CV-12 Hornet

Country:  United States

Class, [Type]: Essex, [CV].

Builder: Newport News, Virginia, U.S.A.

Launch date: 30 August 1943.

Commission date: 29 November 1943.

Decommission date: 26 June 1970.

Displacement ( tons ): 27.200 standard, 34.880 full load.

Dimensions ( metres ): 262,1 x 29,3 x 8,4

Main machinery: ? x Westinghouse turbines; 8 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers ( 150.000 hp ).

Speed ( knots ): 32,7.

Range ( miles ): 15.000 at 15 knots.

Complement: 2682.

Guns: 12 x 5", 32 x 40mm, 46 x 20mm.

Callsign: NBGC ()

Comment: The CV-12 USS Hornet is the eighth ship of the United States Navy that bears that name, since the first one was launched in 1775.
It was in april 1942 when the first USS Hornet ( CV-8 ) aircraft carrier departed Alameda ( California ). It was at that time when Lt.Col. Jimmy Doolittle and sixteen B25 bombers from the Army where on board for a mission intended to bomb Tokyo, as retaliation for the japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Six months after Doolittle´s attacklater the CV-8 was sunk at the Battle of Santa Cruz.
Named after his predecessor, the USS Hornet ( CV-12 ) was commisioned the 29th of november 1943, and was one of the fourteen Essex class aircraft carriers involved in the SWW. Durang the war, the Hornet carried 3500 men and 103 aircraft. At the end of the war the Hornet had destroyed 1410 enemy aircraft and a Presidential Citation was awarded, and being since then one of the most decorated ships in all american history.
With the start of the soviet submarine threat during the sixties, the Hornet was involved in a new type of war - pursue enemy submarines without being detected - and where it had to constantly report the movements of soviet fleets all over the world. It was later stationed at southeastern asia during the Vietnam war in three ocassions.
On 24th july 1969, the Hornet welcomed on board who was, at that moment in time, the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, to watch the rescue mission for the Apollo 11 capsule and the men who first walked over the moon surface - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Four months later, the Hornet repeated the same exercise, but on this ocassion for Apollo 12.
On 26th june 1970, the USS Hornet was oficially decomissioned.
Today, the Hornet is anchored at Alameda Point, former NAS Alameda ( San Francisco Bay ). The ticket price is 12$ US dollars ( for adults ), and can be visited for as much time as it is desired. Personally speaking is one of the best birthday presents i´ve ever done to myself. The ship is almost entirely open to public, and one of the good things about it is that if you don´t want a guide you can walk wherever you like to. No predefined order. In the main hangar there are some aircraft, some of them are restaured and others are in the process ( i guess ). Available are an A4 Skyhawk, one S2 Tracker, one Avenger, one F9F Panther and one F8 Crusader.

Awards (as of 26/06/1970):