USS Antietam (CV-36)

USS Antietam operating training aircraft
History
United States
Name:	USS Antietam
Namesake:	Battle of Antietam, 1862
Builder:	Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Laid down:	15 March 1943
Launched:	20 August 1944
Commissioned:	28 January 1945
Decommissioned:	21 June 1949
Recommissioned:	17 July 1951
Decommissioned:	8 May 1963
Fate:	Scrapped 28 February 1974
General characteristics
Class and type:	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	As built: 27,100 tons standard
Length:	As built: 888 feet (271 m) overall
Beam:	As built: 93 feet (28 m) waterline
Draft:	As built: 28 feet 7 inches (8.71 m) light
Propulsion:	As designed: 8 × boilers 4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines 4 × shafts 150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement:	3448 officers and enlisted
Armament:	As built: 4 × twin 5 inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns 4 × single 5 inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns 8 × quadruple Bofors 40 mm guns 46 × single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
Armor:	As built: 4 inch (100 mm) belt 2.5 inch (60 mm) hangar deck 1.5 inch (40 mm) protectice decks 1.5 inch (40 mm) conning tower
Aircraft carried:	As built: 90–100 aircraft

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.

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.