Les bateaux historiques de la baie de San Francisco: Hornet

The historic ships of San Francisco Bay: U.S.S. Hornet

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U.S.S. Hornet, CV12. In her World War II configuration, her hanger deck was open at the bow under the flight deck rather than being enclosed as you see it here. The cantilever (right side of photo) was added in a post-World War II modernization.

Continuing his Historic Ships of San Francisco Bay series,"Louis" shows you today the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet (CV12), now a museum at Pier 3 of the former Navy base at Alameda, CA.

The U.S. Navy has had a Hornet since the late 1700s. Hornet CV12 replaced Hornet CV8 in World War II. CV 12 is the eighth Hornet in U.S. Navy history. The mantle is now carried by the F/A 18 'Hornet' jet, a recognition of the role played by aviation in the modern Navy.

The seventh U.S.S. Hornet (CV-8) was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier, notable for launching the Doolittle Raid, as a participant in the Battle of Midway, and for action in the Solomons before being irreparably damaged in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and then sunk.

CV12, an Essex-class carrier, slated to be named Kearsarge, was being built when CV8 was lost. Because the Navy has not been without a Hornet since the late 1700s, CV12 was quickly re-named Hornet, and another Essex-class carrier, built later, became Kearsarge.

CV12 is docked at Pier 3, Alameda, in precisely the spot where CV8 took on the B-25 bombers used in the Doolittle Raid.

CV12 served in the Korean War. After Korea, she was modernized a number of times, reflecting the changing roles of aircraft carriers in the postwar Navy. In one modernization, she acquired a cantilever flight deck. One of her main missions in the post World War II era was as part of an antisubmarine force operating with the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the south east Pacific. She saw service in Vietnam.

CV12 is famous for her role in the Apollo Space Program. She recovered the second Apollo space capsule, which was unmanned. Hornet made her most significant contribution to the Apollo program when she recovered the astronauts from the first moon landing mission, Apollo 11, on 24 July 1969. President Nixon was on board to welcome the returning astronauts back to Earth, where they lived in quarantine aboard Hornet prior to transfer to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston. The first steps on Earth of returning moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, are marked on her hangar deck, as part of her Apollo program exhibit. Hornet once again served in the space program with the recovery of Apollo 12 on 24 November 1969. Returning moonwalkers Charles Conrad, Jr. and Alan L. Bean, and command module pilot Richard F. Gordon, Jr., were picked up from their splashdown point near American Samoa.

Hornet was decommissioned for the last time on 26 June 1970, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 25 July 1989. In 1991, she was designated a National Historic Landmark. On 17 October 1998, she was opened to the public as a museum at the former Naval Air Station, Alameda.

The Historic Ships of San Francisco Bay Series
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Potomac
Submarine Pampanito
The Tolling of the Boats
Red Oak Victory
Balclutha