The USS Intrepid - From WW2 to the Space Age

This week, James Whomsley recalls his visit to the USS Intrepid museum and looks back at the story of this historic aircraft carrier.

On my recent trek over to Flite Fest Ohio, I called in at New York where I boarded the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier turned museum. On the recommendation of the guys over at the RC Roundtable podcast, I had decided this would be a good opportunity to soak up some US aviation history. But how did a ship like this come to be perched at a dock in NYC?

The beginnings of this ship can be traced back to just six days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Intrepid was the third of three Essex Class carriers to be constructed. It's two sister ships, the Essex and Yorktown, were started just before the Intrepid. On December 1st 1941, the keel of the Intrepid was laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. In 1943, it steamed through the Panama Canal to join the war in the Pacific.

Torpedoed - As luck would have it, on one of Intrepid's first missions, a Japanese torpedo bomber hit the stern end of the carrier. The torpedo jammed the rudder hard to port meaning the ship had to limp back to base for repairs.

Battle of Leyte - After being put back to working order, the USS Intrepid took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. This was one of the biggest naval battles in history which saw the Japanese battleship Yamato sustain heavy damage.

Kamikaze Strikes - October 29th saw the first of four attacks of this kind. The first killed a crew of sailors manning a gun turret. Two Japanese kamikazes later crashed into the deck of Intrepid on 25th November 1944. The attack killed sixty-nine sailors in one of the darkest days of the ship's history.

Okinawa - The aircraft carrier later participated in the terrible battle of Okinawa which went on for three whole months. This massive amphibious invasion saw another kamikaze attack on intrepid. Nine men lost their lives.

Victory - Just before Japan surrendered, the now battle-hardened carrier, fresh from being repaired once more, returned to the Pacific theater. After the surrender, the ship was mothballed into the reserve fleet.

Mercury - During 1962, Intrepid served as a main recovery ship for the Mercury-Atlas 7 space mission. Helicopters took off from the ship's deck and retrieved astronaut Scott Carpenter from the ocean.

Gemini - Three years later, Intrepid helicopters's once again recovered NASA's astronauts. The crew of the Gemini 3, John Young and Virgil “Gus” Grissom, along with their space capsule, were recovered on March 23rd, 1965.

Vietnam, 1966 - Intrepid was converted to an 'attack carrier' in 1966 at the cost of many millions. It was then deployed to Vietnam where it took part in Operation Rolling Thunder.

Losses - Many US pilots lost their lives in the Vietnam conflict. Aircrews operating from USS Intrepid shot down just two aircraft but lost 21 men in combat or accidents.

Retirement - On the 15th March 1974, Intrepid was decommissioned as the US Navy brought in bigger, more modern aircraft carriers. The future of the ship looked bleak, but thankfully it was saved by a campaign which later opened Intrepid as a museum in 1982. Skipping forward thirty-six years, I end up visiting the Intrepid in July 2018.

I love museums but, with most, you don't often get the opportunity to stand in the same place as where so much happened in recent histroy. Although it has since been rebuilt several times, the main deck is where three seperate Kamakazis plunged through into the lower decks. Today, it's strewn with aircraft of all types, mainly from the jet era. There was a Mcdonnell F3H Demon among other notable planes.

Diving below the decks into the main hanger, there is an TBF-1 Avenger proudly on display. It's quite surprising how large these things actually were. Large elevator ramps on the Intrepid raised and lowered hundreds of these into position during the course of the war.

Balancing precariously next to one of the open doors of the hangar deck was a mock-up of the Gemini capsule. Contrasting with the Avenger, this spaceship is extraordinarily tiny! There is also another capsule inside the hanger that you can clamber into - this could be a great day out with the family.

If you ever get the opportunity to visit New York, also visit the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum. It's a great day out to see not only a bunch of interesting aircraft and an old ship, but to appreciate what happened here - from the highs of the space mission to the lows of Okinawa. You can find out more info on the museum website.