The USS Intrepid: The Fighting I

The USS Intrepid, affectionately known as ‘The Fighting I’, was commissioned with Captain Thomas L. Sprague in command on 16 August 1943. This 1943 Essex-class aircraft carrier has seen it all. Laid down on 1 December 1941 in Shipway 10 at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co, Newport News, Virginia, days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance into World War II, the USS Intrepid was launched on 26 April 1943, the fifth Essex-class aircraft carrier to be launched.

Upon commissioning, she headed to the Caribbean for shakedown and training, and then returned to Norfolk, before departing once more on 3 December, bound for San Francisco. She proceeded on to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving there on 10 January, where she began preparations to join the rest of the Pacific Fleet for offensive operations against the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The story of the USS Intrepid during World War II is one of courage, tragedy, and perseverance. The ship participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, including the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, she was not immune to misfortune. She was torpedoed once and hit in separate attacks by four Japanese kamikaze aircraft during her service. These events earned her the nicknames ‘Decrepit’ and ‘the Dry I’.

Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was not left idle for long. She was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she served mainly in the Atlantic, but also participated in the Vietnam War. She was the recovery ship for a Mercury and a Gemini space mission, cementing her place in the annals of history as a vessel that transcended the boundaries of warfare.

Decommissioned for the second time in 1974, the USS Intrepid was put into service as a museum ship in 1982, becoming the foundation of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. Walking through the halls of the Intrepid, you can still feel the waves of history that have washed over her.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons