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N7KTP > NAVNET 11.10.05 02:48l 303 Lines 19616 Bytes #999 (0) @ USA
BID : 46254_N7FSP
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Subj: USS TICONDEROGA (CV-14)
Path: ON0AR<ON0AR<7M3TJZ<HG8LXL<VE2PKT<N1UAN<KA0MOS<N7OO<WA7V<N7FSP
Sent: 051010/1817z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
The fourth Ticonderoga (CV-14) was laid down as Hancock on 1
February 1943 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding &
Dry Dock Co. The Hancock was renamed Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943 and
launched on 7 February 1944. She was sponsored by Miss Stephanie Sarah
Pell; and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 8 May 1944, with
Capt. Dixie Kiefer in command.
The Essex class carrier displaced 27,100 tons and was 1.888 feet
long with a beam of 93 feet and a draft of 28 feet 7 inches. Top speed
was 33 knots. There were 3,448 sailors aboard the Ticonderoga. The
armament consisted of 72 40mm antiaircraft guns.
Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting
and embarking Air Group 80. On 26 June, the carrier shaped a course for
the British West Indies. She conducted air operations and drills en
route and reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 30th. For the next 15
days, Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew
into an efficient wartime team. She departed the West Indies on 16 July
and headed back to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22d. Eight days
later, the carrier headed for Panama. She transited the canal on 4
September and steamed up the coast to San Diego the following day. On
the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where she loaded provisions,
fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well as the Marine
Corps aviation and defense units that went with them. On the 19th, she
sailed for Hawaii where she arrived five days later.
Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and
Carina (AK-74) conducted experiments in the underway transfer of
aviation bombs from cargo ship to aircraft carrier. Following those
tests, she conducted air operations-day and night landing and
antiaircraft defense drills until 18 October when she exited Pearl
Harbor and headed for the western Pacific. After a brief stop at
Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines
on the 29th. There she embarked Rear Admiral A. W. Radford, Commander,
Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force (TF) 38 as a unit of Rear
Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group (TG) 38.3.
The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November. She
joined the other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for
the ground forces capturing Leyte. She launched her first air strike on
the morning of the 5th. The planes of her air group spent the next two
days pummeling enemy shipping near Luzon and air installations on that
island. Her planes bombed and strafed the airfields at Zablan,
Mandaluyong, and Pasig. They also joined those of other carriers in
sending the heavy cruiser Nachi to a watery resting place. In addition,
Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japanese aircraft shot down and one
destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.
Around 1600 on the 5th, the enemy retaliated by sending up a flock
of planes piloted by members of the suicide corps dubbed kamikaze, or
"Divine Wind," in honor of the typhoon that had destroyed a Chinese
invasion fleet four centuries previously. Two of the suicide planes
succeeded in slipping through the American combat air patrol and
antiaircraft fire to crash Lexington (CV-16). Ticonderoga emerged from
that airborne banzai charge unscathed and claimed a tally of two
splashes. On 6 November, the warship launched two fighter sweeps and two
bombing strikes against the Luzon airfields and enemy shipping in the
vicinity. Her airmen returned later that day claiming the destruction of
35 Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy ships in Manila Bay. After
recovering her planes, the carrier retired to the east for a fueling
rendezvous.
She refueled and received replacement planes on the 7th and then
headed back to continue pounding enemy forces in the Philippines. Early
on the morning of 11 November, her planes combined with others of TF 38
to attack a Japanese reinforcement convoy, just as it was preparing to
enter Ormoc Bay from the Camotes Sea. Together, the planes accounted
for all the enemy transports and four of the seven escorting destroyers.
On the 12th and 13th, Ticonderoga and her sisters launched strikes at
Luzon airfields and docks and shipping around Manila. This raid tallied
an impressive score: light cruiser Kiso, four destroyers, and seven
merchant ships. At the conclusion of the raid, TF 38 retired eastward for
a refueling breather. Ticonderoga and the rest of TG 38.3, however,
continued east to Ulithi where they arrived on the 17th to replenish,
refuel, and rearm.
On 22 November, the aircraft carrier departed Ulithi once more and
steamed back toward the Philippines. Three days later, she launched air
strikes on central Luzon and adjacent waters. Her pilots finished off the
heavy cruiser Kumano, damaged in the Battle off Samar. Later, they
atacked an enemy convoy about 15 miles southwest of Kumano's not-so-safe
haven in Dasol Bay. Of this convoy, cruiser Yasoshima, a merchantman, and
three landing ships went to the bottom. Ticonderoga's air group rounded
out their day of destruction with an aerial rampage which cost the
Japanese 15 planes shot down and 11 destroyed on the ground.
While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga's
ship's company also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo
launched by an enemy plane broached in Langley's (CVL-27) wake to
announce the approach of an air raid. Ticonderoga's gunners raced to
their battle stations as the raiders made both conventional and suicide
attacks on the task group. Her sister ship Essex (CV-9) erupted in flames
when one of the kamikazes crashed into her. When a second suicide plane
tried to finish off the stricken carrier, Ticonderoga's gunners joined
those firing from other ships in cutting his approach abruptly short.
That afternoon, while damage control parties dressed Essex's wounds,
Ticonderoga extended her hospitality to that damaged carrier's homeless
airmen as well as to Intrepid (CV-11) pilots in similar straits. The
following day, TF 38 retired to the east.
TF 38 stood out of Ulithi again on 11 December and headed for the
Philippines. Ticonderoga arrived at the launch point early in the
afternoon of the 13th and sent her planes aloft to blanket Japanese
airbases on Luzon while Army planes took care of those in the central
Philippines. For three days, Ticonderoga airmen and their comrades
wreaked havoc with a storm of destruction on enemy airfields. She
withdrew on the 16th with the rest of TF 38 in search of a fueling
rendezvous. While attempting to find calmer waters in which to refuel, TF
38 steamed directly through a violent, but unheralded, typhoon. Though
the storm cost Admiral Halsey's force three destroyers and over 800
lives, Ticonderoga and the other carriers managed to ride it out with a
minimum of damage. Having survived the tempest's fury, Ticonderoga
returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve.
Repairs occasioned by the typhoon kept TF 38 in the anchorage almost
until the end of the month. The carriers did not return to sea until 30
December 1944 when they steamed north to hit Formosa and Luzon in
preparation for the landings on the latter island at Lingayen Gulf.
Severe weather limited the Formosa strikes on 3 and 4 January 1945 and,
in all likelihood, obviated the need for them. The warships fueled at sea
on the 5th. Despite rough weather on the 6th, the strikes on Luzon
airfields were carried out. That day, Ticonderoga's airmen and their
colleagues of the other air groups increased their score by another 32
enemy planes. The 7th brought more strikes on Luzon installations. After
a fueling rendezvous on the 8th, Ticonderoga sped north at night to get
into position to blanket Japanese airfields in the Ryukyus during the
Lingayen assault the following morning. However, foul weather, the
bugaboo of TF 38 during the winter of 1944 and 1945, forced TG 38.3 to
abandon the strikes on the Ryukyu airfields and join TG 38.2 in pounding
Formosa.
During the night of 9 and 10 January, TF 38 steamed boldly through
the Luzon Strait and then headed generally southwest, diagonally across
the South China Sea. Ticonderoga provided combat air patrol coverage on
the 11th and helped to bring down four enemy planes which attempted to
snoop the formation. Otherwise, the carriers and their consorts proceeded
unmolested to a point some 150 to 200 miles off the coast of Indochina.
There, on the 12th, they launched their approximately 850 planes and made
a series of antishipping sweeps during which they sank a whopping 44
ships, totalling over 130,000 tons. After recovering planes in the late
afternoon, the carriers moved off to the northeast. Heavy weather
hindered fueling operations on the 13th and 14th, and air searches failed
to turn up any tempting targets. On the 15th, fighters swept Japanese
airfields on the Chinese coast while the flattops headed for a position
from which to strike Hong Kong. The following morning, they launched
antishipping bombing raids and fighter sweeps of air installations.
Weather prevented air operations on the 17th and again made fueling
difficult. It worsened the next day and stopped replenishment operations
altogether, so that they were not finally concluded until the 19th. The
force then shaped a course generally northward to retransit Luzon Strait
via Balintang Channel.
The three task groups of TF 38 completed their transit during the
night of 20 and 21 January. The next morning, their planes hit airfields
on Formosa, in the Pescadores, and at Sakishima Gunto. The good flying
weather brought mixed blessings. While it allowed American flight
operations to continue through the day, it also brought new gusts of the
"Divine Wind." Just after noon, a single-engined Japanese plane scored a
hit on Langley with a glide-bombing attack. Seconds later, a kamikaze
swooped out of the clouds and plunged toward Ticonderoga. He crashed
through her flight deck abreast of the No.2 5-inch mount, and his bomb
exploded just above her hangar deck. Several planes stowed nearby erupted
into flames. Death and destruction abounded, but the ship's company
fought valiantly to save the threatened carrier. Capt. Kiefer conned his
ship smartly. First, he changed course to keep the wind from fanning the
blaze. Then, he ordered magazines and other compartments flooded to
prevent further explosions and to correct a 10-degree starboard list.
Finally, he instructed the damage control party to continue flooding
compartments on Ticonderoga's port side. That operation induced a 10-
degree port list which neatly dumped the fire overboard! Firefighters and
plane handlers completed the job by dousing the flames and jettisoning
burning aircraft.
Wounded denizens of the deep often attract predators. Ticonderoga
was no exception. The other kamikazes pounced on her like a school of
sharks in a feeding frenzy. Her antiaircraft gunners struck back with
desperate, but methodical, ferocity and quickly swatted three of her
tormentors into the sea. A fourth plane slipped through her barrage and
smashed into the carrier's starboard side near the island. His bomb set
more planes on fire, riddled her flight deck, and injured or killed
another 100 sailors-including Capt. Kiefer. Yet, Ticonderoga's crew
refused to submit. Spared further attacks, they brought her fires com-
pletely under control not long after 1400; and Ticonderoga retired
painfully.
The stricken carrier arrived at Ulithi on 24 January but remained
there only long enough to move her wounded to hospital ship Samaritan
(AH-10), to transfer her air group to Hancock (CV-19), and to embark
passengers bound for home. Ticonderoga cleared the lagoon on 28 January
and headed for the United States. The warship stopped briefly at Pearl
Harbor en route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard where she arrived on 15
February.
Her repairs were completed on 20 April, and she cleared Puget Sound
the following day for the Alameda Naval Air Station. After embarking
passengers and aircraft bound for Hawaii, the carrier headed for Pearl
Harbor where she arrived on 1 May. The next day, Air Group 87 came on
board and, for the next week, trained in preparation for the carrier's
return to combat. Ticonderoga stood out of Pearl Harbor and shaped a
course for the western Pacific. En route to Ulithi, she launched her
planes for what amounted to training strikes on Japanese-held Taroa in
the Marshalls. On 22 May, the warship arrived in Ulithi and rejoined the
Fast Carrier Task Force as an element of Rear Admiral Radford's TG 58.4.
Two days after her arrival, Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi with TF
58 and headed north to spend the last weeks of the war in Japanese home
waters. Three days out, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Spruance, the 5th
Fleet reverted back to 3d Fleet, and TF 58 became TF 38 again for the
duration. On 2 and 3 June, Ticonderoga fighters struck at airfields on
Kyushu in an effort to neutralize the remnants of Japanese air power in
particularly the Kamikaze Corps-and to relieve the pressure on American
forces at Okinawa. During the following two days, Ticonderoga rode out
her second typhoon in less than six months and emerged relatively
unscathed. She provided combat air patrol cover for the 6 June refueling
rendezvous, and four of her fighters intercepted and destroyed three
Okinawabound kamikazes. That evening, she steamed off at high speed with
TG 38.4 to conduct a fighter sweep of airfields on southern Kyushu on the
8th. Ticonderoga's planes then joined in the aerial bombardment of Minami
Daito Shima and Kita Daito Shima before the carrier headed for Leyte
where she arrived on the 13th.
During the two-week rest and replenishment period she enjoyed at
Leyte, Ticonderoga changed task or" ganizations from TG 38.4 to Rear
Admiral Gerald F. Bogan's TG 38.3. On 1 July, she departed Leyte with TF
38 and headed north to resume raids on Japan. Two days later, a damaged
reduction gear forced her into Apra Harbor, Guam, for repairs. She
remained there until the 19th when she steamed off to rejoin TF 38 and
resume her role in the war against Japan. On the 24th, her planes joined
those of other fast carriers in striking ships in the Inland Sea and
airfields at Nagoya, Osaka, and Miko. During those raids, TF 38 planes
found the sad remnants of the once-mighty Japanese Fleet and bagged
battleships Ise, Hyuga, and Haruna as well as an escort carrier, Kaiyo,
and two heavy cruisers. On 28 July, her aircraft directed their efforts
toward the Kure Naval Base, where they pounded an aircraft carrier, three
cruisers, a destroyer, and a submarine. She shifted her attention to the
industrial area of central Honshu on the 30th, then to northern Honshu
and Hokkaido on 9 and 10 August. The latter attacks thoroughly destroyed
the marshalling area for a planned airborne suicide raid on the B-29
bases in the Marianas. On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned to the
Tokyo area and helped to subject the Jape "Magic-Carpet" run in
December 1945 and January 1946 before entering the Puget Sound Naval
Shipyard to prepare for inactivation. Almost a year later, on 9 January
1947, Ticonderoga was placed out of commission and berthed with the
Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
On 31 January 1952, Ticonderoga came out of reserve and went into
reduced commission for the transit from Bremerton to New York. She
departed Puget Sound on 27 February and reached New York on 1 April.
Three days later, she was decommissioned at the New York Naval Shipyard
to begin an extensive conversion. During the ensuing 29 months, the
carrier received the numerous modifications-steam catapults to launch
jets, a new nylon barricade, a new deck-edge elevator and the latest
electronic and fire control equipment-necessary for her to become an
integral unit of the fleet. On 11 September 1954, Ticonderoga was
recommissioned at New York, Capt. William A. Schoech in command.
In January 1955, the carrier shifted to her new home port-Norfolk,
Va.-where she arrived on the 6th. Over the next month, she conducted
carrier qualifications with Air Group 6 in the Virginia Capes operating
area. On 3 February, she stood out of Hampton Roads for shakedown near
Cuba, after which she returned via Norfolk to New York for additional
alterations. During the late summer, the warship resumed carrier
qualifications is for
her fifth consecutive combat deployment to the southeast Asia area. On 1
February, she cleared San Diego and headed west. After a brief stop at
Pearl Harbor a week later, she continued her voyage to Yokosuka where
she arrived on the 20th. The carrier departed Yokosuka on the 28th for
the coast of Vietnam where she arrived on 4 March. Over the next four
months, Ticonderoga served four periods on the line off Vietnam,
interdicting communist supply lines and making strikes against their
positions.
During her second line period, however, her tour of duty off
Vietnam came to an abrupt end on 16 April when she was shifted north to
the Sea of Japan. North Korean aircraft had shot down a Navy
reconnaissance plane in the area, and Ticonderoga was called upon to
beef up the forces assigned to the vicinity. However, the crisis abated;
and Ticonderoga entered Subic Bay on 27 April for upkeep. On 8 May, she
departed the Philippines to return to "Yankee Station" and resumed
interdiction operations. Between her third and fourth line periods, the
carrier visited Sasebo and Hong Kong.
The aircraft carrier took station off Vietnam for her last line
period of the deployment on 26 June and there followed 37 more days of
highly successful air sorties against enemy targets. Following that
tour, she joined TF 71 in the Sea of Japan for the remainder of the
deployment. Ticonderoga coe Self Defense Force. The first of these two cruises
also brought operations in the Indian Ocean with units of the Thai Navy
and a transit of Sunda Strait during which a ceremony was held to
commemorate the loss of Houston (CA-30) and HMAS Perth in 1942.
In between these two last deployments, she operated in the eastern
Pacific and participated in the recovery of the Apollo 16 moon mission
capsule and astronauts near American Samoa during April of 1972. The
second deployment came in the summer of 1972; and, in addition to the
training exercises in the Sea of Japan, Ticonderoga also joined ASW
training operations in the South China Sea. That fall, she returned to
the eastern Pacific and, in November, practiced for the recovery of
Apollo 17. The next month, Ticonderoga recovered her second set of
space voyagers near American Samoa. The carrier then headed back to San
Diego where she arrived on 28 December.
Ticonderoga remained active for nine more months, first operating
out of San Diego and then making preparations for inactivation. On 1
September 1973, the aircraft carrier was decommissioned after a board of
inspection and survey found her to be unfit for further naval service.
Her name was struck from the Navy list on 16 November 1973, and
arrangements were begun to sell her for scrap.
Ticonderoga received five battle stars during World War II and
three Navy Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12
battle stars during the Vietnam War.
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