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USS Hornet (CV-12/CVA-12/CVS-12)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Hornet (CV-12/CVA-12/CVS-12)

USS Hornet (CV-12) was laid down 3 August 1942; launched 30 August 1943 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; sponsored by Mrs. Frank M. Knox, wife of the Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned 29 November 1943, Captain Miles M. Browning in command.

USS Hornet (CV-12) conducted shakedown training off Bermuda before departing Norfolk 14 February 1944 to join the Fast Carrier Task Force 20 March at Majuro Atoll in the Marshalls. After lending air support to protect the invasion beaches in New Guinea, USS Hornet (CV-12) conducted massive aerial raids against Japanese bases in the Caroline Islands and prepared to support the amphibious assault for the occupation of the Marianas Islands.

On 11 June 1944 USS Hornet (CV-12) launched raids on Tinian and Saipan. The following day she conducted heavy bombing attacks on Guam and Rota. During 15 to 16 June, she blasted enemy air fields at Iwo and Chichi Jima to prevent air attacks on troops invading Saipan in the Marianas. The Battle of the Philippine Sea opened 19 June 1944 when USS Hornet (CV-12) launched strikes to destroy as many land-based Japanese planes as possible before the carrier-based Japanese aircraft came in. 

USS Hornet (CV-12), basing from Eniwetok in the Marshalls, raided enemy installations ranging from Guam to the Bonins, then turned her attention to the Palaus, throughout the Philippine Sea, and to enemy bases on Okinawa and Formosa. In the following months USS Hornet (CV-12) attacked enemy shipping and airfields throughout the Philippines. On 30 December 1944 she departed Ulithi in the Carolines for raids against Formosa, Indo-China, and the Pescadores Islands. En route back to Ulithi, USS Hornet (CV-12) planes made photo reconnaissance of Okinawa 22 January 1945 to aid the planned invasion of that "last stepping-stone to Japan."

USS Hornet (CV-12) was routed back to the Philippines and from there to San Francisco, arriving 7 July 1945. Her overhaul was complete by 13 September 1945 when she departed as a part of the "Magic Carpet" operation that saw her return home troops from the Marianas and Hawaiian Islands. USS Hornet (CV-12) recommissioned 20 March 1951, then sailed from San Francisco for the New York Naval Shipyard where she decommissioned 12 May 1951 for conversion to an attack aircraft carrier (CVA-12). She recommissioned 11 September 1953 and trained in the Caribbean Sea before departure from Norfolk 11 May 1954 on an 8-month global cruise.

Following her modernization overhaul, USS Hornet (CVA-12) operated along the California coast. She departed San Diego 21 January 1957 to bolster the strength of the 7th fleet until her return from the troubled Far East 25 July. Following a similar cruise, 6 January-2 July 1958, she was converted to an Antisubmarine Warfare Support Carrier (CVS-12) In the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. USS Hornet (CVS-12) returned to Long Beach 8 September, but headed back to the Far East 27 March 1967. She reached Japan exactly a month later and departed Sasebo 19 May for the war zone. USS Hornet (CVS-12) operated in Vietnamese waters throughout the remainder of spring and during much of the summer of 1967.

USS Hornet (CVS-12) was decommissioned on 26 June 1970 and, after being struck from the navy list on 25 July 1989, she was preserved as a museum ship at Alameda, Calif., where she remains to this day. 

For a complete history of USS Hornet (CV-12/CVA-12/CVS-12) please see its DANFS page.