Tag Archives: CVW-5

PoW CSG heads to Japan

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HMS Prince of Wales (R09) and her Battlegroup 25 have left Australia, wrapping up Talisman Sabre, and, linking up with her Spanish escort ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104), has been joined by the Japanese ships Kaga (DDH-184) and Teruzuki (DD-116) to continue Operation High Mast.

It will be the second British carrier to visit Japan in recent years, following up on sister HMS Queen Elizabeth’s 2021 deployment.

The below from Japan’s MoD.

She carries 19 F-35Bs: 9 from the “Dambusters” of 617 Squadron RAF, 9 from the “Immortals” of 809 Naval Air Squadron, plus a singular U.S. Marine Corps aircraft from the “Bats” of VMFA-242. She also has at least six Merlin Mk2 helicopters of 820 NAS and two HMA2 Wildcats of 815 NAS. This gives her 27 aircraft, the largest wing she has operated thus far.

She has also been conducting night ops, which have produced some great imagery.

Echoes of TF 37 & TF 38

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Some 80 years ago today, carriers of the British Pacific Fleet, organized as TF 37, sailing under the command of ADM Bull Halsey’s U.S. Third Fleet, teamed up with the American carriers of TF 38 to strike targets in the Japanese Home Islands, softening them up for the looming Operation Olympic invasion to begin in November 1945.

It was the end of what was left of the Emperor’s fleet.

Raids on Japan, July 1945. Japanese battleship Haruna under attack by American and British carrier planes in Kure Bay, Japan, July 28, 1945. U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-490226

Raids on Japan, July 1945. Japanese battleship Haruna under attack by American and British carrier planes in Kure Bay, Japan, July 28, 1945. U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-490224

The British task force under VADM Sir Bernard J. Rowlings had four armored carriers (HMS Formidable, Victorious, Implacable, and Indefatigable) loaded with 15 FAA squadrons of Corsairs, Fireflies, and Avengers. They were escorted by a battleship (HMS King George), seven cruisers, including hulls from the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy, and 20 destroyers (six of which were from the Royal Australian Navy).

For those curious, at the same time, VADM John S. McCain’s TF 38 included over a dozen “Sunday Punch” toting Essex-class fleet carriers, another seven Independence-class CVLs, eight fast battleships (including the entire SoDak class), 24 cruisers, and almost too many tin cans to count.

Fast forward to the past few days, and, as part of Talisman Sabre ’25, American and RN carriers sailed together again, backed up by ships from the RCN, RAN, and now joined by a Norwegian.

In the double carrier formation was: the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG 62) [ex-Chancellorsville], the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup (DDG 86), the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09), the Daring-class air-defence destroyer HMS Dauntless (D33), the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tide-class tanker RFA Tidespring (A136), the Royal Australian Navy Hobart-class air warfare destroyer HMAS Sydney (DDG 42), the Royal Norwegian Navy Fridtof Nansen-class frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen (F311), and the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332).

Assembled airwings included CVW5’s F-18E/F Rhinos, EA-18G Growlers, F-35Cs, Hawkeyes, and CMV-22 Ospreys; along with 18 British F-35B fighters—from the RAF 617 Squadron “Dambusters” and the 809 Naval Air Squadron “Immortals”— plus some cross-decked F-35Bs of the VMFA-242 “Bats” and Merlin Mk 2s on PoW, Wildcat helicopters from the British escorts, Cyclones from Ville de Québec, an NH90 from Roald Amundsen, and assorted MH-60s from both the Navyair and RAN.

Spanish frigate ESPS Méndez Núñez, which is deployed with the PoW group, has temporarily detached and is forward-deploying towards Japan.

(U.S. Navy photos by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kaleb C. Birch)

U.S. Navy aircraft, attached to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, fly over the U.S. Navy George Washington Carrier Strike Group, as it participates in dual carrier operations alongside the U.K. HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group while underway in the Timor Sea, as part of Talisman Sabre, July 18, 2025. 

U.S. Navy George Washington Carrier Strike Group participates in dual carrier operations alongside U.K. HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group while underway in the Timor Sea, as part of Talisman Sabre, July 18, 2025. 

U.S. Navy aircraft, attached to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, fly over the U.S. Navy George Washington Carrier Strike Group, as it participates in dual carrier operations alongside the U.K. HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group while underway in the Timor Sea, as part of Talisman Sabre, July 18, 2025. 

Norwegian warship HNoMS Roald Amundsen

HMS Prince of Wales.

Ships front to back: Norwegian warship HNoMS Roald Amundsen, HMS Prince of Wales, Australian warship HMAS Sydney, with an F-35B taking off from HMS Prince of Wales.

Left to right: Norwegian warship HNoMS Roald Amundsen, HMS Prince of Wales, RFA Tidespring, Australian warship HMAS Sydney, HMS Richmond.

18th July 2025 – (Front/Rear) Australian warship HMAS Sydney and American warship USS Shoup.

Top to Bottom – United States Aircraft Carrier, USS George Washington, and UK Aircraft Carrier, HMS Prince of Wales.

Canadian Warship – HMCS Ville de Quebec.

Top to Bottom – United States Warships USS Robert Smalls, USS Shoup, and British Ship RFA Tidespring.

How about those HUGE national ensigns! Top to Bottom – Canadian Warship HMCS Vill De Quebec and Norwegian Warship HNoMS Roald Amundsen.

UK Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince of Wales.

18 July 2025 – US F/18 launches from US Aircraft Carrier, USS George Washington, as it sails alongside HMS Prince of Wales

Left to right – American aircraft carrier, USS George Washington, British Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince of Wales, Canadian Warship HMCS Ville de Quebec, Norwegian Warship HNoMS Roald Amundsen, United States Warships USS Robert Smalls, USS Shoup, Australian Warship HMAS Sydney, British ship RFA Tidespring, and British Warship HMS Dauntless.

HMS Prince of Wales arrived at the Australian naval base, HMAS Coonawarra, on 23rd July, making her the first Royal Navy carrier to visit Oz since 1997 when the Harrier carrier HMS Illustrious docked at Fremantle as part of the Ocean Wave deployment.

Talisman Sabre is scheduled to run through August 4.

Midway Magic Down Under

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Throwback some 35 years to November 1989 when the “Fleet’s Finest Carrier,” USS Midway (CV 41) pulled alongside F Berth, Victoria Quay, Freemantle, on a historic visit as the first U.S. Navy carrier to pull pier side in the Western Australian port.

Photo via Fremantle Ports.

Her 5 August to 11 December 1989 West Pacific cruise—her amazing 53rd deployment to the region, which included six combat tours off Vietnam—saw her carry her familiar Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5) again, a wing she had deployed with since 1965.

Photo via Fremantle Ports.

This group at the time included three F-18A squadrons (VFA-151, VFA-192, and VFA-195) due to the fact her class was deemed too small for extended F-14 operations, as well as two A-6E/KA-6D Intruder squadrons (VA-115 and VA-185), some EA-6B Prowlers from VAQ-136, a Hawkeye det from VAW-115, and some SH-3H Sea Kings from HS-12.

Photo via Fremantle Ports.

Photo via Fremantle Ports.

Photo via Fremantle Ports.

Midway still had a few tricks left, including Desert Shield/Storm 1990 in the Persian Gulf following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and the evacuation of Clark AFBase in the Philippines following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. In that final mission, she brought off 1,823 personnel and dependents, along with a menagerie of 23 cats, 68 dogs, and one lizard.

Decommissioned in San Diego in April 1992 after a 47-year career that included over 325,000 landings, she languished mothballs at Bremerton until 2003, when she was entrusted to the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum.

Opened to the public in June 2004, she has proven extremely popular, clearing over 5 million visitors in her first six years in operation alone.

With JFK consigned to the scrappers, and future CVNs off limits due to their recycling processes, Midway will likely be the largest warship ever preserved (at 64,000 tons and 1,001 feet oal compared to the four preserved 57,000-ton/887-foot Iowas and four preserved Essexes at 40,000-tons/888 feet).

Bonnie Dick Hits the Water

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Some 80 years ago today, we see this great original Kodachrome of the last of the original “short bow” (just 872 feet long versus her later 888 foot sisters) type Essex-class fast fleet carriers, USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) sliding down the building ways, as she is launched at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, on 29 April 1944.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives, 80-G-K-3888(Color).

Commissioned on 26 November 1944, “Bonnie Dick” was the first ship in the modern Navy to commemorate the name of John Paul Jones’s famous Revolutionary War frigate– and she got in enough licks in during WWII to earn one Battlestar.

Of note, she was a night fighter carrier, equipped with F6F-5Ns of VF-(N)-91 and TBM-3Ds of VT-N-91 for her 8 June-15 August 1945 war cruise.

One of her “Nightcats,” Ensign Phillip T. McDonald, while flying a dusk CAP- one of the last in the war– over one of the task Force “watchdog” radar pickets, west of Mito, on 13 August 1945 shot down two Ki-45 (Nick) and two P1Y (Frances) as well as two more probable, just missing out on earning the double coveted ace-in-a-day and night-fighter-ace monikers (all though he is listed as one of the Top F6F Night Fighters in terms of score). The final score for all of VF(N)-91 was 9-2-0, all occurring between 1820 and 1915 hours.

Her WWII cruise

Bonnie Dick was much more active in Korea, carrying the F9F Panthers and AD-4 Skyraiders of first Carrier Air Group 102 (CVG-102) then CVG-7.

Stretched and given the SCB-125 overhaul in the mid-1950s, BHR was in the thick of the air war off Vietnam from 1964 onward, completing six deployments.

USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) with her crew spelling out Hello San Diego, while en route to San Diego on 9 February 1963. She returned to San Diego, her home port, on 11 February, following a Western Pacific cruise that had begun seven months earlier, on 12 July 1962. Aircraft on her flight deck include three E-1, 11 F-8, six F-3, 13 A-4, and nine A-1 types. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 97343

Two U.S. Navy CVG-21 airwing pilots on the flight deck escalator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31). Escalators were added to Essex class carriers during their 1950s modernizations as ready rooms were moved below the hanger deck level for more protection– a lesson from the kamikaze era when hits caused high mortality rates in pilots waiting in ready rooms. Also, pilots had more gear in the jet age than back in the F6F era. U.S. Navy photo from the Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) 1956-57 cruise book

Completing her last deployment to Yankee Station on 12 November 1970 she was decommissioned the next year and, after spending 21 years on red lead row as a source for potential spare parts for the similarly laid-up but slightly younger USS Oriskany (which the Navy saw as a mobilization asset through the Reagan years), she was scrapped in 1992.

165,000 tons of Rock & Roll, Ready for Their Close-up

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30 Years Ago Today: A port beam view of Forrestal-class supercarriers, San Diego-homeported USS Ranger (CV-61) with Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2) aboard, and her sister, the Japan-based USS Independence (CV-62) with CVW-5 embarked, underway in the Perian Gulf during Operation Southern Watch, a multinational effort establishing a no-fly zone for Iraqi aircraft south of the 32nd parallel in Saddam-era Iraq. Taken on 16 September 1992.

U.S. Navy photo DN-ST-93-00101by PH2 Andrew C. Heuer, via the National Archives.

Note the mix of F-14As (VF-154, VF-21), F-18Cs (VFA-192, VFA-195,), A-6Es (VA-115), SH-3Hs (HS-12), EA-6B Prowlers (VAQ-136), and S-3Bs (VS-21) aboard Indy and the similar complement of aircraft (sans Hornets) of VF-1, VF-2, VA-145, VA-155, VAQ-131, HS-14, and VS-38 on Ranger. These were some of the final deployments for the Tomcat, Intruder, Sea King, and Viking, who would be withdrawn within the next decade.

Indy, commissioned in 1959, had just finished filming Flight of the Intruder aboard prior to her deployment to the Gulf War and was decommissioned only six years after this image. Stricken in 2004, she has since been scrapped.

Ranger, commissioned in 1957, earned 13 battle stars for service during the Vietnam War, and like her sister, was a movie star, having been used to film scenes for Top Gun. She was decommissioned just a year after the above image was snapped, stricken the same day as Indy, and similarly scrapped.

CVW-5 endures, still based in Japan in association with the forward-deployed carrier named after a movie star– USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76).

Meanwhile, CVW-2 is attached to San Diego’s Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1 and the flagship USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70)– which due to her record of West Coast homeports has been a filming location for JAG, Crimson Tide, Behind Enemy Lines, and her own documentary series, 1995’s excellent Fortress at Sea.

VS22 Looking Flat

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It is just a little bit over 80 years after the Plum/Pensacola/Republic Convoy was ordered to make for Australia instead of reinforcing the Philippines– a good call because the 2,000 mobilized National Guardsmen and two warships (the cruiser USS Pensacola and gunboat USS Niagra) of Task Group 15.5 would have had little-to-no effect on the disastrous Dec. 1941-May 42 Fall of the Philippines, only adding to the number of 78,000 surrendered American and Allied troops.

However, in a reboot of naval power on display, Valiant Shield 2022 was just held in the Philippine Sea and the ninth biennial U.S.-only exercise was a decent show of strength, at least in terms of carrier power.

VS22 this year included both two carrier strike groups —USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 embarked, and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) with CVW 9 embarked– along with USS Tripoli (LHA-7), the latter of which recently showed off a 16-strong F-35B loadout as part of the “Lightning Carrier” concept.

Roll that beautiful bean footage:

How about those stills: 

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

On the downside, I would love to see two or three times that amount of escorts around three flattops, as the carriers are only trailed by two elderly Ticos (which are soon to be retired)– USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) and USS Antietam (CG 54)— and three Burkes: USS Benfold (DDG 65), USS Spruance (DDG 111), and the recently-rebuilt USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62).

It really is sad that the vast squadrons of CGNs, CG-converted DLGs, DDG-2s, Spru-Cans, Knoxes, and FFG-7s were slaughtered in the 1990s and early 2000s without replacement other than the Navy continuing to order $1.8-Billion-per-hull Burkes.

Appropriately, the pinnacle event of VS22 was the sinking exercise (SINKEX) on the decommissioned FFG-7, ex-USS Vandegrift (FFG 48).

35 Years Ago: WWII Meets Cold War

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A beautiful port bow view of the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CV-41, ex-CVB/CVA-41) “somewhere in the Philipine Sea” as she is underway with Carrier Air Wing 5 (CARAIRWING FIVE) embarked, early January 1987.

Laid down on 27 October 1943 at Newport News as the lead ship in a class designed to carry a whopping 137 aircraft to fight the Empire of Japan, Midway was a week and a day too late for her intended task, commissioned on 10 September 1945.

Much modified with an enclosed bow and an angled flight deck in a three-year conversion in the mid-1950s, she would continue to operate in the jet era, largely with CVW-5 embarked. Midway took CVW-5 to Vietnam twice (April 16, 1971 – November 6, 1971 and September 11, 1973 – October 5, 1973) then continued to operate the wing, forward deployed to Naval Air Facility Atsugi, until August 1991.

Notably, her 1987 deployment was the first for Midway to carry the F/A-18A/B Hornet. VF-151 of CVW-5 had, on 25 March 1986, conducted the final carrier launching of a Navy fleet F-4S Phantom II off the carrier during flight operations in the East China Sea, closing out an era.

She carried three F-18 Hornet squadrons, as she was unable to operate F-14s for an extended amount of time and the F-4 had been retired.

Her Hornet squadrons included VFA-195 (Dambusters,) VFA-151 (Vigilantes) and VFA-192 (Golden Dragons) between 1986 and 1991. NARA DN-ST-93-01289 CVW-5

Decommissioned 11 April 1992– only five years after the above image– Midway is currently the largest naval museum ship in the world, and the only aircraft carrier commissoned after WWII that is preserved and open to the public. With all of the Navy’s conventional flattops now consigned to the scrappers, she will likley hold on to both of those titles.

Meanwhile, CVW-5 is still around and still in Japan, attached to forward-deployed Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5 and flagship USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76)— and yes, they still fly Hornets, albeit of the Super type.

Main Battery, Away

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Check out this series of great images from LIFE photographer Bill Ray in 1964, chronicling Douglas A-1J Skyraiders from Attack Squadron 196 (VA-196) “Main Battery” aboard the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) gearing up for a strike in Vietnam.

VA-196 was part of Carrier Air Wing 19 (CVW-19), tail code NM, aboard the “Bonnie Dick” for the carrier’s West Pac deployment to Vietnam from 28 January to 21 November 1964.

Commissioned in late 1944, Bonnie Dick was the first ship in the modern Navy to commemorate the name of John Paul Jones’ famous Revolutionary War frigate– and she got in enough licks in during WWII to earn one battlestar.

Her WWII cruise

She was much more active in Korea, carrying the F9F Panthers and AD-4 Skyraiders of first Carrier Air Group 102 (CVG-102) then CVG-7.

Stretched and given the SCB-125 overhaul in the mid-1950s, BHR was in the thick of the air war off Vietnam from 1964 onward.

USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) with her crew spelling out Hello San Diego, while en route to San Diego on 9 February 1963. She returned to San Diego, her home port, on 11 February, following a Western Pacific cruise that had begun seven months earlier, on 12 July 1962. Aircraft on her flight deck include three E-1, 11 F-8, six F-3, 13 A-4, and nine A-1 types. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 97343

Completing her sixth and last deployment to Yankee Station on 12 November 1970 (again with CVW-5), she was decommissioned the next year and, after spending 21 years on red lead row as a source for potential spare parts for the similarly laid-up but slightly younger USS Oriskany (which the Navy saw as a mobilization asset through the Reagan years), she was scrapped in 1992.

As for CVW19, it was disestablished in 1977, having conducted nine Vietnam tours from the decks of Essex-class flattops (BHR, Oriskany, Ticonderoga).

The end of VA-196 came on 21 March 1997, after more than 48 years of service, with the squadron switching to A-6 Intruders in 1966, an aircraft they put to good use not only over Indochina but also in the Persian Gulf, but that is another story. 

Climb Mount…Fuji

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World War II in the Pacific began (unless you ask the Chinese or French) on 2 December 1941 with the famous “Niitakayama Nobore” (Climb Mount Niitaka) signal sent to Nagumo’s flagship to clear the way for Yamamoto Kido Butai force of a half-dozen aircraft carriers to turn towards Hawaii and attack Pearl Harbor on the morning of the 7th.

Interestingly, the U.S. military has, since the final days of WWII, instituted the common practice of posing warplanes over Mount Fujisan, just outside of Tokyo, which I always took as a bit of historic payback.

Corsairs Fringe Fuji. Painting, Wash and Scratch Board by Standish Backus 1945 NHHC 88-186-AC

Corsairs Fringe Fuji. Painting, Wash and Scratch Board by Standish Backus 1945 NHHC 88-186-AC

Grumman F9F-6 Cougar Jet Fighters Fly in formation over Mount Fuji, Japan, 12 December 1954. They are from USS YORKTOWN's (CVA-10), VF -153. Plane in foreground is BU 128209. 80-G-K- 17821

Grumman F9F-6 Cougar Jet Fighters Fly in formation over Mount Fuji, Japan, 12 December 1954. They are from USS YORKTOWN’s (CVA-10), VF -153. Plane in the foreground is BU 128209. 80-G-K- 17821

F9F Panthers over Mt. Fuji, c.1957

F9F Panthers over Mt. Fuji, c.1957

Formation of VA-22 A4C “Skyhawk” aircraft over Mt. Fuji, Japan, 27 April 1964. NHHC

Formation of VA-22 A4C “Skyhawk” aircraft over Mt. Fuji, Japan, 27 April 1964. NHHC

MOUNT FUJI, Japan (April 12, 2007) - Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 perform a formation flight in front of Mount Fuji. CVW-5 is embarked aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). Kitty Hawk operates from Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jarod Hodge

MOUNT FUJI, Japan (April 12, 2007) – Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 perform a formation flight in front of Mount Fuji. CVW-5 is embarked aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63).U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jarod Hodge

Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267 AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters past Mount Fuji, Shizuoka, Japan, March 12, 2017. The squadron, currently supporting Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force, validated the long-range capability of auxiliary fuel tanks on their H-1 platform helicopters by flying 314 nautical miles during one leg of the four-day mission, March 10. These aircrafts’ extended range is crucial to maintaining a stronger, more capable forward-deployed force in readiness in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The squadron is based out of Camp Pendleton, California. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andy Martinez)

Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267 AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters past Mount Fuji, Shizuoka, Japan, March 12, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andy Martinez)

Bonnie Dick on the scene, 49 years ago today

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In a special Warship Wednesday, here we see the (then) 25-year-old Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) underway in the Gulf of Tonkin on 13 June 1969 during her fifth cruise to support operations from Yankee Station off the Vietnam coast. Note the F-8J Crusaders, A-4E/F Skyhawks and distinctive Grumman E-1B Tracer AEW “Stoof with a Roof” aircraft of Carrier Air Wing 5 on deck.

Commissioned in late 1944, “Bonnie Dick” was the first ship in the modern Navy to commemorate the name of John Paul Jones’ famous Revolutionary War frigate– and she got in enough licks in during WWII to earn one battlestar.

Her WWII cruise

She was much more active in Korea, carrying the F9F Panthers and AD-4 Skyraiders of first Carrier Air Group 102 (CVG-102) then CVG-7.

Stretched and given the SCB-125 overhaul in the mid-1950s, BHR was in the thick of the air war off Vietnam from 1964 onward.

USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) with her crew spelling out Hello San Diego, while en route to San Diego on 9 February 1963. She returned to San Diego, her home port, on 11 February, following a Western Pacific cruise that had begun seven months earlier, on 12 July 1962. Aircraft on her flight deck include three E-1, 11 F-8, six F-3, 13 A-4 and nine A-1 types. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 97343

Two U.S. Navy CVG-21 airwing pilots on the flight deck escalator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31). Escalators were added to Essex class carriers during their 1950s modernizations as ready rooms were moved below the hanger deck level for more protection– a lesson from the kamikaze era when hits caused high mortality rates in pilots waiting in ready rooms. Also, pilots had more gear in the jet age than back in the F6F era. U.S. Navy photo from the Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) 1956-57 cruise book

Completing her sixth and last deployment to Yankee Station on 12 November 1970 (again with CVW-5), she was decommissioned the next year and, after spending 21 years on red lead row as a source for potential spare parts for the similarly laid-up but slightly younger USS Oriskany (which the Navy saw as a mobilization asset through the Reagan years), she was scrapped in 1992.

However, her name lives on in LHD-6, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship of about the same size, commissioned in 1998.

USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) Underway in the Gulf of Mexico during builder’s sea trials, circa early 1998 NH 107664-KN

As for CVW-5, they have been flying as of late from USS Ronald Reagan and, when not aboard, cool their heels at Atsugi and Iwakuni, though the Crusaders, Skyhawks, and Tracers have long ago been traded for Hornets, Growlers, and Hawkeyes.