USS Shangri-La CV-38

An Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Shangri-La (CV-38) was laid down by Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia on January 15, 1944. Shangri-La was sponsored by Josephine Doolittle, launched on February 24, 1944 and commissioned on September 15 with Captain James D. Barner in command.

Completing her shakedown cruise to Trinidad on December 21, Shangri-La returned to Norfolk before departing for California via the Panama Canal. Arriving at San Diego on February 24, 1945, she took on extra planes for transit to Hawaii. On her arrival at Pearl Harbor on February 15, Shangri-La began qualifying land-based Navy pilots for carrier landings. Departing Hawaii for Ulithi, she then joined with Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force on April 24. Shangri-La launched her air group, CVG-85, in her first strike against the Japanese on April 25. Successfully destroying radar and radio installations on Okino Daito Jima, Shangri-La then sailed for Okinawa with the task group. Sending out combat air patrols for the task group, she also provided close air support for the 10th Army on Okinawa and then returned to Ulithi on May 14, 1945.

On May 18,USS Shangri-La became the flagship of the 2nd Carrier Task Force. The task force departed Ulithi on May 24 and launched air strikes on the Japanese home islands on June 2 and June 3, aimed primarily at Kyushu. Shangri-La's air group faced stiff airborne resistance and suffered heavy casualties. Shangri-La then provided close air support at Okinawa, struck Kyushu again on June 8 and returned to Okinawa. Arriving at Leyte Gulf on June 13, Shangri-La anchored in San Pedro Bay for the remainder of June.

Shangri-La departed Leyte on July 1 to return to combat. The day after her departure, John L. Sullivan took the oath of office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air onboard Shangri-La. On June 10, Shangri-La launched her air group against Tokyo, beginning a series of strikes against the island chain that continued until the Japanese capitulation. Her last strikes of the war were against the airfields surrounding Tokyo, on the morning of August 15, 1945. Shangri-La then patrolled the strike area, with her planes air-dropping supplies to prisoner of war camps, for the following month. Shangri-La left Tokyo Bay on October 1 for San Diego. Shangri-La made calls at Okinawa, San Pedro Bay, San Diego, and then Bremerton, Washington for availability on December 9.Undergoing availability to December 30, she then returned to San Diego.

Conducting operations out of San Diego, primarily pilot carrier landing qualifications, Shangri-La also participated in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in May of 1946. After the tests and a brief training cruise to Pearl Harbor, Shangri-La wintered at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She deployed again in March of 1947, calling at Pearl Harbor and Sydney, Australia. On her return to the United States, Shangri-La was decommissioned on November 7, 1947, and placed in the Reserve Fleet at San Francisco.

Shangri-La was recommissioned on May 10, 1951 with Captain Francis L. Busey in command. She conducted normal operations out of Boston, Massachusetts for the next year and was reclassified as an attack carrier CVA-38 in 1952. Shangri-La was decommissioned again on November 14, 1952, for modernization at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Receiving an angled flight deck, twin catapults and overhauled elevators and arresting gear, Shangri-la was a new ship when she was commissioned for the third time. She was re-commissioned on January 10, 1955, with Captain Roscoe L. Newman in command. After intensive fleet training through 1955, Shangri-La was deployed to the Far East on January 5, 1956. Alternating western Pacific cruises with operations out of San Diego until 1960, Shangri-La was ordered to her new home port at Mayport, Florida.

USS Shangri-La alternated between deployments to the Mediterranean and operations in the western Atlantic from 1961 to 1970. Overhauled and extensively modified in 1963 in New York, Shangri-La was accidently rammed by a destroyer during war games in the fall of 1965. Another extensive overhaul was undertaken at Philadelphia before Shangri-La resumed normal operations in the spring of 1966. She was re-designated on June 30, 1969, as an antisubmarine warfare aircraft carrier, CVS-38.

USS Shangri-La departed Mayport on March 5, 1970, for the western Pacific after an absence of ten years. She arrived in Subic Bay, Philippines on April 4 and launched combat sorties from Yankee Station. Returning to the United States, Shangri-La arrived in Mayport on December 16, 1970. Decommissioned July 30, 1971, Shangri-La was berthed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on July 15, 1982, Shangri-La was sold for scrap on August 9, 1988 and later towed to Taiwan for demolition. USS Shangri-La had earned two battle stars for her service in World War II and three battle stars for service in the Vietnam War.

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