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USS Intrepid (CV-11/CVA-11/CVS-11)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Intrepid (CV-11/CVA-11/CVS-11)

USS Intrepid (CV-11) was launched 26 April 1943 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; sponsored by Mrs. John Howard Hoover; and commissioned 16 August, Captain Thomas L. Sprague in command.

After training in the Caribbean USS Intrepid (CV-11) departed Norfolk 3 December 1943 for San Francisco, then to Hawaii. She arrived Pearl Harbor 10 January and prepared for the invasion of the Marshall Islands, the next objective in the Navy's mighty island-hopping campaign. She sortied from Pearl Harbor with carriers USS Cabot and USS Essex 16 January to raid islands at the northeastern corner of Kwajalein Atoll 29 January 1944 and pressed the attack until the last opposition had vanished 2 February.

Her work in the capture of the Marshalls finished, USS Intrepid (CV-11) headed for Truk, the tough Japanese base in the center of Micronesia. The night of 17 February 1944 an aerial torpedo struck USS Intrepid (CV-11)'s starboard quarter, 15 feet below her waterline, flooding several compartments and jamming her rudder hard to port. After temporary repairs, USS Intrepid (CV-11) sailed for the West Coast 16 March and arrived Hunter's Point, Calif., the 22d. She was back in fighting trim 9 June and departed for 2 months of operations out of Pearl Harbor, then to the Marshalls.

USS Intrepid (CV-11) stood out of San Francisco 29 June and enlivened her westward voyage 6 August as her planes smashed Japanese on bypassed Wake Island. The next day she arrived Eniwetok where she received word 15 August to "cease offensive operations." USS Intrepid (CV-11) shifted to San Francisco Bay 4 February 1946. Her status was reduced to "in commission in reserve" 15 August before decommissioning 22 March 1947 and joining the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

USS Intrepid (CV-11) recommissioned at San Francisco 9 February 1952 and got underway 12 March for Norfolk. She decommissioned in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard 9 April 1952 for conversion to a modern attack aircraft carrier. Re-classified CVA-11 1 October, she recommissioned in reserve 18 June 1954.

During the next 4 years USS Intrepid (CVA-11) alternated Mediterranean deployments with operations along the Atlantic coast of the United States and exercises in the Caribbean. On 8 December 1961 she was reclassified to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier, CVS-11.

Mid-1966 found USS Intrepid (CVS-11) with the Pacific Fleet off Vietnam. Here her gallant pilots delivered powerful blows for freedom and scored what is believed to be one of the fastest aircraft launching times recorded by an American carrier. In June 1967, USS IUSS Intrepid (CVS-11) returned to the Western Pacific by way of the Suez Canal just prior to its closing during the Israeli-Arab crisis. There she began another tour with the 7th Fleet to safeguard the peace and freedom of the world. 

For a complete history of USS Intrepid (CV-11/CVA-11/CVS-11) please see its DANFS page.