USS Hornet (CV-12)

Hornet (after angle-deck conversion) underway
History
United States
Name:	Hornet
Namesake:	USS Hornet (CV-8)
Builder:	Newport News Shipbuilding
Laid down:	3 August 1942
Launched:	30 August 1943
Sponsored by:	Annie Reid Knox
Commissioned:	29 November 1943
Decommissioned:	15 January 1947
Recommissioned:	20 March 1951
Decommissioned:	12 May 1951
Recommissioned:	11 September 1953
Decommissioned:	26 June 1970
Reclassified:	CV to CVA-12 on 1 October 1952 CVA to CVS-12 on July 1958
Struck:	25 July 1989
Status:	Museum ship at the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	As built: 27,100 tons standard 36,380 tons full load
Length:	As built: 820 feet (250 m) waterline 872 feet (266 m) overall
Beam:	As built: 93 feet (28 m) waterline 147 feet 6 inches (45 m) overall
Draft:	As built: 28 feet 5 inches (8.66 m) light 34 feet 2 inches (10.41 m) full load
Propulsion:	As designed: 8 × boilers 565 psi (3,900 kPa) 850 °F (450 °C) 4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines 4 × shafts 150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:	20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	As built: 2,600 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 40 mm 56 caliber guns 46 × single 20 mm 78 caliber guns
Armor:	As built: 2.5 to 4 inch (60 to 100 mm) belt 1.5 inch (40 mm) hangar and protectice decks 4 inch (100 mm) bulkheads 1.5 inch (40 mm) STS top and sides of pilot house 2.5 inch (60 mm) top of steering gear
Aircraft carried:	As built: 90–100 aircraft 1 × deck-edge elevator 2 × centerline elevators
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Reference no.	91002065
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Designated	1991
California Historical Landmark
Designated	1999
Reference no.	1029

USS Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12) is a United States Navy aircraft carrier of the Essex class. Construction started in August 1942. She was originally named USS Kearsarge, but was renamed in honor of the USS Hornet (CV-8), which was lost in October 1942, becoming the eighth ship to bear the name.

Hornet was commissioned in November 1943, and after three months of training joined the U.S. forces in the Pacific War. She played a major part in the Pacific battles of World War II, and also took part in Operation Magic Carpet, returning troops back to the U.S. Following World War II, she served in the Vietnam War, and also played a part in the Apollo program, recovering the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts as they returned from the Moon.

Hornet was finally decommissioned in 1970. She was eventually designated as both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark, and in 1998 she opened to the public as the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California.

The contract to build Kearsarge had been given to Newport News Shipbuilding on 9 September 1940, and her keel was laid down on 3 August 1942. The seventh Hornet (CV-8) was sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz on 26 October 1942, and the CV-12 hull was renamed Hornet (the name Kearsarge is still stamped into her keel plate). Larger and more advanced than her Yorktown-class namesake, she was launched on 30 August 1943 and commissioned on 29 November 1943. Her first commander was Captain (later Rear Admiral) Miles R. Browning.