text:
USS Antietam (CV-36)

USS Antietam (CV/CVA/CVS-36) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the American Civil War Battle of Antietam (Maryland). Antietam was commissioned in January 1945, too late to serve actively in World War II. After serving a short time in the Far East, she was decommissioned in 1949. She was soon recommissioned for Korean War service, and in that conflict earned two battle stars. In the early 1950s, she was redesignated an attack carrier (CVA) and then an antisubmarine warfare carrier (CVS). After the Korean War she spent the rest of her career operating in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean. From 1957 until her deactivation, she was the Navy's training carrier, operating out of Florida.

Antietam was fitted with a port sponson in 1952 to make her the world's first true angled-deck aircraft carrier. However, she received no major modernizations other than this, and thus throughout her career largely retained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex-class ship. She was decommissioned in 1963, and sold for scrap in 1974.

Construction and career
Antietam was one of the "long-hull" Essex-class ships. The keel was laid on 15 March 1943 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The ship was launched on 20 August 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Millard E. Tydings, the wife of Senator Tydings of Maryland. Antietam was commissioned on 28 January 1945, with Captain James R. Tague in command.

World War II and occupation of Japan
The aircraft carrier completed fitting out at Philadelphia until 2 March 1945, when she got underway for her shakedown cruise. The ship arrived in Hampton Roads on 5 March and conducted operations from Norfolk until 22 March, when she stood out of Chesapeake Bay bound for Trinidad in the British West Indies. At the conclusion of her shakedown cruise, Antietam returned to Philadelphia on 28 April to begin post-shakedown availability. She completed repairs on 19 May and departed Philadelphia that same day. After a three-day stop at Norfolk, the warship resumed her voyage to the Panama Canal in company with USS Higbee (DD-806), USS George W. Ingram (APD-43), and USS Ira Jeffery (APD-44). She arrived at Cristóbal on 31 May, transited the Panama Canal the next day, and continued her voyage up the coast to San Diego. She stopped at San Diego from 10 to 13 June before beginning the first leg of her transpacific voyage. Antietam arrived in Pearl Harbor on 19 June and remained in the Hawaiian Islands conducting training missions until 12 August. On that day, she shaped a course for the western Pacific.

Three days out of Oahu, she received word of the Japanese capitulation and the consequent cessation of hostilities. Thus, by the time of her arrival in Eniwetok Atoll on 19 August, her mission changed from combat to occupation support duty. On 21 August, she exited the lagoon in company with USS Cabot (CVL-28) and a screen of destroyers bound for Japan. En route, she suffered some internal damage which forced her into port at Apra Harbor, Guam, for inspections. The inspection party deemed the damage minimal; and the carrier remained operational, resuming her course on 27 August. By that time, however, her destination had been changed to the coast of the Asian mainland. She stopped at Okinawa between 30 August and 1 September, and arrived in Chinese waters near Shanghai the following day.

The aircraft carrier remained in the Far East for a little more than three years. The Yellow Sea constituted her primary theater of operations while her air group provided support for the Allied occupation of North China, Manchuria, and Korea. During the latter stages of that assignment, her airmen conducted surveillance missions in that area as a result of the civil war in China between communist and nationalist factions which later resulted in the expulsion of Chiang Kai-shek's forces from mainland China and the establishment of Mao Zedong's communist People's Republic of China. Throughout the period, however, she did depart the Yellow Sea on occasion for visits to Japan, the Philippines, Okinawa, and the Marianas. Early in 1949, she concluded her mission in the Orient and headed back to the United States for deactivation. She was decommissioned on 21 June 1949.

Korean War
Antietam remained in reserve at Alameda, California, but after Communist forces from North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, she began reactivation preparations on 6 December and went back into commission on 17 January 1951, with Captain George J. Dufek in command. Initially, the carrier conducted shakedown training and carrier qualifications along the California coast, first out of Alameda and – after 14 May – out of San Diego. She made one voyage to Pearl Harbor and back to San Diego in July and August before departing the latter port on 8 September and heading for the Far East. Antietam arrived in the Far East later that fall and, by late November, began the only combat deployment of her career. During that tour, she made four cruises with Task Force 77 (TF 77), in the combat zone off the coast of the Korean peninsula. In between fighting assignments, she returned to Yokosuka, Japan. During each of those periods, her air group carried out a variety of missions in support of United Nations forces combating North Korean aggression. Those missions included combat air patrol, logistics interdiction, particularly against railroad and highway traffic, reconnaissance, antisubmarine patrols, and night heckler missions. From late November 1951 to mid-March 1952, Antietam's air group flew nearly 6,000 sorties of all types. She returned to Yokosuka on 21 March 1952 at the conclusion of her fourth cruise with TF 77 to begin preparations for her voyage back to the United States.

Later years
The aircraft carrier returned home in April and rejoined the Pacific Reserve Fleet briefly. She was reactivated later that summer and, in August, transited the Panama Canal to join the Atlantic Fleet. In September, the warship entered the New York Naval Shipyard for major alterations. In October, she was redesignated an attack aircraft carrier, CVA-36. In December 1952 Antietam emerged from the yard as the world's first carrier with a true angled flight deck. The principle had been tried on other carriers with lines painted on an axis deck. Antietam's deck was based on a rudimentary sponson. The installation allowed for true angle deck tests, including arrested landings. Trials with British and US units proved during trials to be superior to the usual fore-aft deck. She operated out of Quonset Point, Rhode Island, until the beginning of 1955. During the intervening years, she participated in numerous fleet and independent ship's exercises. Detachment #39 from VC-4, NAS Atlantic City was sent out on the Antietam on 9 June 1953. The stated purpose was to show off the canted deck capabilities to the Royal Navy. There were two aircraft with pilots and 13 enlisted men. Two days of flight operation took place with all sorts of Royal Navy aircraft making touch and gos. The F3Ds were used to give Royal Navy VIPs catapult shots and arrested landings. The VC-4 pilots were air lifted back to the states on 3 July and the F3Ds were off loaded and flown back to Atlantic City from Rhode Island. After August 1953, during which time she was redesignated an Anti-submarine warfare carrier (ASW), CVS-36 Antietam concentrated up on honing her hunter/killer skills.

Post-Korean War
In January 1955, she embarked upon a voyage to the Mediterranean Sea where she served with the 6th Fleet until March. Resuming duty with the Atlantic Fleet ASW forces, she operated along the eastern seaboard until the fall of 1956. In October of that year, she cruised to the waters of the eastern Atlantic for NATO ASW exercises and goodwill visits to ports in Allied countries. She ran aground off Brest, France, on 22 October 1956, but was refloated undamaged. While the carrier was in Rotterdam, the Suez crisis broke out in the eastern Mediterranean. Antietam cut short her visit to the Netherlands and headed for the Mediterranean to bolster the 6th Fleet during the evacuation of American citizens from Alexandria, Egypt. At the end of that assignment, she conducted ASW training exercises with Italian naval officers embarked before returning to Quonset Point on 22 December. After resuming operations along the eastern seaboard early in 1957, Antietam was assigned on 21 April 1957 to training duty with the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Mayport however, served as her home port because ships of her draft could not then enter port at Pensacola. For almost two years the aircraft carrier operated out of Mayport training new Navy pilots and conducting tests on new aviation equipment—most noteworthy on the Bell automatic landing system during August 1958. She also participated in annual Naval Academy midshipmen cruises each summer.

In January 1959, after the deepening of the channel into Pensacola had been completed, Antietam's home port was changed from Mayport to Pensacola. For the remainder of her active career, the carrier operated out of Pensacola as an aviation training ship.

The deck of the Antietam served as the launching pad for the stratospheric balloon flight of Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, both of the United States Navy, on 4 May 1961. This flight set an absolute official altitude record for manned balloons of 113740 ft. The flight took place over the Gulf of Mexico. During recovery, Prather slipped from the rescue helicopter's lifting harness and fell into the ocean; he died from his injuries onboard Antietam. Commander Ross was successfully recovered.

On two occasions, she provided humanitarian services to victims of hurricane damage. The first came in September 1961 when she rushed to the Texas coast to provide supplies and medical assistance to the victims of Hurricane Carla. The second came just over a month later when she carried medical supplies, doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel to British Honduras to help the victims of Hurricane Hattie. Otherwise, she spent the final four years of her naval career in routine naval aviation training duty out of Pensacola. On 23 October 1962, Antietam was relieved by sister ship USS Lexington (CVS-16) as aviation training ship at Pensacola and was placed in commission, in reserve, on 7 January 1963. Berthed at Philadelphia, she remained in reserve until May 1973 when her name was struck from the Navy List. On 28 February 1974, she was sold to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corp. for scrapping.

title: USS Antietam (CV-36)


text: User talk:81.57.132.157

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:81.57.132.157


text:
Talk:Network throughput

Latency

 * (heading added later for clarity --Alf 11:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC))

The reference "It's the latency, stupid" asserts speed is distance divided by time, and bits are not distance, so bits/second is not speed. The speed of a runner may be distance divided by time, but the speed of a worker is not distance divided by time.

He points out the difference between the throughput and the speed of an oil tanker. It may be slow but still have a large capacity. I think that a more apt comparison would be to a pipeline, where the notion of 'serialization' can be applied.

Latency 2

 * (heading added later for clarity --Alf 11:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC))

I'm sure that latency is an important problem in the flow of bits and bytes through a computer and I would no doubt enjoy an entry devoted to the topic. The entry's title is Throughput, though, and in the Theory of Constraints the word is defined as: the money (not the output) an organization receives in exchange for the goods or services its customers (clients, students, patients, ...) receive. The signal (money) is received (or not) at the best time and place, and using throughput instead of output (goods and services produced but not necessarily sold) prevents the latency problem addressed in the entry. See, for example, Eliyahu M. Goldratt and the List of Theory of Constraints topics.

Bandwidth

 * (heading added later for clarity --Alf 11:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC))

I would like to see a closer comparison between throughput and bandwidth. The differences, similarities and the common usages between the two.

Throughput is the actual speed data will transfer at from one point on the network to another. The actual speed, throughput, of a network is often quite less than it's Bandwidth, potential speed.

Bandwidth is more often quoted than Throughput since it is easier to calculate and not subject to changes in many variables. The hardware used to communicate, heavy/light traffic, etc…can effect throughput.

Too general a title?
throughput is used in a lot of different contexts to describe the rate at which a process works -- for example, throughput of an assembly line, throughput of a polling place, throughput of a communications channel (slightly more general than the discussion of internet connections here), and throughput of a CPU (quite relevant to the latency/throughput dichotomy raised in the article). There could/should be some discussion of queueing theory and the importance of throughput reserve to reduce queues; of traffic on roads (maximum throughput of a freeway occurs when the traffic is so heavy it drops to about 30 MPH); and of things like the throughput/power relation in engines. zowie 18:50, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree with you that the title is too general. For instance, the Latency page is a disambig page and the Latency related to this article is Latency (engineering). The article titled "Throughput" should be a disambig page like Latency and this page should be renamed to "Throughput (communications)" or some other descriptor. -Etienne 08:43, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Any objections on reaneming this article to something like Throughput (communications)? Any other name suggestions? --Alf 11:20, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't there also be under latency a reference to Round Trip Time (RTT)?

OIl and Natural Gas
Throughput is a term used in the pipeline industry; in case someone knows how to put it in the article. --McTrixie 00:35, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Rename
Refering to Talk:Throughput this article should be renamed to something like Throughput (communications) and a disambiguation page written for Throughput. Please offer your suggestions for names. --Tunheim 08:57, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Okay. Don't forget to redirect all pages pointing here. There are about 150 pages. Mange01 12:59, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Context Expansion Beyond Pure Digital Data?
In an information theory context Throughput refers to messages, and has massively varied units, such as chips/s (in the case of gold-coded wireless networks) or frames/sec, in the case of some analog networks. Would it make sense to edit the article to recast it in more general terms and then treat the different units of throughput as subsections? (I'm a new user and don't want to disrupt work in progress) HatlessAtless (talk) 20:54, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

 * This is interesting. I have never seen chips/s used as a throughput measure - only as a measure of the chip rate, which is a baud rate that typically is constant, since the bandwidth in Hertz is constant. Throughput for me is affected by traffic load, and mechanisms such as packets queues, retransmissions, and multi-access protocols. The spreading factor (chips/bit) may be adapted to the channel (the distance between the nodes), and sometimes to the bit rate or Quality of Service level, which may be negotiated based on the traffic load. But I don't see why it would be be interesting to study the throughput in chips/s.

 * Regarding your question: If you intend to remove something, I suggest that you discuss it here first. Otherwise feel free to reorganize the article. If you are unsure, you may also suggest a new disposition here first. Mange01 (talk) 10:08, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the advice. I will indeed reorganize the article. Comments on my rework style will be greatly appreciated, however. HatlessAtless (talk) 21:49, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Thnx for your improvements to the article! Since you ask for comments, I answer, by don't take it as criticism, you have done a great job.
 * Is it possible either to change the order of the text, in view to put practical stuff and key definitions that is interesting to a large audience in the beginning, or to rephrase the theoretical definitions to make them more comprehensible to the average reader?
 * What is the practical area of application of these maximum TP definitions? To my understanding, max TP may be one of the following:
 * 1. Something you measure in a real-world network using various bandwidth test services. This is interesting to a large audience, and is discussed in the Measuring network throughput article. It would be good if it was mentioned early in this article. This measure is affected by traffic load from other users. Typically it is measured below or above OSI layer three, i.e. exclusive of Ethernet overhead/PPP overhead, and sometimes exclusive of IP overhead. I don't know if this is what you call Peak Measured Throughput or Maximum Sustained Throughput.
 * 2. A capacity measure that you can calculate on paper by means of formulas (which you call Maximum Theoretical Throughput, and is called "Maximum throughput over analog channels" in the old version of the article).
 * 3. An idealized measure that scientists evaluate in computer simulations or measure in experiment networks, for example in view to compare various algorithms. I guess this is what you have in mind in "Maximum achievable throughput" section, or? This kind of measure highly depends on the traffic model, which sometimes is simplified and idealized, and sometimes aim at reflecting "real" traffic situation. For example, you may assume "real" flow control and congestion avoidance (TCP traffic), simplified flow control model (one packet is generated for every packet that is delivered over a certain connection), no flow control (UDP traffic), Erlang traffic (with guaranteed quality of service), Poisson packet source (exponentially distributed time between packets), bursty self-similar traffic model, etc. It is also affected by what router model and traffic shaping algorithms we assume. I have seen several alternative definitions:
 * Asymptotic maximum throughput - the load when the delay goes to infinity, or the load when the system becomes unstable, and less packets are delivered to the destination than arrive from the source. Very hard to measure, since it requires infinite packet queues.
 * Maximum throughput for a certain drop rate, for example 5%, where packets older than a certain time-to-live are dropped.
 * Maximum throughput assuming the above simplified flow control model. Very simple to simulate.

Mange01 (talk) 21:39, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the feedback!

 * The intent I had when breaking down the different max throughput was to make the point that all "max throughput' numbers are not created equal and give a broad flavor of the different possible meanings. If you think that my sections should be reorganized, feel free to shuffle them as makes the most sense. HatlessAtless (talk) 16:52, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Unsourced Tag During Rework?
It will take me several days to organize and source this article fully. Should I leave the unsourced tag alone until I complete the process? Also, is it appropriate to flag my own posts for copy editing until a more experienced editor can look at my work? HatlessAtless (talk) 21:49, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

An error in the section "Multi-user considerations"
At line2: every user typically achieves a throughput of approximately N/R

should be

every user typically achieves a throughput of approximately R/N

61.31.141.8 (talk) 13:28, 27 September 2008 (UTC)A graduate student majoring in computer science

Error Message
Some weird error message appeared below this article's page, by the references:

"Cite error: There are =ref= tags on this page, but the references will not show without a =references/= tag."

88.105.10.35 (talk) 19:57, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Lead
Hi Dsimic,

I see that you've reverted my edit, saying that it basically duplicates already existing content. Let me tell you my point. I came to the article, trying to understand what a throughput means. Usually the first sentence of a concept in the WP, summarises or explains its meaning or most common use. In this case, I saw that it's not the case, so I had to go to other sources to learn what a throughput is, after learning and taking notes, I came back to the article writing a simple and understandable lead. The lead as it is now, only explains what throughput is in a specific domain. However in other domains, it also means other things...Therefore, imho a simple one or two-sentence lead explaining the meaning is necessary. --Universal Life (talk) 10:51, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

 * I've reverted back. What we need is a more understandable lead. And notice that the article's name is not Throughput (communication networks). So, we shouldn't start the article's lead as In communication networks, such as.... We should start by defining what throughput means. Not to be misunderstood, I'm not insisting at all in my own wording...I actually encourage you or anyone to go and change it (not revert it back, but to improve it). Friendly --Universal Life (talk) 10:59, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

 * Hello there! Totally understood, and you're right that the lead section could summarize the article much better.  Went ahead and  the lead section, please check it out. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 12:37, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

 * Hey, that's great! :) If I'll have time, I'll see later if some wording can be bettered too. I think the article should mention high-throughput as well. Anyway, as it is now, it's much better than it was before :) Thank you. --Universal Life (talk) 13:26, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

 * Thanks, I'm glad you like it. :) Went ahead and  the lead section a bit further...  As always, please feel free to contribute to the article, you're more than welcome to do that. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 14:05, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Network throughput


text:
USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)

USS Lake Champlain (CV/CVA/CVS-39) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. She was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.

Commissioned on 3 June 1945, Lake Champlain did not participate in World War II, but did serve as a transport, bringing troops home from Europe as part of Operation Magic Carpet. 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, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She participated in the Korean War but spent the rest of her career in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean. In the late 1950s, she was redesignated as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS).

Lake Champlain was the prime recovery ship for the first crewed Project Mercury mission (Freedom 7), the second uncrewed Gemini mission (Gemini 2), and for the third crewed Gemini (Gemini 5) space mission.

Lake Champlain had a unique modernization history. She was the only Essex-class ship to receive the SCB-27 conversion which was a rebuild of the superstructure, flight deck and other features but without also receiving the SCB-125 conversion which would have given her an angled flight deck and hurricane bow. Therefore, she was the last operational US aircraft carrier with an axial flight deck.

Lake Champlain was decommissioned in 1966 and sold for scrap in 1972.

Construction and commissioning
Lake Champlain was one of the "long-hull" Essex-class ships. She was laid down in Drydock No. 8 at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 March 1943. The hull was launched from drydock on 2 November 1944. Lake Champlain commissioned on 3 June 1945 under the command of Captain Logan Ramsey. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Warren Austin, wife of Senator Austin of Vermont.

Operation Magic Carpet
After shakedown and visits to New York and Philadelphia, Lake Champlain was assigned to "Magic Carpet" duty to repatriate US military personnel. She departed Norfolk for England on 14 October, and arrived at Southampton on the 19th where she embarked veterans and returned them to New York.

She set a speed record, averaging 32.048 kn, for crossing the Atlantic on 26 November 1945 when she arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, having completed a run from Gibraltar, a distance of 3360.3 nautical miles, in 4 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes. This record stood until surpassed by SS United States in the summer of 1952.

Lake Champlain was laid up in the reserve fleet at Norfolk on 17 February 1947.

Korean War
Lake Champlain was needed again for the Korean War. In August 1950, she began her SCB-27A modernization program at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. She recommissioned on 19 September 1952.

A shakedown cruise in Cuban and Haitian waters lasted from 25 November to 25 December 1952. The carrier departed Mayport, Florida, for Korea on 26 April 1953 via the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea. Lake Champlain became the largest ship to date to transit the Suez Canal. She moored at Yokosuka, Japan, on 9 June 1953.

As flagship of Carrier Task Force 77 (TF 77), she sailed from Yokosuka on 11 June and arrived off western Korea on 14 June. The carrier's air group immediately launched sorties cratering runways; assaulting enemy troops; attacking trenches, bunkers, gun positions; and giving close air support to hard pressed ground forces. Her planes also escorted B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers on their way to enemy targets. Lake Champlain continued to strike at the enemy until the truce was signed on 27 July. Relieved by USS Kearsarge (CV-33) on 11 October, Lake Champlain headed toward the South China Sea arriving Singapore on 24 October. Bidding farewell to the Pacific Ocean on 27 October, she steamed toward home, touching at Colombo, Port Said, Cannes, and Lisbon before arriving Mayport, Florida, on 4 December 1953.

NATO, Middle East and reclassification

In the years that followed, Lake Champlain made several cruises to the Mediterranean, participating with NATO forces. On 25 April 1957, in response to tensions between Jordan's king and parliament (see 1957 alleged Jordanian military coup attempt), she joined elements of her fleet in a high-speed run to the vicinity of Lebanon, where she backed King Hussein. King Hussein ended Jordan's constitutional democracy, dissolving political parties, dismissing municipal councils, censoring the press, imposing military curfew, and culling the military of dissenting elements. The tensions eased and Lake Champlain returned to Mayport on 27 July. Converted to an antisubmarine carrier and reclassified (CVS-39) on 1 August, Lake Champlain trained off the eastern seaboard to master her new role.

Lake Champlain was near the island of Majorca when the Spanish city of Valencia was devastated by floods on the night of 14 October 1957. The American ambassador to Spain, John Davis Lodge, requested that Lake Champlain provide assistance for rescue operations. The ship's Chickasaw helicopters undertook numerous rescue missions, and the ship's crew fought in the "mud battle" that followed the disaster.

She departed Bayonne, New Jersey, on 8 February 1958 for another Mediterranean cruise returning to Mayport, Florida, on 30 October. After a yard overhaul, she departed for the Mediterranean on 10 June and visited Spain, Denmark, and Scotland, before returning to Mayport on 9 August.

The carrier operated off Florida and in the Caribbean until 15 June 1958, when she sailed on another Mediterranean cruise returning to her newly assigned home port, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, on 4 September.

The carrier operated out of Quonset Point until 29 June 1960, when she made a midshipmen's cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia, returning on 12 August. Beginning on 7 February, she made a cruise to the Caribbean, returning on 2 March.

Project Mercury
Lake Champlain was selected as the prime recovery ship for America's first crewed space flight. She sailed for the recovery area on 1 May, and was on station on 5 May when Commander Alan Shepard was recovered, along with his spacecraft Freedom 7, after splashdown some 300 mi down range from Cape Canaveral. Helicopters from the carrier visually tracked the descent of the capsule and were over it two minutes after splashdown. They recovered Shepard and the Freedom 7 capsule, delivering them safely to Lake Champlain's flight deck.

During retrieval, the vessel was under the command of then-Captain Ralph Weymouth. There were some complications in retrieval, as the helicopters that were to retrieve Alan Shepard from the craft did not have the explosive squibs required to cut the Mercury craft's radio antenna. The Mercury craft's antenna was designed to help locate the craft if it landed out of visual tracking range. The antenna would have gotten in the way of retrieving Shepard from the craft if it had deployed; fortunately, it had a malfunction and was unable to deploy.

Caribbean and Cuban blockade

For the next year, the ship operated along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. In June 1962, she and her escorts embarked First and Third Class Regular NROTC Midshipmen for a summer training cruise from NAS Quonset Point to offshore training areas, Canadian Forces Base Halifax, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, and Kingston, Jamaica, where she represented the US at the island's celebration of its independence on 3 August. The midshipmen acted as tour guides for visitors aboard and provided an honor guard ashore for then-VP Lyndon Johnson's speech in a local park.

On 24 October, Lake Champlain joined in a classic exercise of sea power – the quarantine of Cuba, where the Soviet Union was constructing bases for offensive missiles. To block this grave threat, U.S. warships deployed throughout the western Atlantic, choking off the flow of military supplies to Cuba and enforcing American demands for the withdrawal of the Russian offensive missiles.

After the American demands were substantially complied with, Lake Champlain sailed for home on 23 November via St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and arrived Quonset Point on 4 December 1962. For the next few months the carrier was in New England waters for operations and overhaul. In September 1963, while she was on a cruise to Guantanamo Bay, her training schedule was interrupted when she was ordered to Haiti to relieve distress caused by Hurricane Flora. Her helicopters located homeless victims and flew them food and medical supplies.

On 6 May 1964, an collision occurred between Lake Champlain and the destroyer USS Decatur (DD-936) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean. No one was injured during the accident and Decatur sailed back to Norfolk under her own power with significant damage to her mast, superstructure and stack.

North Atlantic and Project Gemini
Lake Champlain returned to Quonset Point on 9 November for operations in New England waters. She visited Bermuda briefly in spring of 1964 and steamed to Spain in the fall for landings near Huelva. She sailed on 6 November from Barcelona for the United States, touched at Gibraltar and arrived at Quonset Point on 25 November. The first half of 1965 found Lake Champlain performing training duties and conducting exercises up and down the East Coast, and on 19 January 1965, was the recovery ship for the uncrewed Gemini 2 mission. For FY 1966, the Navy proposed a modernization program for Lake Champlain. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara refused to authorize the proposal, citing the limited effectiveness of anti-submarine carriers.

Lake Champlain completed her last major duty on 29 August 1965 when she served as the primary recovery ship for Gemini 5. Shortly afterward, she sailed to Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she commenced inactivation. She was decommissioned on 2 May 1966 and was laid up in the Reserve Fleet.

The Spanish Navy considered acquiring Lake Champlain but instead chose the Independence-class aircraft carrier carrier USS Cabot (CVL-28), which was renamed Dédalo.

The 24-year-old Lake Champlain was stricken from the Navy List on 1 December 1969, and sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping on 28 April 1972.

title: USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)


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USS Valley Forge (CV-45)

USS Valley Forge (CV/CVA/CVS-45, LPH-8) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the first US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named after Valley Forge, the 1777–1778 winter encampment of General George Washington's Continental Army. Valley Forge was commissioned in November 1946, too late to serve in World War II, but saw extensive service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was reclassified in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), then to an antisubmarine carrier (CVS), and finally to an amphibious assault ship (LPH), carrying helicopters and Marines. As a CVS she served in the Atlantic and Caribbean. She was the prime recovery vessel for an early uncrewed Mercury space mission. After conversion to an LPH she served extensively in the Vietnam War. Valley Forge was awarded eight battle stars for Korean War service and nine for Vietnam War service, as well as three Navy Unit Commendations.

Although she was extensively modified internally as part of her conversion to an amphibious assault ship, external modifications were minor, so throughout her career Valley Forge retained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex-class ship. She was decommissioned in 1970, and sold for scrap in 1971.

Construction and Commissioning
The citizens of the Philadelphia area in 1945 bought over $76,000,000 worth of E Bonds during the Seventh War Loan Drive to pay for Valley Forge—equal to $ in. School children of Philadelphia sold $7,769,351 of these bonds (equivalent to $ in ).

The ship was one of the "long-hull" Essex-class aircraft carrier, laid down on 7 September 1944 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Like all long-hull Essex-class ships, she was 888 ft long overall and 820 ft at the waterline. Her beam was 147 ft at the extreme and 93 ft at the waterline. Her draft was 28 ft at standard load and 30 ft full load. As designed, her displacement was 27500 LT standard and 33400 LT full load.

For propulsion, the ships in her class had eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers producing steam at 565 psi and 850 F delivering 150000 shp. She used four Westinghouse geared turbines connected to four 14 ft diameter propellers. She was designed for a maximum speed of 33 kn and a range of 15440 nmi at 15 kn. During sea trials, her engines produced 154000 shp and she attained 32.93 kn. She carried 6300 LT of fuel oil and 231650 USgal of aviation gasoline.

For armament, she was originally equipped with a battery of twelve 5 in/38 caliber guns, eight mounts of four 40-mm Bofors guns and 46 20-mm Oerlikon cannon. She was protected by 1.5 in of armor on the hangar and protective decks while her belt armor was 2.5 to(-) thick. Protective bulkheads had 4 in of armor. The conning tower had 1.5 in of Special Treatment Steel (STS) on the top and there was 1 in of STS on the sides of the pilot house. The steering gear had a 2.5 in deck.

Her flight deck was 862 x and her hangar deck was 654 x by 17 ft high. She was equipped with two elevators, each 48 x with a capacity of 28000 lb, two flight deck aircraft catapults, and the Mark IV arresting gear. She was designed to carry 36 fighter aircraft, 36 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo bombers but this changed through her career as her mission and naval aircraft changed. Her design complement was 268 officers and 2363 men. By the end of the war, the Essex-class carriers had a complement of 3385 officers and men.

Being one of the youngest Essex-class carriers, Valley Forge did not receive the SCB-27 or SCB-125 modifications that her older sisters received. She maintained the World War II-style straight flight deck throughout her life. Her armament was changed in 1954 with her conversion to an antisubmarine carrier CVS-45. Her 20 mm Oerlikon cannon were removed and she carried the original twelve 5 in/38 caliber guns and a total of 72 40 mm Bofors guns.

She was launched on 18 November 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Mildred Vandegrift (née Strode), wife of Alexander A. Vandegrift, the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Valley Forge was commissioned on 3 November 1946, with Captain John W. Harris in command.

As a commissioning gift, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania presented Valley Forge with the finest State Silver Service ever presented to the Navy. The service was designed and made by Philadelphia silversmiths in 1904 and was originally placed aboard USS Pennsylvania (ACR-4). The elaborate service was decorated in tradition with Neptune, sea horses and dolphins as well as historic scenes and personalities and a State seal.

1947–1950
Following fitting out, on 16 Jan 1947 the first eleven aircraft landed on Valley Forge. A Vought F4U Corsair piloted by Commander H. H. Hirshey, the Commanding Officer of VF5B was the first to land on the new carrier. The next day, 96 aircraft and personnel from Air Group 5 were taken aboard.

The carrier got underway on 24 January for shakedown training, which took her, via Naval Station Norfolk, to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and the Panama Canal Zone. She completed the cruise on 18 March and returned to Philadelphia for post-shakedown overhaul. The ship left Philadelphia on 14 July, headed south, and transited the Panama Canal on 5 August and a message was sent to Commander Air Pacific (ComAirPac) – "USS Valley Forge reporting for duty". She arrived at her new home port, Naval Base San Diego on 14 August and joined the United States Pacific Fleet.

Round the World Cruise

Following the embarkation of Air Group 11 and intensive air and gunnery training in coastal waters, the aircraft carrier – flying the flag of Rear Admiral Harold L. Martin, Commander of Task Force 38 (TF 38) – got underway for Hawaii on 9 October. The task force devoted almost three months to training operations out of Naval Station Pearl Harbor before sailing for Australia on 16 January 1948. After a visit to Sydney, the American warships conducted exercises with units of the Royal Australian Navy and then steamed to Hong Kong.

During a voyage from the British crown colony to Tsingtao, China, orders arrived directing the task force to return home via the Atlantic with her escorting destroyers. The ship continued the round-the-world trip with calls at Hong Kong, Singapore, and Trincomalee, Ceylon. On 21 March 1948 at 0800, she was at 18-43'N and 64-33'E – halfway around the world. She visited the Persian Gulf and anchored off the ARAMCO refinery in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia as a gesture of goodwill from the American government. On 25 March, the ship's complement "manned the rail" for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and officers attended a banquet given by Crown Prince of Damman. Rounding the Arabian peninsula, she became the largest aircraft carrier and the longest ship at that time to transit the Suez Canal. On 6 April she joined with the Mediterranean Fleet carrier USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), cruisers USS Rochester (CA-124), USS Manchester (CL-83), USS Dayton (CL-105), and six destroyers for three days of sea exercises.

After a call at Gibraltar and then entering the Atlantic Ocean, she set a course to Bergen, Norway. On 29 April, she moored in Bergen after a 25 mi trip through the treacherous fjords with snow squalls reducing visibility to less than 100 ft at times. The crew paraded through the main part of the city, causing concern, as this was the way the German occupation entered in World War II. On 1 May, a "May Day" parade and celebration was held; unfortunately for the crew, all local pubs were closed. Air Group 11 flew in parade formation over the Capital City of Oslo, spelling the name of King Haakon VII.

The ship was underway 4 May for Portsmouth, England; the historic base of the Royal Navy. After firing a 21-gun salute while passing the imposing HMS Duke of York (17), the ship was moored near HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson's flagship. The Commander of 6th Fleet authorized 72-hour staggered liberty pass for all hands.

Underway 13 May to New York; on 22 May entered the Lower New York Bay. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Louis Denfield, who was instrumental in initiating the World cruise, was welcomed aboard for a visit. Underway 27 May for the Panama Canal, she arrived 11 June in San Diego Bay.

In July 1948, new squadrons joined Valley Forge bringing with them the Navy's newly introduced aircraft, the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, and the Navy's first jet fighters, the McDonnell F2H Banshee and the Grumman F9F Panther. These squadrons gave new capabilities to the ship. Intensive air operations and additional training and exercises commenced with the new aircraft.

Korean War

Valley Forge deployed to the Far East, departing the west coast on 1 May 1950. While anchored in Hong Kong harbor on 25 June, the warship received the news that North Korean forces had attacked across the 38th parallel into South Korea. Departing Hong Kong the next day, the carrier steamed south to U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, where she provisioned, fueled, and set her course for Okinawa. On 28 June, Valley Forge became flagship of the United States Seventh Fleet and formed Task Force 77 with cruiser Rochester and six destroyers. On 30 June, Task Force 77 rendezvoused with ships of the Royal Navy including the cruiser HMS Jamaica (44), the carrier HMS Triumph (R16), and two British destroyers, under the command of Rear Admiral Andrews, RN.

The first carrier air strike of the Korean War was launched from Valley Forge's flight deck on 3 July 1950. Successive waves of A-1 Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs struck the North Korean airfield at Pyongyang bombing hangars, fuel storages, parked aircraft, and railroad marshaling yards while F9F Panthers, flying top cover, downed two Yak-9s and damaged another. This was the world's first combat strike by jet aircraft.

In spite of attempts by United Nations forces to stop the steady flow of North Korean infantry and armor, the North steadily pushed the South Koreans back into a tenuous defense perimeter around Pusan.

On September 4, 1950, Chance Vought F4U Corsairs of VF-53 took off from the ship to chase down 2 Douglas A-20 Havoc of the Soviet Naval Aviation over the Yellow Sea and shot down one to prevent them from finding a concentration of American ships preparing for the Incheon landing.

On 18 September 1950, the American landing at Inchon outflanked the North Koreans while United Nations forces broke out of the perimeter to the south. After the landing at Inchon, the tide of battle changed and Korean, American, and other allied troops pushed northward and crossed the 38th parallel into North Korea. Valley Forge's Air Group 5 made numerous daily strikes against North Korean targets. Troop concentrations, defensive positions, and supply and communications lines were repeatedly bombed by the A-1 Skyraiders and the F9F Panthers and F4U Corsairs delivered rocket and cannon fire. Over 5,000 combat sorties delivered 2000 ST of bombs and rockets between 3 July and 19 November 1950. During this time, Valley Forge maintained a high operational record as she steamed up and down the coast of Korea, a distance equal to twice around the world.

Second Deployment
Returning to San Diego for overhaul, Valley Forge arrived on the west coast on 1 December, only to have sailing orders urgently direct her back to Korea. In the interim, between the carrier's leaving station and her planned overhaul, Chinese forces had entered the war, launching a powerful offensive which sent United Nations troops retreating back to the south. Accordingly, Valley Forge hurriedly embarked a new air group, about 100 planes and 10 helicopters; replenished, 1000 ST of provisions and stores and 850 ST of ammunition were loaded in record time of three days; and sailed on 6 December for the Far East.

Rendezvousing with Task Force 77 three days before Christmas of 1950, Valley Forge recommenced air strikes on the 23rd and continued for three months of concentrated air operations against the advancing Chinese and North Korean forces. The first offensive air operations consisting of close air support missions assisting soldiers and marines on the ground. F4U Corsair and A-1 Skyraider pilots struck at troop concentrations, supply dumps, bridges, gun emplacements and railroad equipment. The United Nation forces were able to move north again on the Korean Peninsula and up to the 38th parallel. During her second deployment, the ship launched some 2,580 sorties in which her planes delivered some 1500 ST of bombs.

On 29 March the Valley Forge turned east and began her voyage back home again to San Diego, after spending almost ten continuous months in Korean waters, arriving at North Island on 7 April. The ship, needing long-awaited yard repairs, sailed to Bremerton, Washington and entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where she underwent a major overhaul.

Third Deployment
Valley Forge returned to San Diego on 10 Aug 1951, ready for a new assignment with the Pacific Fleet. Air Group 1 embarked and she became the first U.S. carrier to return for a third Korean deployment. On 11 December, Valley Forge launched her first air strikes in railway interdiction – keep supplies from reaching enemy front lines. Rockets, cannon fire, and bombs from the ship's air group, and those of her sister ships also on station, hammered at North Korean railway targets – lines, junctions, marshaling yards, and rolling stock. By June, Valley Forge's Skyraiders, Corsairs, and Panthers had severed rail lines in at least 5,346 places. She returned to her homeport in San Diego on 3 July 1952.

Fourth Deployment
In October 1952, she was reclassified an attack carrier and redesignated CVA-45. Again, in October 1952 she stood out and headed for the Far East. She now had become the only U.S. carrier to return to the Korea combat zone four times. On 2 January 1953, Captained by Robert E. Dixon, she began the new year with strikes against Chinese supply dumps and troop billeting areas behind the stalemated front lines. While the propeller-driven Skyraiders and Corsairs delivered tons of bombs on their targets, the jet Panthers conducted flak-suppression missions using a combination of cannon fire and rockets to knock out troublesome enemy gun sites. This close teamwork between old and new style planes made possible regular strikes against Korea's eastern coastlines and close-support missions to aid embattled Marine or Army forces on the battle lines. Valley Forge air groups dropped some 3700 ST of bombs on the enemy before the ship left the Korean coast and returned to San Diego on 25 June 1953.

1954–1960
After a west-coast overhaul, Valley Forge was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet and reclassified – this time to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier – and redesignated CVS-45. She was refitted for her new duties at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and then rejoined the Fleet in January 1954. The carrier soon got underway to conduct exercises to develop and perfect the techniques and capabilities needed to carry out her new duties. Conducting local operations and antisubmarine warfare exercises, Valley Forge operated off the east coast through late 1960, varied by a visit to England and the eastern Atlantic for exercises late in 1954. Her operations during this period also included midshipman and reservists' training cruises and occasional visits to the Caribbean.

Carrying out training operations out of Guantanamo Bay in 1957, Valley Forge accomplished an American naval "first" in October, when she embarked the ship's landing party and twin-engined HR2S-1 Mojave helicopters. Experimenting with the new concept of "vertical envelopment"; first pioneered by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines during the Suez Crisis in 1956; Valley Forge's helicopters air-lifted the landing party to the beachhead and then returned them to the ship in the U.S. Navy's first ship-based air assault exercise. In March she again joined ships of the Amphibious Force for a major amphibious landing exercise, LANTPHIBEX 1-58. She off loaded nearly 1,400 Marines, landing them ashore from troop-carrying helicopters.

On 1 April 1958, Rear Admiral John S. Thach hoisted his two-star flag to the carrier's main as the ship became flagship of Task Group Alpha (TG Alpha). This group, built around Valley Forge, included eight destroyers, two submarines, and one squadron each of antisubmarine helicopters and airplanes; a detachment of airborne early warning airplanes, modified A-1 Skyraiders called "guppies" because of their bulging ventral Radomes; and a land-based Lockheed P-2 Neptune. A significant development in naval tactics, TG Alpha concentrated solely on developing and perfecting new devices and techniques for countering the potential menace of enemy submarines in an age of nuclear propulsion and deep-diving submersibles.

Observing the New Year (1958–1959) at sea, the carrier was steaming in very heavy weather when she was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with a merchant ship. Heavy seas severely damaged the forward portion of the flight deck, requiring her to proceed to the New York Naval Shipyard for repairs. To ready her for service as quickly as possible, a corresponding 30 x section was taken from the flight deck of the inactive carrier USS Franklin (CVS-13), berthed at Bayonne, New Jersey. The damaged section was cut away from Valley Forge's flight deck and the Franklin deck piece installed in its place. A bronze plaque was mounted on the newly replaced deck section to commemorate how the Franklin was damaged in action off Japan in April 1945.

Valley Forge remained engaged in operations with TG Alpha through the early fall of 1959, when she then entered the New York Naval Shipyard for repairs. The ship returned to sea on 21 January 1960, bound for maneuvers in the Caribbean. During her ensuing operations, the carrier served as the launching platform for Operation Skyhook. This widely publicized scientific experiment involved the launching of three of the largest balloons ever fabricated, carrying devices to measure and record primary cosmic ray emissions at an altitude of between 18 and 22 mi above the Earth's surface. Following a deployment in the eastern Mediterranean Valley Forge returned to Norfolk to resume local operations on 30 August, continuing antisubmarine exercises as flagship of TG Alpha through the fall of 1960.

On 19 December, the carrier acted as the primary recovery ship for the Mercury-Redstone 1A uncrewed space capsule, the first flight of the Redstone rocket as part of Project Mercury. Her helicopters retrieved the capsule, launched from Cape Canaveral, after its successful 15-minute flight and splashdown. Two days later off Cape Hatteras, in response to an SOS, Valley Forge sped to the aid of the tanker SS Pine Ridge, which had broken in two during a storm. While the survivors of the stricken ship clung to the after half of the tanker, the carrier's helicopters shuttled back and forth to pick up the men in distress. Soon, all 28 survivors were safe on board Valley Forge.

1961–1964

Entering the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 6 March 1961 for overhaul and modification to an amphibious assault ship, Valley Forge was reclassified as LPH-8 on 1 July 1961 and, soon thereafter, began refresher training in the Caribbean. She returned to Hampton Roads in September and trained in the Virginia capes area with newly embarked, troop-carrying helicopters. In October, the ship – as a part of the Atlantic Fleet's ready amphibious force – proceeded south to waters off Hispaniola and stood by from 21–25 October and from 18–29 November to be ready to evacuate any American nationals from the Dominican Republic of needed during the struggle for power in the months following the assassination of Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo.

After returning home late in the year, Valley Forge sailed from Norfolk on 6 January 1962, bound for Long Beach and duty with the Pacific Fleet. At the end of three months of training off the west coast, the amphibious assault ship steamed westward for duty in the Far East with the Seventh Fleet. With the flag of the Commander, Ready Amphibious Task Group, 7th Fleet at her main, Valley Forge closed the coast of Indochina under orders to put ashore her embarked Marines. In Laos, communist Pathet Lao forces had renewed their assault on the Royal Laotian Government and the latter requested President John F. Kennedy to land troops to avert a feared, full-scale communist invasion of the country. The amphibious assault ship airlifted her Marines into the country on 17 May and, when the crisis had abated a few weeks later, carried them out again in July.

For the remainder of 1962, the ship operated in the Far East before returning to the west coast of the United States to spend the first half of 1963 in amphibious exercises off the coast of California and in the Hawaiian Islands. Valley Forge entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard on 1 July 1963 for a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul, including the installation of improved electronics and facilities for transporting and handling troops and troop helicopters. Putting to sea again on 27 January 1964, the newly modernized assault ship rejoined the fleet and, following local operations and training, departed Long Beach for another WestPac deployment. She stopped at Pearl Harbor and Okinawa, en route to Hong Kong, and then steamed to Taiwan. In June, she joined ships of other SEATO navies in amphibious exercises and then visited the Philippines, where in July she was awarded the Battle Efficiency "E".

Vietnam War

On 2 August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731) in the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Valley Forge then spent 57 days at sea off the Vietnamese coast in readiness to land its Marines if required.

Returning to Long Beach on 5 November, Valley Forge made two round-trip voyages to Okinawa carrying marines and aircraft before commencing a WestPac deployment in the South China Sea in late 1965. With a Marine landing force embarked and flying the flag of Commander, Amphibious Squadron 3, Valley Forge conducted intensive training exercises in the Philippines while preparing for service in Vietnam.

In mid-November, the amphibious assault ship stood by in reserve during Operation Blue Marlin and then airlifted its marines ashore for Operation Dagger Thrust and Operation Harvest Moon before spending the Christmas season in Okinawa. After embarking a fresh Marine battalion and a medium transport helicopter squadron, it sailed for South Vietnam on 3 January 1966. Following pauses at Subic Bay and Chu Lai, Valley Forge arrived off the Vietnamese coast on 27 January and, two days later, launched its landing forces to take part in Operation Double Eagle. Remaining on station off the coast, the ship provided logistic and medical support with inbound helicopters supplying the men ashore and outbound helicopters evacuating casualties for medical treatment back on the ship. Reembarking its landing team on 17 February, Valley Forge proceeded northward, while its Marines rested. The second phase of "Double Eagle" commenced two days later, and the ship's Marines again went ashore via helicopter to attack enemy concentrations. By 26 February, the operation had drawn to a close, and Valley Forge reembarked its Marines and sailed for Subic Bay.

Following a round trip to Đà Nẵng, the carrier steamed back to the west coast for an overhaul and local training along the California coast before again deploying to WestPac. Upon its return to Vietnamese waters, the ship took part in operations off Đà Nẵng before it again returned to the United States at the end of the year 1966.

After undergoing a major overhaul and conducting training off the west coast, Valley Forge returned to the Far East again in November 1967 and took part in Operation Fortress Ridge, launched on 21 December. Air-landing its troops at a point just south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the ship provided continual supply and medical evacuation (Medevac) services for this "search and destroy" operation aimed at eliminating People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) units which threatened American and South Vietnamese troops. The completion of this operation on the day before Christmas 1967 did not mark the end of Valley Forge's operations for this year, however, as it was again in action during Operation Badger Tooth, near Quảng Trị in northern South Vietnam.

Upkeep at Đà Nẵng preceded its deployment to its new station off Đồng Hới, where it provided her necessary resupply and MedEvac support for Allied troops operating against PAVN forces. Operation Badger Catch, commencing on 23 January 1968 and extending through 18 February, supported the Cửa Việt Base, at the mouth of the Thạch Hãn River south of the DMZ, before the ship set course for Subic Bay and much-needed maintenance.

Subsequently, returning to Vietnam, Valley Forge operated as "Helo Haven" for Marine helicopter units whose shore bases had come under attack by PAVN ground and artillery fire. During Operation Badger Catch II, from 6 March – 14 April, Marine helicopters landed on board the carrier while their land bases were being cleared of PAVN troops. Following a routine refit at Subic Bay, the ship took part in Operation Badger Catch III from 28 April – 3 June. It then moved to Đà Nẵng and prepared for Operation Swift Saber which took place from 7–14 June. Landing Exercise Hilltop XX occupied the ship early in July. Then Valley Forge transferred its Marines and helicopters to USS Tripoli (LPH-10) and headed home via Hong Kong, Okinawa, and Pearl Harbor. She reached Long Beach on 3 August.

Following five months on the west coast which included local operations and an overhaul, the amphibious assault ship returned to the Far East for the last time departing Long Beach on 30 January 1969.

At San Diego, it embarked a cargo of Marine Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters for delivery to transport squadrons in Vietnam. The ship stopped at Pearl Harbor and paused near Guam while one of its helicopters carried a stricken crewman ashore for urgent surgery. It loaded special landing-force equipment at Subic Bay and embarked the Commander, Special Landing Forces Bravo and a squadron of Marine Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopters. On 10 March, the carrier began operating in support of Operation Defiant Measure, steaming off Đà Nẵng as its helicopters flew missions "on the beach". This was completed by 18 March, and Valley Forge debarked its helicopters before steaming to Subic Bay for upkeep.

After its return to Đà Nẵng on 3 May, the ship reembarked its helicopters as well as part of a battalion landing team of Marines who had been taking part in fighting ashore. The carrier continued to operate in the Đà Nẵng area during the weeks that followed, its helicopters flying frequent support missions, and its Marines preparing for further combat landings.

During late May and early June, Valley Forge received visits from Secretary of the Navy John Chafee and Vice Admiral William F. Bringle, Commander 7th Fleet. It offloaded its Marines at Đà Nẵng on 10 June and embarked a battalion landing team for transportation to Okinawa, where it arrived on 16 June. The landing team conducted amphibious exercises with Valley Forge for 11 days and boarded the ship for a voyage to Subic Bay where they continued the training process. Valley Forge returned to the Đà Nẵng area on 8 July and resumed flying helicopter support for Marine ground forces in the northern I Corps area. The ship took evasive action to avoid an approaching typhoon and then began preparations for an amphibious operation.

Operation Brave Armada began on 24 July with a helicopter-borne assault on suspected Việt Cộng and PAVN positions in Quảng Ngãi Province. Valley Forge remained in the Quảng Ngãi–Chu Lai area to support this attack until its completion on 7 August. It then steamed to Đà Nẵng to debark its Marines. General Leonard F. Chapman, Jr., the Commandant of the Marine Corps, visited Valley Forge that same day. The ship sailed for Okinawa on 13 August arriving four days later and debarking its helicopter squadron before getting underway again to evade another typhoon. It proceeded to Hong Kong, and on 22 August, received a message announcing its forthcoming inactivation. It returned to Đà Nẵng on 3 September to load material for shipment to the United States and sailed that evening for U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka for three days of upkeep before leaving the Far East.

Decommissioning
Valley Forge got underway from Yokosuka on 11 September 1969 and anchored at Long Beach on 22 September. After leave and upkeep, she offloaded ammunition and equipment at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach and Naval Base San Diego. The ship returned to Long Beach on 31 October to prepare for decommissioning. This process continued through the new year; and on 15 January 1970, Valley Forge was placed out of commission. Her name was struck from the Navy List on the same day.

While at Long Beach, from 14–28 February 1971, the interior of the aircraft carrier was used as a shooting location for filming the 1972 science fiction film Silent Running. The central location of the film is a 2000 ft long space-bound cargo freighter, carrying six large geodesic domes, under which the last forests of an environmentally-devastated Earth are kept.

The producers of the film were searching for pre-existing locations which could represent the cargo deck, control rooms, and living quarters of a fictional "space freighter." Building sets on Hollywood sound stages would have been prohibitively expensive, so in order to minimize the impact on the film's minimal budget, various large interior locations were investigated, including warehouses, cargo ships, and oil tankers. After contacting the United States Navy with a query about the use of aircraft carriers, the producers were directed to several decommissioned Essex-class carriers awaiting scrapping at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, including the USS Valley Forge, and fellow carriers Philippine Sea and USS Princeton (CV-37). The type of location proved to be perfect for the film, the Valley Forge was selected, and a deal was struck with the Navy. In honor of the filming location, the space freighter of the film was christened Valley Forge.

The carrier's hangar deck was featured in the film as a cargo hold, which was repainted and filled with polystyrene modules representing futuristic cargo containers. Her flight command area was heavily modified to represent the control room and living quarters of the fictional space ship crew. Bulkheads were cut out and replaced with wider passageways to allow for camera and actor movement. Set pieces, computer consoles, and various props were moved in to dress the ship as the space freighter. The production crew was allowed to do anything they wanted with the ship, as long as no metal was removed. All power and water had to be imported, as the crew was not allowed to use ship power. Filming was hampered by the tight confines of the carrier, necessitating several innovations in the filming process.

Eight months after filming wrapped, and after the failure of attempts to raise funds for using the ship as a museum, she was sold on 29 October 1971 to the Nicolai Joffre Corporation, of Beverly Hills, California, for scrap.

Awards
Valley Forge was awarded eight battle stars for Korean War service and nine for Vietnam War service, as well as a Navy Unit Commendation.

title: USS Valley Forge (CV-45)


text:
Rocket Robin Hood

Rocket Robin Hood is a Canadian animated television series, placing the characters and conflicts of the classic Robin Hood legend in a futuristic, outer space setting. It was produced by Krantz Films, Inc. and aired on CBC Television from 1966 to 1969.

Summary
Rocket Robin Hood leads his "Merry Men"—including the strong, dimwitted and likeable Little John; consummate overeater Friar Tuck (who designs all of the Merry Men's weaponry); his two-fisted, red-headed cousin Will Scarlet; Robin's plucky girlfriend Maid Marian; his sharp-witted right-hand man Alan-a-Dale; scrawny and feisty camp cook Giles (a reformed crook and Gabby Hayes-type); and other characters from the classic story of Robin Hood. They live in "the astonishing year 3000" on New Sherwood Forest Asteroid and are determined to foil the despotic plans of Prince John and his bumbling lackey, the Sheriff of N.O.T.T. (National Outer-space Terrestrial Territories) and other villains such as Dr. Medulla, Manta, Nocturne and the Warlord of Saturn. Rocket Robin Hood and his merry men fly in spaceships and use weapons such as "electro-quarterstaffs".

Each 22-minute episode is divided into three segments, with cliffhangers between the first and second part and the second and third part. All episodes also feature short vignettes of the various characters.

A male chorus sang the opening and closing themes for each of the three seasons in the style of traditional old English ballads mixed with military marches.

Voice cast

 * Carl Banas as Titanor / Dr. Manta
 * Len Birman as Rocket Robin Hood
 * Chris Wiggins as Will Scarlet / Infinata / Baron Blank
 * Bernard Cowan as Narrator
 * Ed McNamara as Little John
 * Paul Kligman as Friar Tuck
 * Gillie Fenwick as the Sheriff of N.O.T.T.
 * John Scott as Prince John

Background
Rocket Robin Hood was produced and animated at Trillium Productions, an animation studio that was part of the Guest Group—a creative group of companies owned by producer Al Guest. One of the key animators was Jean Mathieson, one of the first female animators in Canada, who later formed Rainbow Animation in Canada and Magic Shadows Inc in the U.S. with Guest, where they continued to produce animated TV programming.

Background designer Richard H. Thomas joined the group late in the second season and brought a dark, almost psychedelic feel to the production under Associate Producer for Krantz Films Ralph Bakshi, who would later become a well known animation producer and would be responsible for, among other series, the animated film versions of Fritz the Cat and The Lord of the Rings. Third-season episodes were animated at Ralph's Spot in New York City, although voices continued to be recorded in Toronto. One of the show's chief designers during this time was science fiction illustrator/comic book artist Gray Morrow.

Bernard Cowan was the show's narrator. Paul Kligman, who voiced J. Jonah Jameson in the 1960s animated version of Spider-Man, was the voice of Friar Tuck. Len Birman, who appeared in the movies Silver Streak (1976) and Bayo (1985), was the voice of Rocket Robin Hood. Len Carlson subbed for Birman as Rocket Robin Hood in some third-season episodes. Carl Banas was the voice of Titanor / Dr. Manta. Ed McNamara provided the voice of Little John. Chris Wiggins was the voice of Will Scarlet.

There was also a French version titled Robin Fusée, broadcast on French-language television in Canada.

Connection to Spider-Man
The Spider-Man episodes "Phantom from the Depths of Time" and "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" were largely recycled animation from two episodes ("From Menace to Menace" and "Dementia Five") of Rocket Robin Hood, with Spider-Man substituted for Rocket Robin Hood on the animation cels.

Broadcast
In Canada, the show aired on Toronto's CITY-TV in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as CHEX-TV in Peterborough and on CJOH-TV in the Ottawa area. On some occasions, reruns of the show would air in the early morning hours on YTV during the early-mid 1990s.

In South Korea, the show was retitled 로빈후드의 모험 or 로빈후드 (Robin Hood's Adventure or simply Robin Hood), it aired every Monday at 6:35 PM to 7:15 PM (KST) on KBS from November 30, 1970, to September 20, 1971.

In Japan, the series was dubbed by Transglobal and it aired on Fuji TV and other FNS stations from May 1, 1971 to circa 1972. The series was last aired on Nippon TV via おーい!まんがだヨー block in circa 1973. In Hong Kong and Macau, the show aired on Rediffusion Television titled 太空羅賓漢 (Robin Hood in Space), it aired from December 3, 1979, to December 28, 1979. Later, the show was reaired from December 28, 1980, to January 17, 1982, on the same network.

In the UK, the series aired on ITV and its various regional stations from 1968 with regular repeat runs throughout the 1970s and early 80s until 1983.

Currently, the series airs on the RetroTV digital subchannel network in the United States.

DVD release
E1 Entertainment released Volume 1, which contains almost all of season 1, in November 2009 as a four-DVD set (English and French versions, 592 minutes). E1 stated that the episode "Safari" was not included due to unavailable footage.

Volume 2, which encompasses all of seasons 2 and 3, was released in May 2010 also as a four-DVD set (English and French versions, 714 minutes). The French versions of these DVD collections are available separately as Robin fusée.

title: Rocket Robin Hood


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USS Philippine Sea (CV-47)

USS Philippine Sea (CV/CVA/CVS-47, AVT-11) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers of the United States Navy, and the first ship to be named for the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She was launched on 5 September 1945, after the end of World War II, and sponsored by the wife of the Governor of Kentucky.

During her career, Philippine Sea served first in the Atlantic Ocean and saw several deployments to the Mediterranean Sea as well as a trip to Antarctica as a part of Operation Highjump. Sent to the Korean Peninsula at the outbreak of the Korean War, she sent aircraft in support of United Nations ground troops, first during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter and then during the Inchon Landings and the Second Battle of Seoul. She subsequently supported UN troops during the surprise Chinese attack and the Chosin Reservoir Campaign. Philippine Sea saw three tours to Korea during the war, receiving nine battle stars for her service.

For the remainder of her service, she operated primarily out of San Diego and San Francisco, seeing several deployments to the Far East and being redesignated an anti-submarine warfare carrier. She was decommissioned on 28 December 1958 and sold for scrap in 1970.

Construction
Philippine Sea was the last of the 24 Essex-class aircraft carrier ships to be completed, among the largest and most numerous capital ships produced for World War II. CV-47 was ordered simultaneously to USS Valley Forge (CV-45) and USS Iwo Jima (CV-46) in June 1943.

The ship was one of the "long-hull" designs of the class, which had begun production after March 1943. This "long-hull" variant involved lengthening the bow above the waterline into a "clipper" form. The increased rake and flare provided deck space for two quadruple 40 mm mounts; these units also had the flight deck slightly shortened forward to provide better arcs of fire. Of the Essex-class ships laid down after 1942, only USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) followed the original "short-hull" design. The later ships have been variously referred to as the "long-bow units", the "long-hull group", or the "Ticonderoga class". However, the U.S. Navy never maintained any institutional distinction between the long-hull and short-hull members of the Essex class, and applied postwar refits and upgrades to both groups equally. The ship was powered by eight 600 psi Babcock & Wilcox boilers, and Westinghouse geared steam turbines that developed 150,000 shaft horsepower that turned four propellers. Like other Essex-class carriers, she had a maximum speed of 33 kn. The ship's cost is estimated at $68,000,000 to $78,000,000.

Like other "long-hull" Essex-class carriers, Philippine Sea had a displacement of 27100 t. She had an overall length of 888 ft, a beam of 93 ft and a draft of 39 ft. The ship was powered by 150000 shp steam turbines with a designed range of 20000 nmi. While Essex-class carriers typically had a designed maximum speed of 33 kn, Philippine Sea only made 30 kn on sea trials. The ship had a total crew complement of 3,310. Like other Essex-class ships, she was armed with twelve 38-caliber 5-inch (127 mm) dual-purpose guns arrayed in four twin and four single mountings, as well as 8 quadruple Bofors 40 mm guns and a variable number of Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. Unlike her sisters, however, Philippine Sea substituted additional Bofors guns for the Oerlikons with forty-four 40 mm guns arrayed in 10 quadruple and two double mounts.

The keel of CV-47 was laid down 19 August 1944 at the Bethlehem Steel Company in Quincy, Massachusetts. Originally, the ship was to be named USS Wright in honor of the Wright brothers, but following the 19 June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Navy decided that the ship be named after the battle, and on 13 February 1945, she was renamed. Construction on the ship continued throughout the summer of 1945, but Philippine Sea was not completed at the time of V-E Day. The ship was launched on 5 September 1945, only days after V-J Day and the end of World War II. She was christened by the wife of Governor of Kentucky Albert "Happy" Chandler.

Service history

Philippine Sea commissioned on 11 May 1946, when Rear Admiral Morton Deyo placed the ship under the command of Captain Delbert Strother Cornwell at the Boston Navy Yard in South Boston, Massachusetts. The ship remained drydocked at the yard for two weeks before sailing for Naval Air Station Quonset Point on 13 June. However, a shortage of men following the post-World War II demobilization forced her to remain at reduced operational status until 23 September when she embarked for sea trials.

Returning from trials on 27 September, the carrier embarked Carrier Air Group 20, which flew two squadrons of Grumman F8F Bearcat fighter aircraft as well as a squadron each of Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers and Grumman TBM-3E Avenger torpedo bombers, about 90 aircraft total. She left port 30 September and commenced training en route to Norfolk, Virginia. CVG-20 Commander Robert M. Milner made the first takeoff from the carrier on 1 October aboard a Bearcat. Philippine Sea departed Norfolk Naval Shipyard 12 October for Cuban waters where she conducted an abbreviated shakedown cruise and training exercises for CVG-20's Grumman F8F Bearcats and Curtiss SB2C Helldivers until 20 November.

Following these trials, Philippine Sea was assigned to Operation Highjump. She returned to Quonset and disembarked CVG-20 before sailing for Boston for repairs and alterations. She then headed to Norfolk where Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd boarded her and she took on six Douglas R4D-5 Skytrain transports, two Stinson OY-1 Sentinel liaison aircraft, and a Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter along with cargo, spare parts, skis and Task Force 68 personnel. She left Norfolk 29 December and stood out of Hampton Roads 2 January 1947 en route to Antarctica. Philippine Sea passed through the Panama Canal 8 January and cleared Balboa by 10 January. By 12 January the ship had crossed the equator in an elaborate ceremony, but on 22 January its HO3S-1 was lost due to pilot error, though the crew was recovered. Two days later, it met the remaining ships of Task Force 68. The ship arrived on station on 29 January, 660 mi from Little America, and launched its R4Ds in the next few days to explore the Antarctic. Commander William M. Hawkes and Byrd both disembarked from Philippine Sea aboard the aircraft to begin their expedition. After her aircraft departed, Philippine Sea returned to Quonset, passing through Balboa again on 22 February and arriving back in port on 27 February.

In late March, the carrier embarked Carrier Air Group 9, which flew two squadrons of Gruman F8F Bearcats and Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters as well as a squadron each of SB2C Helldivers and TBM Avengers, and a detachment of HO3S helicopters for a total of about 100 aircraft. She completed her shakedown cruise at Guantánamo Bay until late May. She continued sea trials in the area until 1 July when she arrived at Gravesend Bay, New Jersey, for refit. She was refitted for most of the year at New York Naval Shipyard and Bayonne, New Jersey through 15 November 1947 before conducting trials and training around Quonset and Guantánamo Bay through February 1948. That month, she became flagship of Carrier Division Four led by Rear Admiral Ralph E. Jennings, who established his command aboard her on 4 February. On 20 February she departed for her first deployment in the Mediterranean Sea as part of Vice Admiral Forrest Sherman's 6th Fleet. Here she logged 8,534 flight hours, including 85 hours of night operations. She returned to Quonset 26 June and for repairs to her catapult machinery. She spent the remainder of the year as a part of the Operational Development Force testing new carrier aircraft doctrine, and her pilots logged 750 hours in 670 carrier controlled approach tests and 314 successful landings. On 22 October she was sent to the North Atlantic to conduct cold-weather landing tests and tested problem landing scenarios along the Arctic Circle until 23 November 1948.

In January 1949, Philippine Sea returned to Carrier Division Four under Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark and embarked Carrier Air Group 7 for another tour in the Mediterranean, which had a similar fighter complement. She sailed 4 January with the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CVB-41) and supporting ships. There, she conducted joint exercises with carriers of the British fleet. She returned in late May and began an overhaul at the Boston Naval Shipyard. On 18 August, Captain Raymond R. "Raoul" Waller was assigned as her commanding officer. That fall, the ship returned to the Caribbean to shake down with its new upgrades, this time with Carrier Air Group 1. For the rest of the year, she continued fleet exercises in the North Atlantic and testing for new jet engine powered fighter aircraft to test their abilities to operate on aircraft carriers.

Operating again from her base at Quonset Point, Philippine Sea spent early 1950 qualifying new carrier pilots. During February and most of March, she took part in more fleet exercises throughout the Atlantic. During April and May 1950 she conducted demonstration cruises for guests of the Secretary of the Navy, the Armed Forces Industrial College, Air War College, and the Armed Forces Staff College. On 24 May 1950, Philippine Sea sailed from Norfolk through the Panama Canal, arriving at her new home port of San Diego to join the Pacific Fleet. She was replaced in the Atlantic Fleet by USS Oriskany (CV-34). She was scheduled to begin a tour in the Far East in October 1950 before she was called to combat duty.

Korean War

With the outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, Philippine Sea was ordered to Naval Base Pearl Harbor. She sailed for Hawaiian waters on 5 July with Carrier Air Group 11 embarked, flying four squadrons of Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bombers. The ship departed for Japan on 24 July. Leaving Pearl Harbor, Philippine Sea sailed at full speed for the Western Pacific, reaching Okinawa on 4 August. During this time, she took command of Carrier Division One. She was the third aircraft carrier to arrive in Korea, as her sister ship Valley Forge as well as HMS Triumph (R16) had arrived in July. By the time Philippine Sea arrived in Korea, the UN forces had established superiority in the air and sea.

Philippine Sea arrived in Korean waters on 1 August, and became flagship of Task Force 77 on 5 August. She immediately began launching air strikes against strategic targets, as the Battle of Pusan Perimeter began and United Nations and United States Army forces fought a defensive battle against the North Korean Korean People's Army. Her first strikes were against Iri, Mokpo, and Kunsan. The strikes were at first planned to target North Korean lines of communication but the intensity of the battle at Pusan Perimeter forced the carrier to fly primarily close air support missions for troops on the front lines. They also hit targets of opportunity, such as North Korean boats, bridges and dams spotted during missions. As many as 140 sorties a day were launched from the carrier. Except for brief rests to re-arm, refuel, or repair, Philippine Sea was in action continuously. She was put in a rotation of continuous action with Valley Forge to assure at least one was launching aircraft at all times. Following the beginning of The Great Naktong Offensive on 31 August, the two carriers launched 263 sorties to prevent the North Koreans from overrunning Pusan Perimeter. The ship sent sorties to defend Masan during the Battle of Masan, in spite of being 200 mi from the area. The ship steamed to the southern tip of the Peninsula at 27 kn on 1 September to support the Masan area more easily during the North Korean attacks.

With the other carriers of Task Force 77, Philippine Sea targeted rail and communication centers around North Korean-controlled Seoul to Wonsan in September. The strikes were part of a deception plan to draw North Korean attention away from the UN force massing for an attack on Inchon. Stationed in the Yellow Sea, she sent numerous air attacks on Inchon and Wolmi-do in preparation for Operation Chromite. The day of the operation, 15 September, Philippine Sea dispatched planes far inland to destroy North Korean positions and prevent reinforcements from countering the Inchon landings. Following the initial assault, she continued to provide close air support for the thrust inland to recapture Seoul. During this time, she was joined by USS Boxer (CV-21). They were part of a massive invasion force of some 230 ships and hundreds of aircraft.

On 17 September 1950 a pair of Grumman F9F-2 Panthers launched from the deck of Philippine Sea. VF-112 Ensign Edward D. Jackson Jr. was leading a section dispatched to strafe an airfield near North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. Flying on his wing was Ensign Dayl E. Crow. The airfield turned out to be little more than a grass strip littered with burned and shattered Soviet-built war machines. After strafing a locomotive and setting it ablaze, the jets turned north and started down the Han River. Soon, Jackson spotted about 75 river boats. When they starting receiving small arms fire from "passengers" on the vessels, Crow followed Jackson down as they made a low strafing pass, splintering many of the small craft with 20 mm cannon fire. After the pass both attackers started to climb from 50 ft AGL. Jackson then flew through an aerial booby trap: steel cables strung across the Han to "clothesline" low flying planes. The Panther ripped through the cables like twine, but the whipsawing cable strands caught the starboard wing, shredded the wingtip tank and snapped across the canopy, punching out the windscreen and side windows. The impact knocked Jackson unconscious with severe facial injuries. Crow, flying just astern noticed something wrong, then saw the crushed wing tank and shattered canopy, its inner surface misted with blood. After 20 seconds Jackson regained consciousness and found himself blinded by shards of Plexiglas and blood. Crow was able to guide his leader towards the Yellow Sea, but Jackson was fading in and out of consciousness. With only the left flap down due to damage to the right wing the Panther approached the ship and with the help of LSO Lt.j.g. "Les" Bruestle and Crow the blind pilot trapped the #4 wire on the first attempt. Jackson survived with 36 stitches and an emergency blood transfusion.

In November 1950 when China surprised the United Nations ground troops with an unexpected counterattack from the Yalu River by the People's Liberation Army, Philippine Sea planes saw heavy action. The US Navy had sent Valley Forge and several other ships away from Korea, expecting the conflict to end, and so the unprepared forces remaining in the area were heavily engaged. Throughout the long retreat from the Yalu River, the four carriers' Panthers, Skyraiders and Corsairs provided close air support for the trapped X Corps at Chosin Reservoir. Though the increasingly cold weather proved a problem for Philippine Sea, the ship continued to support the troops as they tried to evacuate from the reservoir and then cleared the path for their retreat to Hungnam. The carriers provided support with hundreds of aircraft sorties as 150,000 UN troops and civilians were evacuated, and then destroyed the port. During this support, Valley Forge and Philippine Sea were tightly clustered with USS Leyte (CV-32) and USS Princeton (CV-37) and commanders worried that they would be a target for air attack by North Korean MiG-15 fighters, prompting a large screen of 32 destroyers.

For the rest of 1950 and early 1951, she launched numerous attacks against Chinese forces around the 38th Parallel hoping to slow their advance as UN troops retreated. With only brief stops for repair and rest, the carrier continued numerous sorties against Chinese targets. On 25 February, command of Task Force 77 was transferred to Valley Forge. During this time, the cold weather hampered operations and blizzards occasionally shut them down completely. Putting into Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, in late March 1951 for repair and refit, Philippine Sea exchanged Air Group 11 for Carrier Air Group 2 from Valley Forge, a group which consisted mostly of Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bombers. The same date as the transfer on 28 March, Philippine Sea became flagship of Vice Admiral H. M. Martin, the commander of the 7th Fleet.

Returning to the Sea of Japan in April, Philippine Sea led Task Force 77 as well as other ships of the 7th Fleet through the Strait of Formosa to the South China Sea. From the Formosa Strait, planes flew in parades over Formosa as part of a show of support for the newly formed nation of Taiwan, in an effort to boost morale of the nation. She steamed back to Korea three days later, in time to lend close air support to UN forces throughout early 1951 as they faced repeated offensives by the Chinese.

Post-Korea

Philippine Sea completed her first deployment to Korea and arrived at San Francisco on 9 June 1951. It conducted refits, repairs and patrol operations along the West Coast continued for the remainder of the year. On 19 December, she was the site of a test for an emergency nuclear weapon assembly, the first such test involving a nuclear weapon aboard a US Navy ship. The ship departed from San Diego on 31 December 1951. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 8 January 1952, Philippine Sea continued on to Yokosuka for a second deployment to Korea, arriving 20 January 1952 with Carrier Air Group 11, which flew five squadrons of the F4U Corsair, about 100 aircraft. During this tour, the front lines in Korea had largely stabilized, and instead the ship directed its aircraft against strategic targets, including the 23 June attack on the Sui-ho Dam in conjunction with Boxer, Princeton, and Bon Homme Richard, and sending aircraft against targets in Pyongyang.

Philippine Sea returned to San Diego in August 1952. Her designation was changed to CVA, denoting an "attack aircraft carrier" in October. With five more Corsair squadrons of Carrier Air Group 9 embarked, she began a third cruise to the Far East early in December 1952 with about 100 aircraft. In this third tour in Korea, Philippine Sea focused primarily on interdiction attacks against rail and communication lines in North Korea, hoping to limit supplies to the front lines. The North Korean offensive, begun at the same time truce talks began at Panmunjom, marked the beginning of a series of "round the clock" air sorties designed to weaken North Korean and Chinese front line troops and support UN troops when under attack. This mission continued until an armistice was signed in the summer of 1953, resulting in the de jure cessation of open warfare.

Following the end of her tour in Korea, the ship arrived in Alameda Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, on 14 August 1953 to offload Air Group 9, then entered drydock at Hunters Point in San Francisco for overhaul. On 9 January 1954, Philippine Sea once more began training off the coast of San Diego. She then steamed west on 12 March, for her fourth tour in the Far East. She operated out of U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay near Olongapo, Philippines. She was part of Carrier Division 3 and operated alongside USS Hornet (CV-12) around French Indochina.

The most significant event of the tour occurred in late July 1954. Chinese airplanes had shot down a Douglas DC-4 passenger aircraft operated by Cathay Pacific Airways near Hainan Island off the Chinese coast. The Chinese military had believed it to be a Taiwanese military airplane. Philippine Sea was ordered into the area as part of a search mission to recover some of the 19 on board. While engaged in the search mission, a flight of the ship's Douglas AD Skyraiders was attacked by two Chinese fighter aircraft. The Skyraiders returned fire and shot down the airplanes. Later this came to be known unofficially as the "Hainan Incident".

Following this duty, the ship sailed for Hawaii, where she was used as a prop in the movie Mister Roberts. The ship returned to San Diego on 18 November. Remaining in the area for four months, Philippine Sea conducted several training operations off the California coast. She then began her fifth cruise of the Far East on 1 April 1955 en route to Yokosuka. She operated in waters of Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan for most of 1955, with Air Task Group 2 consisting of VF-123, VF-143 and VA-55, VF-123 flying the F9F-2 Panther jet fighter-bomber, VF-143 flying the Grumman F9F-6 Cougar jet fighter, and VA-55 flying the AD-6 Skyraider propeller attack bomber. During this time, she made trips to Hong Kong, Keelung and Formosa. On 23 November, she was redesignated as a CVS, or an anti-submarine warfare carrier. Her aircraft complement was replaced with several dozen S2F Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and HSS-1 Seabat helicopters. She returned to San Diego on 23 November 1955. Throughout 1956 she saw little activity as crew went on leave and she was docked for maintenance, and only conducted several routine training operations off the coast of southern California. In late 1956 she moved to Hawaii for more training operations.

In March 1957, she sailed for the western Pacific on a sixth tour to the area with the HSS-1s and S2Fs of VS-21, VS-23, and VS-37. She was there for two months before returning to San Diego and resuming training missions off the west coast in summer 1957. In November 1957, she found some debris of Pan Am Flight 7, an airline flight that disappeared en route to Hawaii. In January 1958, she steamed west on her last 7th Fleet deployment. Remaining six months, she returned to San Diego on 15 July and commenced inactivation. She was decommissioned 28 December 1958 and berthed with the United States Reserve Fleet at Long Beach, California. She was redesignated AVT-11, an auxiliary aircraft transport and landing training ship, on 15 May 1959. After 10 years docked at the reserve fleet, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Registry on 1 December 1969 and sold for scrapping on 23 March 1971 to Zidell Explorations Corporation in Portland, Oregon.

Philippine Sea received nine battle stars for Korean War service. During her career, she logged 82,000 launches, including 33,575 catapult shots, and 82,813 landings. In April 1987, a new USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) was launched, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser. An organization was also formed of veterans who had served aboard the ship, the Philippine Sea Association.

title: USS Philippine Sea (CV-47)