USS WASP CV-18 Naval Cover 1993 Anniversary Cachet

Description: USS WASP CV-18 Naval Cover 1993 Anniversary CachetIt was sent 24 Nov 1993. It was franked with stamp "stationary".This cover is in very good, but not perfect condition. Please look at the scan and make your own judgement. Member USCS #10385 (I also earned the stamp collecting merit badge as a boy!). Please contact me if you have specific cover needs. I have thousands for sale, including; navals (USS, USNS, USCGC, Coast Guard, ship, Maritime), military posts, event, APO, hotel, postal history, memorabilia, etc. I also offer approvals service with FREE SHIPPING to repeat USA customers.USS Wasp (CV/CVA/CVS-18) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the ninth US Navy ship to bear the name, was originally named Oriskany, but was renamed while under construction in honor of the previous Wasp (CV-7), which was sunk 15 September 1942. Wasp was commissioned in November 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning eight battle stars. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she operated mainly in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean. She played a prominent role in the manned space program, serving as the recovery ship for five Project Gemini missions: Gemini IV, Gemini VI, Gemini VII, Gemini IX, and Gemini XII. She was retired in 1972, and sold for scrap in 1973. Construction and commissioningThe ship was laid down on 18 March 1942 at Quincy, Massachusetts, by the Bethlehem Steel Company, and renamed Wasp on 13 November 1942, shortly after the sinking of the previous Wasp. She was launched on 17 August 1943, sponsored by Miss Julia M. Walsh, the sister of Senator David I. Walsh of Massachusetts, and commissioned on 24 November 1943, with Captain Clifton A. F. Sprague in command.[1] Service historyWorld War II Wasp underway, 22 February 1944Following a shakedown cruise which lasted through the end of 1943, Wasp returned to Boston for a brief yard period to correct minor flaws which had been discovered during her time at sea. On 10 January 1944, the new aircraft carrier departed Boston, steamed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, and remained there until the last day of the month, when she sailed for Trinidad, her base of operations through 22 February. She returned to Boston five days later and prepared for service in the Pacific. Early in March, the ship sailed south, transited the Panama Canal, arrived at San Diego on 21 March, and reached Pearl Harbor on 4 April.[1] Following training exercises in Hawaiian waters, Wasp steamed to the Marshall Islands and at Majuro, Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's newly formed Task Group 58.6 (TG 58.6) of Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 58). On 14 May, she and her sister carriers of TG 58.6, Essex and the light aircraft carrier San Jacinto, sortied for raids on Marcus and Wake Islands to give the new task group combat experience, to test a recently devised system of assigning—before takeoff—each pilot a specific target, and to neutralize those islands for the forthcoming Marianas Campaign. As the force neared Marcus, it split, sending San Jacinto north to search for Japanese picket boats while Wasp and Essex launched strikes on 19 and 20 May, aimed at installations on the island. American planes encountered heavy antiaircraft fire but still managed to do enough damage to prevent Japanese forces on the island from interfering with the impending assault on Saipan.[1] When weather cancelled launches planned for 21 May, the two carriers rejoined San Jacinto and steamed to Wake. Planes from all three carriers pounded that island on 24 May and were sufficiently effective to neutralize that base. However, the system of selecting targets for each plane fell short of the Navy's expectations, and thereafter, tactical air commanders resumed responsibility for directing the attacks of their planes.[1] The Mariana and Palau IslandsMain article: Mariana and Palau Islands campaignAfter the strike on Wake, TG 58.6 returned to Majuro to prepare for the Marianas campaign. On 6 June, Wasp—reassigned to TG 58.2 which was also commanded by Rear Admiral Montgomery—sortied for the invasion of Saipan. During the afternoon of 11 June, she and her sister carriers launched fighters for strikes against Japanese air bases on Saipan and Tinian. They were challenged by some 30 land-based fighters, which they promptly shot down. Antiaircraft fire was heavy, but the American planes braved it as they went on to destroy many of the Japanese aircraft still on the ground.[1] During the next three days, the American fighters—now joined by bombers—pounded installations on Saipan to soften up Japanese defenses for American assault troops who would go ashore on 15 June. That day and thereafter until the morning of June, planes from TGs 58.2 and TG 58.3 provided close air support for Marines fighting on the Saipan beachhead.[1] The fast carriers of those task groups then turned over to escort carriers responsibility for providing air support for the American ground forces, refueled, and steamed to meet with TGs 58.1 and 58.4, which were returning from strikes against Chichi and Iwo Jima to prevent Japanese air bases on those islands from being used to launch attacks against American forces on or near Saipan.[1] Battle of the Philippine SeaMain article: Battle of the Philippine SeaMeanwhile, Japan—determined to defend Saipan, no matter how high the cost—was sending Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa's powerful First Mobile Fleet from the Sulu Islands to the Marianas to sink the warships of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's 5th Fleet and to annihilate the American troops who had fought their way ashore on Saipan. Soon after the Japanese task force sortied from Tawi Tawi on the morning of 13 June, American submarine Redfin spotted and reported it. Other submarines—which from time to time made contact with Ozawa's warships—kept Spruance posted on their progress as they wended their way through the islands of the Philippines, transited San Bernardino Strait, and took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.[1] All day on 18 June 1944, each force sent out scout planes in an effort to locate its adversary. Because of their greater range, the Japanese aircraft managed to obtain some knowledge of Spruance's ships, but American scout planes were unable to find Ozawa's force. Early the following morning, 19 June, aircraft from Mitscher's carriers headed for Guam to neutralize that island for the coming battle and in a series of dogfights, destroyed many Japanese land-based planes.[1] During the morning, carriers from Ozawa's fleet launched four massive raids against their American counterparts, but all were thwarted almost completely. Nearly all of the Japanese warplanes were shot down while failing to sink a single American ship. They did manage to score a single bomb hit on South Dakota, but that solitary success did not put the battleship out of action.[1] That day, Mitscher's planes did not find the Japanese ships, but American submarines succeeded in sending two enemy carriers (Taihō and Shōkaku) to the bottom. In the evening, three of Mitscher's four carrier task groups headed west in search of Ozawa's retiring fleet, leaving only TG 58.4 and a gun line of old battleships in the immediate vicinity of the Marianas to cover ground forces on Saipan. Planes from the American carriers failed to find the Japanese force until mid-afternoon on the 20th when an Avenger pilot reported spotting Ozawa almost 300 mi ( km) from the American carriers. Mitscher daringly ordered an all-out strike even though he knew that night would descend before his planes could return.[1] Over two hours later, the American aviators caught up with their quarry. They damaged two oilers so severely that they had to be scuttled; sank carrier Hiyō, and scored damaging but non-lethal hits on carriers Ryuho, Junyō, Zuikaku, and several other Japanese ships. However, during the sunset attack, the fuel gauges in many of the American planes registered half empty or more, presaging an anxious flight back to their now distant carriers.[1] When the carriers spotted the first returning plane at 2030 that night, Rear Admiral J. J. Clark defied the menace of Japanese submarines by ordering all lights to be turned on to guide the weary fliers home.[1] After a plane from Hornet landed on Lexington, Mitscher gave pilots permission to land on any available deck. Despite these unusual efforts to help the Navy's airmen, a good many planes ran out of fuel before they reached the carriers and dropped into the water.[1] When fuel calculations indicated that no aircraft which had not returned could still be aloft, Mitscher ordered the carriers to reverse course and resume the stern chase of Ozawa's surviving ships—more in the hope of finding any downed fliers who might still be alive and pulling them from the sea than in the expectation of overtaking Japan's First Mobile Fleet before it reached the protection of the Emperor's land-based planes. During the chase, Mitscher's ships picked up 36 pilots and 26 crewmen.[1] At midmorning of 21 June, Admiral Spruance detached Wasp and Bunker Hill from their task group and sent them with Admiral Lee's battleships in Ozawa's wake to locate and destroy any crippled enemy ships. The ensuing two-day hunt failed to flush out any game, so this ad hoc force headed toward Eniwetok for replenishment and well-earned rest.[1] Subsequent operationsThe respite was brief, for on 30 June, Wasp sortied in TG 58.2—with TG 58.1—for strikes at Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima. Planes from the carriers pounded those islands on 3–4 July and, during the raids, destroyed 75 enemy aircraft, for the most part in the air. Then, as a grand finale, cruisers from the force's screen shelled Iwo Jima for two and one-half hours. The next day, 5 July, the two task groups returned to the Marianas and attacked Guam and Rota to begin more than a fortnight's effort to soften the Japanese defenses there in preparation for landings on Guam. Planes from Wasp and her sister carriers provided close air support for the marines and soldiers who stormed ashore on 21 July.[1] The next day, TG 58.2 sortied with two other groups of Mitscher's carriers headed southwest toward the Western Carolines, and launched raids against the Palaus on the 25th. The force then parted, with TGs 58.1 and 58.3 steaming back north for further raids to keep the Bonin and Volcano Islands neutralized while Wasp in TG 58.2 was retiring toward the Marshalls for replenishment at Eniwetok which she reached on 2 August.[1] Toward the end of Wasp's stay at that base, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Spruance on 26 August and the 5th Fleet became the 3rd Fleet. Two days later, the Fast Carrier Task Force—redesignated TF 38—sortied for the Palaus. On 6 September, Wasp, now assigned to Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Sr.'s TG 38.1, began three days of raids on the Palaus. On 9 September, she headed for the southern Philippines to neutralize air power there during the American conquest of Morotai, Peleliu, and Ulithi—three islands needed as advanced bases during the impending campaign to liberate the Philippines. Planes from these carriers encountered little resistance as they lashed Mindanao airfields that day and on 10 September. Raids against the Visayan Islands on 12 and 13 September were carried out with impunity and were equally successful. Learning of the lack of Japanese air defenses in the southern Philippines enabled Allied strategists to cancel an invasion of Mindanao which had been scheduled to begin on 16 November. Instead, Allied forces could go straight to Leyte and advance the recapture of Philippine soil by almost a month.[1] D-day in the Palaus, 15 September, found Wasp and TG 38.1 some 50 mi (80 km) off Morotai, launching air strikes. It then returned to the Philippines for revisits to Mindanao and the Visayas before retiring to the Admiralties on 29 September for replenishment at Manus in preparation for the liberation of the Philippines.[1] Philippines campaignMain article: Philippines campaign (1944–1945)Ready to resume battle, she got underway again on 4 October and steamed to the Philippine Sea, where TF 38 reassembled at twilight on the evening of 7 October, some 375 mi (604 km) west of the Marianas. Its mission was to neutralize airbases within operational air distance of the Philippines to keep Japanese warplanes out of the air during the American landings on Leyte scheduled to begin on 20 October. The carriers steamed north to meet with a group of nine oilers, and spent the next day, 8 October, refueling. They then followed a generally northwesterly course toward the Ryūkyūs until 10 October, when their planes raided Okinawa, Amami, and Miyaki. That day, TF 38 planes destroyed a Japanese submarine tender, 12 sampans, and over 100 planes. But for Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle's Tokyo raid from Hornet (CV-8) on 18 April 1942 and the daring war patrols of Pacific Fleet submarines, this carrier foray was the United States Navy's closest approach to the Japanese home islands up to that point in the war.[1] Beginning on 12 October, Formosa received three days of unwelcome attention from TF 38 planes. In response, the Japanese Navy made an all-out effort to protect that strategic island, though doing so meant denuding its remaining carriers of aircraft. Yet, the attempt to thwart the ever-advancing American Pacific Fleet was futile. At the end of a three-day air battle, Japan had lost more than 500 planes and 20-odd freighters. Many other merchant ships were damaged as were hangars, barracks, warehouses, industrial plants, and ammunition dumps. However, the victory was costly to the United States Navy, for TF 38 lost 79 planes and 64 pilots and air crewmen, while cruisers Canberra and Houston and carrier Franklin received damaging, but nonlethal, torpedo and bomb hits.[1] From Formosa, TF 38 shifted its attention to the Philippines. After steaming to waters east of Luzon, TG 58.1 began to launch strikes against that island on the 18th and continued the attack the following day, hitting Manila for the first time since it was occupied by the Japanese early in the war.[1] On 20 October, the day the first American troops waded ashore on Leyte, Wasp had moved south to the station off that island whence she and her sister carriers launched some planes for close air support missions to assist MacArthur's soldiers, while sending other aircraft to destroy airfields on Mindanao, Cebu, Negros, Panay, and Leyte. TG 38.1 refueled the following day and, on 22 October, set a course for Ulithi to rearm and provision.[1] Battle of Leyte GulfMain article: Battle of Leyte GulfWhile McCain's carriers were steaming away from the Philippines, great events were taking place in the waters of that archipelago. Admiral Soemu Toyoda, the commander in chief of Japan's Combined Fleet, activated plan Sho-Go-1, a scheme for bringing about a decisive naval action off Leyte, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.[1] The Japanese strategy called for Ozawa's carriers to act as a decoy to lure TF 38 north of Luzon and away from the Leyte beachhead. Then—with the American fast carriers out of the way—heavy Japanese surface ships were to debouch into Leyte Gulf from two directions: from the south through Surigao Strait and from the north through San Bernardino Strait. During much of 24 October, planes from Halsey's carrier task groups still in Philippine waters pounded Admiral Kurita's powerful Force "A", or Center Force, as it steamed across the Sibuyan Sea toward San Bernardino Strait. When darkness stopped their attack, the American aircraft had sunk superbattleship Musashi and had damaged several other Japanese warships. Moreover, Halsey's pilots reported that Kurita's force had reversed course and was moving away from San Bernardino Strait.[1] That night, Admiral Nishimura's Force "C", or Southern Force, attempted to transit Surigao Strait, but met a line of old battleships commanded by Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. The venerable American men-of-war crossed Nishimura's "T" and all but annihilated his force. Admiral Shima—who was following in Nishimura's wake to lend support—realized that disaster had struck and wisely withdrew.[1] Meanwhile, late in the afternoon of 24 October—after Kurita's Center Force had turned away from San Bernardino Strait in apparent retreat—Halsey's scout planes finally located Ozawa's carriers less than 200 mi (320 km) north of TF 38. This intelligence prompted Halsey to head north toward Ozawa with his Fast Carrier Task Force. However, at this point, he did not recall McCain's TG 58.1, but allowed it to continue steaming toward Ulithi.[1] After dark, Kurita's Center Force again reversed course and once more headed for San Bernardino Strait. About 30 minutes past midnight, it transited that narrow passage; turned to starboard; and steamed south, down the east coast of Samar. Since Halsey had dashed north in pursuit of Ozawa's carriers, only three 7th Fleet escort carrier groups and their destroyer and destroyer escort screens were available to challenge Kurita's mighty battleships and heavy cruisers and to protect the American amphibious ships which were supporting the troops fighting on Leyte.[1] Remembered[1] by their call names, "Taffy 1", "Taffy 2", and "Taffy 3", these three American escort-carrier groups were deployed along Samar's east coast with Taffy 3 in the northernmost position, about 40 mi ( km) off Paninihian Point. Taffy 2 was covering Leyte Gulf, and "Taffy 1" was still farther south watching Surigao Strait.[1] At 0645, lookouts on Taffy 3 ships spotted bursts of antiaircraft fire blossoming in the northern sky, as Center Force gunners opened fire on an American antisubmarine patrol plane. Moments later, Taffy 3 made both radar and visual contact with the approaching Japanese warships. Shortly before 0700, Kurita's guns opened fire on the hapless "baby flattops" and their comparatively tiny but incredibly courageous escorts. For more than two hours, Taffy 3's ships and planes—aided by aircraft from sister escort-carrier groups to the south—fought back with torpedoes, guns, bombs, and consummate seamanship. Then, at 0311, Kurita—shaken by the loss of three heavy cruisers and thinking that he had been fighting TF 38—ordered his remaining warships to break off the action.[1] Meanwhile, at 0848, Admiral Halsey had radioed McCain's TG 58.1—then refueling en route to Ulithi—calling that carrier group back to Philippine waters to help Taffy 3 in its fight for survival. Wasp and her consorts raced toward Samar at flank speed until 1030 when they began launching planes for strikes at Kurita's ships which were still some 330 miles away. While these raids did little damage to the Japanese Center Force, they did strengthen Kurita's decision to retire from Leyte.[1] While his planes were in the air, McCain's carriers continued to speed westward to lessen the distance of his pilots' return flight and to be in optimum position at dawn to launch more warplanes at the fleeing enemy force. With the first light of 26 October, TG 38.1 and Rear Admiral Bogan's TG 38.2—which finally had been sent south by Halsey—launched the first of their strikes that day against Kurita. The second left the carriers a little over two hours later. These fliers sank light cruiser Noshiro and damaged, but did not sink, heavy cruiser Kumano. The two task groups launched a third strike in the early afternoon, but it did not add to their score.[1] Later operations Wasp at Ulithi atoll on 8 December 1944Following the Battle of Leyte Gulf, TG 38.1 operated in the Philippines for two more days, providing close air support before again heading for Ulithi on 28 October. However, the respite—during which Rear Admiral Montgomery took command of TG 38.1 when McCain fleeted up to relieve Mitscher as TF 38—was brief; Japanese land-based planes attacked troops on the Leyte beachhead on 1 November. Wasp participated in raids against Luzon air bases on 5 and 6 October, destroying over 400 Japanese aircraft, for the most part on the ground. A kamikaze hit Lexington during the operation. Afterwards, Wasp returned to Guam to exchange air groups.[1] Wasp returned to the Philippines a little before midmonth and continued to send strikes against targets in the Philippines until 26 October when the Army Air Forces assumed responsibility for providing air support for troops on Leyte. TF 38 then retired to Ulithi. There, the carriers received greater complements of fighter planes, and in late November and early December, conducted training exercises to prepare them better to deal with the new kamikaze threat.[1] TF 38 sortied from Ulithi on 10 and 11 December and proceeded to a position east of Luzon for round-the-clock strikes against air bases on that island from 14 through 16 December to prevent Japanese fighter planes from endangering landings on the southwest coast of Mindoro scheduled for 15 December. Then, while withdrawing to a fueling rendezvous point east of the Philippines, TF 38 was caught in a terribly destructive typhoon which battered its ships and sank three American destroyers. The carriers spent most of the ensuing week repairing storm damage and returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve.[1] The accelerating tempo of the war, though, ruled out long repose in the shelter of the lagoon. Before the year ended, the carriers were back in action against airfields in the Philippines on Sakishima Gunto, and on Okinawa. These raids were intended to smooth the way for General MacArthur's invasion of Luzon through Lingayen Gulf. While the carrier planes were unable to knock out all Japanese air resistance to the Luzon landings, they did succeed in destroying many enemy planes, and thus reduced the air threat to manageable proportions.[1] USS Wasp on 6 August 1945On the night after the initial landings on Luzon, 9 January 1945, Halsey took TF 38 into the South China Sea for a week's rampage in which his ships and planes took a heavy toll of Japanese shipping and aircraft before they retransited Luzon Strait on 16 January 1945 and returned to the Philippine Sea. Bad weather prevented Halsey's planes from going aloft for the next few days; but on 21 January 1945, they bombed Formosa, the Pescadores, and the Sakishimas. The following day, the aircraft returned to the Sakishimas and the Ryūkyūs for more bombing and reconnaissance. The overworked Fast Carrier Task Force then headed for Ulithi and entered that lagoon on 26th.[1][2] While the flattops were catching their breath at Ulithi, Admiral Spruance relieved Halsey in command of the fleet, which was thereby transformed on 3–5th. The metamorphosis also entailed Mitscher's replacing McCain and Clark's resuming command of TG 58.1—still Wasp's task group.[1] Battle of Iwo JimaMain article: Battle of Iwo JimaThe next major operation dictated by Allied strategy was the capture of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. Iwo was needed as a base for fighter planes to escort B-29 Superfortress bombers from the Marianas attacking the Japanese home islands, and as an emergency landing point for crippled planes. TF 58 sortied on 10 February, held rehearsals at Tinian, and then headed for Japan.[1] Fighter planes took off from the carriers before dawn on 16 February to clear the skies of Japanese aircraft. They succeeded in this mission, but Wasp lost several of her fighters during the sweep. Bombing sorties, directed primarily at aircraft factories in Tokyo, followed, but clouds hid many of these plants, forcing some planes to drop their bombs on secondary targets. Bad weather, which also hampered Mitscher's fliers during raids the next morning, prompted him to cancel strikes scheduled for the afternoon and head the task force west.[1] During the night, Mitscher turned the carriers toward the Volcano Islands to be on hand to provide air support for the Marines who would land on beaches of Iwo Jima on the morning of 19 February. For the next few days, planes from the American carriers continued to assist the Marines who were engaged in a bloody struggle to wrest the island from its fanatical defenders. On 23 February, Mitscher led his carriers back to Japan for more raids on Tokyo. Planes took off on the morning of 25 February, but when they reached Tokyo, they again found their targets obscured by clouds. Moreover, visibility was so bad the next day that raids on Nagoya were called off, and the carriers steamed south toward the Ryūkyūs to bomb and reconnoiter Okinawa, the next prize to be taken from the Japanese Empire. Planes left the carriers at dawn on 1 March, and throughout the day, they hammered and photographed the islands of the Ryūkyū group. Then, after a night bombardment by surface ships, TF 58 set a course for the Carolines and anchored in Ulithi lagoon on 4 March.[1] Wasp showing August 1945 typhoon damageDamaged as she was, Wasp recorded—from 17 to 23 March—what was often referred to as the busiest week in flattop history.[1] In these seven days, Wasp accounted for 14 enemy planes in the air, destroyed six more on the ground, scored two 500 lb (230 kg) bomb hits on each of two Japanese carriers, dropped two 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs on a Japanese battleship, put one 1,000 lb bomb on another battleship, hit a heavy cruiser with three 500 lb missiles, dropped another 1,000 lb bomb on a big cargo ship, and heavily strafed "and probably sank" a large Japanese submarine. During this week, Wasp was under almost continuous attack by shore-based aircraft, and experienced several close kamikaze attacks. The carrier's gunners fired more than 10,000 rounds at the determined Japanese attackers.[1] In spite of valiant efforts of her gunners, on 19 March 1945, Wasp was hit with a 500-pound armor-piercing bomb. The bomb penetrated the flight deck and the armor-plated hangar deck, and exploded in the crew's galley. Many of her shipmates were having breakfast after being at general quarters all night. The blast disabled the number-four fire room. Around 102 crewmen were lost. Despite the losses, Wasp continued operations with the Task Group and the air group was carrying out flight operations 27 minutes after the damage.[3][4] End of the warOn 13 April 1945, Wasp returned to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, and had the damage caused by the bomb hit repaired. Once whole again, she steamed to Hawaii, and after a brief sojourn at Pearl Harbor, headed toward the western Pacific on 12 July 1945. Wasp conducted a strike at Wake Island and paused briefly at Eniwetok before rejoining the rampaging Fast Carrier Task Force. In a series of strikes, unique in the almost complete absence of enemy airborne planes, Wasp pilots struck Yokosuka Naval Base near Tokyo, numerous airfields, and hidden manufacturing centers. On 9 August, a kamikaze plane swooped down at the carrier, but an alert gunner, who was cleaning his gun at the time, started shooting at the airplane. He shot straight through the windshield and killed the pilot, but the plane kept on coming. Next, he shot off a wing of the airplane, causing it to veer off to the side, missing the ship. Then, on 15 August, when the fighting should have been over, two Japanese planes tried to attack Wasp's task group. Fortunately, Wasp pilots were still flying on combat air patrol and sent both enemies smoking into the sea. This was the last time Wasp pilots and gunners were to tangle with the Japanese. On 25 August 1945, a severe typhoon, with winds reaching 78 kn (140 km/h), engulfed Wasp and stove in about 30 ft (9 m) of her bow. The carrier, despite the hazardous job of flying from such a shortened deck, continued to launch her planes on missions of mercy or patrol as they carried food, medicine, and long-deserved luxuries to American prisoners of war at Narumi, near Nagoya. The ship returned to Boston for Navy Day, 27 October 1945. On 30 October, Wasp moved to the naval shipyard in New York, to have extra accommodations installed for transportation of troops returning from the Pacific. This work was completed on 15 November and enabled her to accommodate some 5,500 enlisted passengers and 400 officers. Post-war1947–1955 Wasp during her 1954 WESTPAC deployment, following her SCB-27 conversionAfter receiving the new alterations, Wasp was assigned temporary duty as an Operation Magic Carpet troop transport, bringing Italian POWs back to Italy.[citation needed] On 17 February 1946, Wasp ran aground off the coast of New Jersey.[5] On 17 February 1947, she was placed out of commission in reserve, attached to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. In the summer of 1948, Wasp was taken out of the reserve fleet and placed in the New York Naval Shipyard for refitting and alterations to enable her to accommodate the larger, heavier, and faster planes of the jet age. Upon the completion of this conversion, the ship was recommissioned on 10 September 1951. Wasp reported to the Atlantic Fleet in November 1951 and began a period of shakedown training which lasted until February 1952. After returning from the shakedown cruise, she spent a month in the New York Naval Shipyard preparing for duty in distant waters. On 26 April 1952, Wasp collided with destroyer minesweeper Hobson while conducting night flying operations en route to Gibraltar. Hobson lost 176 of the crew, including her skipper. Rapid rescue operations saved 52 men. Wasp sustained no personnel casualties, but her bow was torn by a 75-foot saw-tooth rip. The carrier proceeded to Bayonne, New Jersey, for repairs, and after she entered drydock there, the bow of aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-12)—then undergoing conversion—was removed and floated by barge from Brooklyn, New York, and fitted into position on Wasp, replacing the badly shattered forward end of the ship. This remarkable task was completed in only 10 days, enabling the carrier to get underway to cross the Atlantic. On 2 June 1952, Wasp relieved Tarawa at Gibraltar and joined Carrier Division 6 in the Mediterranean Sea. After conducting strenuous flight operations between goodwill visits to many Mediterranean ports, Wasp was relieved at Gibraltar on 5 September by Leyte. After taking part in the NATO Exercise Mainbrace at Greenock, Scotland, and enjoying a liberty period at Plymouth, Wasp headed home and arrived at Norfolk early on the morning of 13 October 1952. On 7 November 1952, Wasp entered the New York Naval Shipyard to commence a seven-month yard period to prepare her for a world cruise which was to bring her into the Pacific Fleet once more. After refresher training in the Caribbean, Wasp departed Norfolk on 16 September 1953 to participate in the North Atlantic NATO Exercise "Mariner" before entering the Mediterranean.[1] After transiting the Suez Canal and crossing the Indian Ocean, making port in Columbo, Ceylon, the carrier made a brief visit to the Philippines and onto Japan and then conducted strenuous operations with the famed TF 77. While operating in the western Pacific, she made port calls at Hong Kong, Manila, Yokosuka, and Sasebo.[1] On 10 January 1954, China's Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek spent more than four hours on board Wasp watching simulated air war maneuvers in Formosan waters. On 12 March, President Ramon Magsaysay of the Republic of the Philippines came on board to observe air operations as a guest of American Ambassador Raymond A. Spruance. Wasp operated out of Subic Bay, Philippines, for a time, then sailed for Japan, where in April 1954, she was relieved by Boxer and sailed for her new home port of San Diego. Wasp spent the next few months preparing for another tour of the Orient. She departed the United States in September 1954 and steamed to the Far East, visiting Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima en route. She relieved Boxer in October 1954 and engaged in air operations in the South China Sea with Carrier Task Group 70.2. Wasp visited the Philippine Islands in November and December and proceeded to Japan early in 1955 to join TF77. While operating with TF77, Wasp provided air cover for the evacuation of the Tachen Islands by the Chinese Nationalists. During this evacuation on 9 February 1955, an AD-5W USN/VC-11 strayed over ROC territory and was shot down. While flying an antisubmarine patrol mission from Wasp (CVA 18), this aircraft ditched after sustaining damage from antiaircraft fire when it overflew Chinese territory. The three-man crew was rescued by Nationalist Chinese patrol boats. After the Tachen evacuation, Wasp stopped at Japan before returning to San Diego in April. She entered the San Francisco Naval Shipyard in May for a seven-month conversion and overhaul. On 1 December, the carrier returned to duty displaying a new angled flight deck and a hurricane bow. As 1955 ended, Wasp had returned to San Diego and was busily preparing for another Far Eastern tour. 1956–1960 Wasp during a stopover on her Mediterranean cruise in 1958After training during the early months of 1956, Wasp departed San Diego on 23 April for another cruise to the Far East with Carrier Air Group 15 embarked. She stopped at Pearl Harbor to undergo inspection and training, and then proceeded to Guam, where she arrived in time for the Armed Forces Day ceremonies on 14 May. En route to Japan in May, she joined TF 77 for Operation Sea Horse, a five-day period of day and night training for the ship and air group. The ship arrived at Yokosuka on 4 June, visited Iwakuni, Japan, then steamed to Manila for a brief visit. Following a drydock period at Yokosuka, Wasp again steamed south to Cubi Point, Philippine Islands, for the commissioning of the new naval air station there. Carrier Air Group 15 provided an air show for President Magsaysay and Admiral Arthur Radford. During the third week of August, Wasp was at Yokosuka enjoying what was scheduled to be a fortnight's stay, but she sailed a week early to aid other ships in searching for survivors of a Navy patrol plane which had been shot down on 23 August off the coast of mainland China. After a futile search, the ship proceeded to Kobe, Japan, and made a final stop at Yokosuka before leaving the Far East. Wasp returned to San Diego on 15 October and while there was reclassified an antisubmarine warfare aircraft carrier CVS-18, effective on 1 November 1956. She spent the last days of 1956 in San Diego preparing for her transfer to the east coast. Wasp left San Diego on the last day of January 1957, rounded Cape Horn for operations in the South Atlantic and Caribbean Sea, then proceeded to Boston, where she arrived on 21 March. The carrier came into Norfolk, Virginia, on 6 April to embark members of her crew from the Antisubmarine Warfare School. The carrier spent the next few months in tactics along the Eastern Seaboard and in the waters off Bermuda before returning to Boston on 16 August. On 3 September, Wasp got underway to participate in NATO Operations Seaspray and Strikeback, which took her to the coast of Scotland and simulated nuclear attacks and counterattacks on 130 different land bases. The carrier returned to Boston on 23 October 1957 and entered the Boston Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul, which was not completed until 10 March 1958 when she sailed for antisubmarine warfare practice at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Upon returning to Boston on 29 April and picking up air squadrons at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, on 12 May, she became the hub of TF 66, a special antisubmarine group of the 6th Fleet. Wasp at Boston Naval Shipyard, April 1960The carrier began her Atlantic crossing on 12 May and sailed only a few hundred miles when trouble flared in Lebanon. Wasp arrived at Gibraltar on 21 May and headed east, making stops at Souda Bay, Crete, Rhodes, and Athens. Wasp next spent 10 days at sea conducting a joint Italian-American antisubmarine warfare exercise in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Sardinia. On 15 July, the carrier put to sea to patrol waters off Lebanon. Her Marine helicopter transport squadron left the ship five days later to set up camp at the Beirut International Airport. They flew reconnaissance missions and transported the sick and injured from Marine battalions in the hills to the evacuation hospital at the airport. She continued to support forces ashore in Lebanon until 17 September 1958, when she departed Beirut Harbor, bound for home. She reached Norfolk on 7 October, unloaded supplies, and then made a brief stop at Quonset Point before arriving in her home port of Boston on 11 October. Four days later, Wasp became the flagship of Task Group Bravo, one of two new antisubmarine defense groups formed by the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet. Wasp's air squadrons and seven destroyers were supported by shore-based seaplane patrol aircraft. She sailed from Quonset Point on 26 November for a 17-day cruise in the North Atlantic. This at-sea period marked the first time her force operated together as a team. The operations continued day and night to coordinate and develop the task group's team capabilities until she returned to Boston on 13 December 1958 and remained over the Christmas holiday season. Wasp operated with Task Group Bravo throughout 1959, cruising along the Eastern Seaboard conducting operations at Norfolk, Bermuda, and Quonset Point. The ship was heavily damaged by an explosion and subsequent fires on 18 August 1959, when a helicopter engine exploded while being tested in hangar bay number one. The fires required two hours to control. At the time of the accident, Wasp was carrying nuclear weapons. In the first 30 minutes as the fires burned out of control and the forward magazines were flooded, preliminary preparations were also made to flood the nuclear weapon magazine. This was not done, however, and 30 minutes later, the nuclear weapon magazine reported no significant rise in temperature. On 27 February 1960, Wasp entered the Boston Naval Shipyard for overhaul. In mid-July, the carrier was ordered to the South Atlantic, where she stood by when civil strife broke out in the newly independent Congo and operated in support of the United Nations airlift. She returned to her home port on 11 August and spent the remainder of the year operating out of Boston with visits to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for refresher training and exercises conducted in the Virginia Capes operating areas and the Caribbean operating areas. The carrier returned to Boston on 10 December and remained in port there into the New Year.

Price: 9.99 USD

Location: Weaverville, North Carolina

End Time: 2025-01-14T13:08:03.000Z

Shipping Cost: 1.5 USD