system to help pilots land safely, Mark 7 arresting wires, and moving the flight control center to the back of the island.

These changes were vital for handling the faster, heavier jet planes that now ruled naval air power.

After the mods, her top speed dropped slightly to 30.3 knots, trading a bit of speed for better flying ops.

Submarine Hunter

By mid-1958, Hornet went through yet another change at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, this time switching from attack carrier to submarine hunter.

On June 27, they gave her a new job title: CVS-12.

This job change came from the growing Soviet sub threat during the Cold War. Hornet would now serve as a floating base for planes and choppers built to hunt and kill submarines rather than bomb land targets.

In this new role, she made regular trips with the 7th Fleet, patrolling waters from Japan to the Philippines to keep America on top in the western Pacific.

She now carried special sub-hunting air groups that included planes from VS-35 and VS-37 squadrons.

Her fancy new SQS-23 sonar gear could spot subs from miles away through the murky depths. She also got Helicopter ASW Squadron HS-2 and a special radar plane unit from VAW-111 to help find lurking enemy subs.

Vietnam War Service

Between 1965 and 1969, Hornet made three combat runs to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. Her first Vietnam trip ran from October 1965 to January 1966.

During this time, a Sea King helicopter from Hornet set a world record by flying 2,106 miles nonstop from San Diego to the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt off Florida without refueling, showing off how far naval aviation had come.

While in Vietnam waters, Hornet worked with Antisubmarine Warfare Groups Three and Five, with her aircraft hunting for subs rather than bombing jungle like many other carriers.

Her longest Vietnam stint came from fall 1968 to spring 1969, when she stayed in war waters for five straight months.

Unlike attack carriers that pounded the jungle, she stuck to her sub-hunting job, searching for North Vietnamese subs that might threaten the fleet. Her last combat job was her third tour to “Yankee Station,” the Navy’s name for the Gulf of Tonkin patrol zone.

Crisis Response Force

In April 1969, Hornet got sudden orders to race from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Sea of Japan after North Korean MiG fighters shot down a U.S. Navy EC-121 spy plane over international waters.

This quick change of plans showed her value as a fast-response platform that could rush to trouble spots on short notice.

Throughout the Cold War, carriers like Hornet served as America’s first line of defense, ready to show up and show force anywhere in the world within days.

The shoot-down happened on April 14, 1969, and Hornet was steaming at full throttle from Vietnam waters the very next day.

The brass sent her as a show of force, parking her off the North Korean coast with planes ready to fly if things got ugly.

Her last combat cruise ended May 13, 1969, just in time for her most famous job yet.

One Giant Leap

On July 24, 1969, Hornet pulled off perhaps her most famous mission, fishing the Apollo 11 astronauts from the Pacific after their historic first Moon landing.

Waiting 950 miles southwest of Hawaii, she was named the Primary Recovery Ship for the mission, with her crew using the slogan “Hornet Plus Three” for the job.

At 4:40 in the morning, lookouts spotted the fiery streak of the Columbia capsule hitting the atmosphere.

Navy swimmers from Hornet secured the bobbing spacecraft and helped pull out astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

President Richard Nixon stood on her deck to welcome the astronauts back to Earth, though they stayed in a special quarantine trailer on Hornet’s hangar deck.

The first Navy swimmer to reach the capsule was John Wolfram, who wore a special biosuit to avoid any possible space bugs.

Hornet did the same job again for Apollo 12 on November 24, 1969, recovering the second crew to walk on the moon.

Final Chapter

Despite her amazing service record, budget cuts and Hornet’s aging systems sealed her fate. On January 15, 1970, the Navy announced they were putting her out to pasture.

She was officially retired on June 26, 1970, after 27 years of service across three wars and the Space Race.

Marked for disposal on July 25, 1989, Hornet was first sold for scrap metal for just $188,000, a sad end for a ship that had shaped American history. But a group of history buffs stepped in and saved her from the cutting torch.

On May 26, 1998, she was given to the Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation and now lives on as the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California, a floating monument to American guts and know-how.

Today the museum sits at Pier 3 in Alameda, open Friday through Monday, 10am to 5pm, with tons of free parking for visitors.

The ship has 158,200 square feet of space to explore, with rows of cool warplanes on display.

The museum still holds special events like Apollo 11 Splashdown Day with NASA folks and the East Bay astronomy club showing up to celebrate.