USS Shangri-La CV-38 Douglas A3D-1 Skywarrior of Heavy - TopicsExpress



          

USS Shangri-La CV-38 Douglas A3D-1 Skywarrior of Heavy Attack Squadron One (VAH-1) launching from USS Shangri La (CVA-38). This was the first A3D catapult shot. The pilot was Dick Davidson. USS Shangri-La, a 27,100-ton Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia. Commissioned in September 1944, she went to the Pacific early in 1945 to join the war against Japan. Her combat operations began in late April, with an attack on Okino Daito Jima, followed by strikes on Okinawa and the Japanese home islands over the next four months. During much of that time, she served as flagship of Task Forces 38 and 58. After Japans surrender, Shangri-La remained in the western Pacific until October 1945. The carrier was active in 1946 and into 1947, participating in the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests and making a cruise to Australia. She was decommissioned in November 1947 and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Recommissioned in May 1951, Shangri-La served with the Atlantic Fleet until November 1952, when she decommissioned to receive a combined SCB-27C and SCB-125 modernization. She had been reclassified CVA-38 in October 1952, and, when the upgrade work was completed and she recommissioned in January 1955, the carrier featured a greatly changed appearance, with angled flight deck, enclosed bow, new island, steam catapults and many other improvements. Shangri-La spent the next five years with the Pacific Fleet, making several cruises with the Seventh Fleet in the Far East. Shangri-La transferred to the Atlantic in March 1960, and began a series of deployments to the Mediterranean Sea early in the next year, alternating with Second Fleet service nearer to the U.S. She was reclassified CVS-38 in June 1969, in preparation a new anti-submarine warfare support role, but continued to carry an attack air group for her final overseas cruise. This voyage, beginning in March 1970, took Shangri-La through the south Atlantic and Indian Ocean to take part in Vietnam combat operations. Upon return to the U.S. east coast in December 1970, she began inactivation preparations, leading to a final decommissioning in July 1971 and lay up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. USS Shangri-La was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1982 and sold for scrapping in August 1988.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 03:14:12 +0000

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