Tag Archives: Gemini 3

Champ and her raiders

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70 years ago.

A group of 19 Douglas AD Skyraiders forms the letters “LC” as they fly over their home, the recently recommissioned “Long Hull” Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) on 30 April 1956.

U.S. Navy photo from the USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) 1955-1956 cruise book

The aircraft are from  Carrier Air Group 6 (CVG-6), which accompanied “Champ” on a six-month Mediterranean deployment from October 1955 to April 1956, where she carried to AD units (VMA-324 and VA-25) along with a squadron of FJ-3 Fury (VF-33), another of F2H-3 Banshee (VF-62), and one of F9F-8 Cougars (VF-74).

Laid down in drydock by the Norfolk Navy Yard on the Ides of March 1943, the future CV-39 launched on 2 November 1944 and commissioned 3 June 1945, putting her just a skosh too late to the Big Show and had to spend the days immediately after WWII in Magic Carpet duties instead.

Retired to the “Mothball Fleet” by February 1947, Champ was recalled to active duty during Korea and was active off that peninsula with CVG-4 from 11 June to 27 July 1953, averaging 23 helicopter evolutions per day interspersed with as many as 147 combat sorties per day.

Following Korea, she was sent on a series of five different Med cruises and eight shorter Atlantic deployments, and joined in the naval quarantine of Cuba, but her biggest claim to fame was in supporting NASA by recovering Mercury 3 (5 May 1961), Gemini 3 (19 January 1965), and Gemini 5 (29 August 1965).

“Escorting Gemini V to USS Lake Champlain.” USS Dupont was the closest ship for the recovery of Gemini 5. Navy divers from the destroyer recovered the astronauts and transferred them via helicopter to USS Lake Champlain. Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Luis Llorente; 1965; Unframed Dimensions 30H X 22W Accession #: 88-162-CO

88-162-CT These sketches show the sequence of retrieving the command module – recovery by the UDT team, Gemini 5

Champ was decommissioned in May 1966 and subsequently scrapped in 1972. Although her keel had been laid 29 years prior, she had only spent about 17 of those on active duty.

Her ship’s motto, as befitting her name, was Excelsior.

The ‘Fighting I’ at 80

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The 4th U.S. Navy warship to carry the name USS Intrepid was a fleet carrier (CV-11) of the short-hulled Essex class rushed into service in World War II. Only the third Essex completed, she commissioned at Newport News, 16 August 1943– some 80 years ago this week.

USS Intrepid (CV-11) off Newport News, Virginia, on 16 August 1943, the day she went into commission. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 53254

Just five months to the day later, her shakedown completed, Intrepid sortied from Pearl Harbor with the carriers USS Cabot (CVL-29) and USS Essex (CV-9) on 16 January 1944 to raid islands at the northeastern corner of Kwajalein Atoll, her baptism of fire.

And she would reap the Divine Wind.

USS Intrepid (CV 11) on fire after being hit by two Japanese suicide planes, on 25 November 1944. 80-G-270835

Ultimately, in a career that spanned almost 31 years, Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11) earned five battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation during WWII, and a further three battle stars for her Vietnam service. She was also active in the space program and was the primary recovery ship for Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7, Scott Carpenter) and Gemini-Titan 3 (GT-3, Gus Grissom, and John Young).

March 1965. USS Intrepid (CVS-11) pulls up alongside the Gemini-3 spacecraft during recovery operations following the successful Gemini-Titan 3 flight. Navy swimmers stand on the spacecraft’s flotation collar waiting to hook a hoist line to the Gemini-3. Courtesy of the NASA Photograph Collection. S65-18528

After eight years in mothballs, in 1982 Intrepid became the foundation of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City where she remains lovingly cared for today– and still stands ready as a local Homeland Security role in times of crisis.

Happy birthday, Intrepid!