USS KEARSARGE (CV-33)
Aircraft carrier CV-33,
the USS KEARSARGE, was authorized by an act of Congress
in 1942. Commissioned on March 2, 1946, with Captain
Francis J. McKenna in command, the KEARSARGE was the
third ship of the United States Navy to be so named.
This ship had been launched on May 5, 1945, with Mrs.
Aubrey Fitch, wife of Vice-Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch,
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), as sponsor.
The USS KEARSARGE was 888
feet long and carried a crew of 3,000. Her home port was
Norfolk and she was engaged in training operations and
maneuvers along the East Coast and the Caribbean before
joining the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean in
June 1948. In 1950 the USS KEARSARGE was modernized to
enable her to handle jet aircraft. In 1952 she joined
the fast carrier Task Force 77 off the east coast of
Korea where her planes flew nearly 6,000 sorties.
KEARSARGE earned two battle stars during the Korean War
and the nickname "Mighty Kay".
The carrier USS
KEARSARGE, while operating with the 7th
Fleet, kept watch over the Formosa Straits. In the fall
of 1954 she stood by to assist the Nationalist Chinese
in the evacuation of the Tachen Islands. In February
1955 she supported units of the fleet in the successful
evacuation of 18,000 civilians and 20,000 military
personnel from the islands.
During the summer of 1958
USS KEARSARGE was fitted out as an antisubmarine warfare
support carrier and reclassified CVS 33. She rejoined
the 7th Fleet in Southeast Asian waters as
the Communists intensified their effort to overthrow
Laos. The power and determination of the 7th
Fleet was observed by the enemy and the crisis eased.
On August 1, 1962, USS
KEARSARGE departed Long Beach for the Pacific missile
range as a recovery ship in the Mercury orbital space
flight of astronaut Walter Shirra. The USS KEARSARGE
played her role in the space age by retrieving Shirra
and his capsule and returning him to Honolulu. On May
18, 1963, the KEARSARGE repeated her earlier recovery by
plucking astronaut Gordon Cooper and his capsule "Faith
7" after he orbited the earth 22 times.
In June 1964 the USS
KEARSARGE was deployed on her ninth Far Eastern cruise,
returning to operations with the 7th Fleet in
Southeast Asia. Her service during the Vietnam War
included being dispatched to the South China Sea
following the attack on US destroyers in the Gulf of
Tonkin in the summer of 1964. While US Navy planes
destroyed North Vietnam oil and supply depots, Kearsarge
provided antisubmarine protection for the 7th
Fleet. KEARSARGE earned five battle stars and a
Meritorious Unit Commendation during the Vietnam War.
The aircraft carrier KEARSARGE was decommissioned in