Party Balloon Essex
Party Balloon Essex
USS Valley Forge (CV/CVA/CVS-45, LPH-8) was one of 24 Essex -class aircraft carriers built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the first US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for Valley Forge, the 1777–1778 winter encampment of General George Washington's Continental Army. Valley Forge was commissioned in November 1946, too late to serve in World War II, but saw extensive service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was reclassified in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), then to an antisubmarine carrier (CVS), and finally to an amphibious assault ship (LPH), carrying helicopters and marines. As a CVS she served in the Atlantic and Caribbean. She was the prime recovery vessel for an early unmanned Mercury space mission. After conversion to an LPH she served extensively in the Vietnam War. Valley Forge was awarded eight battle stars for Korean War service and nine for Vietnam War service, as well as three Navy Unit Commendations.
Unlike most of her sister ships, she received no major modernizations, and thus throughout her career retained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex -class ship. She was decommissioned in 1970, and sold for scrap in 1971.
Construction and Commissioning
Valley Forge was paid for with money raised by the citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a special war bond drive. The ship was one of the "long-hull" Essex -class, laid down on 7 September 1944 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was launched on 18 November 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Alexander A. Vandegrift, wife of the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Valley Forge commissioned on 3 November 1946, with Captain John W. Harris in command.
Service history
1947 – 1950
Following fitting out, the new carrier got underway on 24 January 1947 for shakedown training which took her, via Norfolk, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Canal Zone. She completed the cruise on 18 March and returned to Philadelphia for post-shakedown overhaul. The ship left Philadelphia on 14 July, headed south, and transited the Panama Canal on 5 August. She arrived at her home port, San Diego on 14 August and joined the Pacific Fleet. Following the embarkation of Air Group 11 and intensive air and gunnery training in coastal waters, the aircraft carrier - flying the flag of Rear Admiral Harold L. Martin, Commander of Task Force 38 (TF 38) - got underway for Hawaii on 9 October. The task force devoted almost three months to training operations out of Pearl Harbor before sailing for Australia on 16 January 1948. After a visit to Sydney, the American warships conducted exercises with units of the Royal Australian Navy and then steamed to Hong Kong.
During a voyage from the British crown colony to Tsingtao, China, orders arrived directing the task force to return home via the Atlantic. With her escorting destroyers, the ship continued the round-the-world trip with calls at Hong Kong; Manila; Singapore; Trincomalee, Ceylon; and Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia. After operating for a time in the Persian Gulf, she became the largest aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal. The ship finally arrived at San Diego, via the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Panama Canal.
Korean War
Valley Forge deployed to the Far East, departing the west coast on 1 May 1950. While anchored in Hong Kong harbor on 25 June, the warship received electrifying news that North Korean forces had begun streaming across the 38th parallel into South Korea. Departing Hong Kong the next day, the carrier steamed south to Subic Bay, where she provisioned, fueled, and set her course for Korea.
The first carrier air strike of the Korean conflict was launched from Valley Forge ' s flight deck on 3 July 1950. Outnumbered and outgunned, the South Korean troops battled desperately against veritable tides of Communist invaders. Waves of Douglas AD Skyraiders and Vought F4U Corsairs struck the North Korean airfield at Pyongyang while Grumman F9F-2 Panthers flew top cover. Tons of bombs from the attacking American planes pounded hangars, fuel storages, parked Russian-built aircraft, and railroad marshaling yards. Meanwhile, the escorting Panthers downed two Yak-9s and damaged another.
In spite of attempts by United Nations forces to interdict the steady flow of communist infantry and armor, the North Koreans steadily pushed the defending South Koreans back into a tenuous defense perimeter around Pusan. On 18 September 1950, the American landing at Inchon outflanked the communist forces while United Nations forces broke out of the perimeter to the south. During this period of bitter struggle, Valley Forge ' s Air Group 5 made numerous daily strikes against North Korean targets. Troop concentrations, defensive positions, and supply and communications lines were repeatedly "fair game" for the bombs of the Skyraiders and the rocket and cannon fire from the Panthers and Corsairs. Over 5,000 combat sorties delivered 2,000 tons (1,800 tonnes) of bombs and rockets between 3 July and 19 November 1950.
Returning to San Diego for overhaul, Valley Forge arrived on the west coast on 1 December, only to have sailing orders urgently direct her back to Korea. In the interim, between the carrier's leaving station and her projected west coast overhaul, the communist Chinese had entered the fray, launching a powerful offensive which sent United Nations' troops reeling back to the southward. Accordingly, Valley Forge hurriedly embarked a new air group, replenished, and sailed on 6 December for the Far East. Rendezvousing with TF 77 three days before Christmas of 1950, Valley Forge recommenced air strikes on the 23nd - the first of three months of concentrated air operations against the advancing communist juggernaut. During her second deployment, the ship launched some 2,580 sorties in which her planes delivered some 1,500 tons (1,400 tonnes) of bombs.
On 11 December 1951, Valley Forge launched her first air strikes in railway interdiction. Rockets, cannon fire, and bombs from the ship's embarked air group, and those of her sister ships also on station, hammered at North Korean railway targets—lines, junctions, marshaling yards, and rolling stock. Anything that could possibly permit the enemy to move his forces rapidly by rail came under attack. By June, Valley Forge ' s train-busting Skyraiders, Corsairs, and Panthers had severed communist rail lines in at least 5,346 places.
Valley Forge returned to the United States in the summer of 1952 but was again deployed to the Far East late in the year. In October 1952, she was reclassified an attack carrier and redesignated CVA-45 . On 2 January 1953, she began the new year with strikes against communist supply dumps and troop billeting areas behind the stalemated front lines. While the propeller-driven Skyraiders and Corsairs delivered tons of bombs on their targets, the jet Panthers conducted flak-suppression missions using a combination of cannon fire and rockets to knock out troublesome enemy gun sites. This close teamwork between old and new style planes made possible regular strikes against Korea's eastern coastlines and close-support missions to aid embattled Marine or Army forces on the often bitterly contested battle lines. Valley Forge air groups dropped some 3,700 tons (3,400 tonnes) of bombs on the enemy before the ship left the Korean coast and returned to San Diego on 25 June 1953.
1954 – 1960
After a west-coast overhaul, Valley Forge was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet and reclassified - this time to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier—and redesignated CVS-45 . She was refitted for her new duties at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and then rejoined the Fleet in January 1954. The face-lifted carrier soon got underway to conduct exercises to develop and perfect the techniques and capabilities needed to carry out her new duties.
Conducting local operations and antisubmarine warfare exercises, Valley Forge operated off the east coast through late 1956, varied by a visit to England and the eastern Atlantic for exercises late in 1954. Her operations during this period also included midshipman and reservists' training cruises and occasional visits to the Caribbean.
Carrying out training operations out of Guantanamo Bay in 1957, Valley Forge accomplished an American naval "first" in October, when she embarked the ship's landing party and twin-engined HR2S-1 Mojave helicopters. Experimenting with the new concept of "vertical envelopment"; first pioneered by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines at Suez in 1956; Valley Forge ' s helicopters air-lifted the landing party to the beachhead and then returned them to the ship in the US Navy's first ship-based air assault exercise. On 1 April 1958, Rear Admiral John S. Thach hoisted his two-star flag to the carrier's main as the ship became flagship of Task Group Alpha (TG Alpha). This group, built around Valley Forge , included eight destroyers, two submarines, and one squadron each of antisubmarine helicopters, planes, and a landbased Lockheed P2V Neptune. A significant development in naval tactics, TG Alpha concentrated solely on developing and perfecting new devices and techniques for countering the potential menace of enemy submarines in an age of nuclear propulsion and deep-diving submersibles.
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