USS Ticonderoga CV-14

USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) was the first of the long hull Essex class aircraft carriers. The fourth USN ship to carry the name, she was laid down as PCU Hancock in February of 1943 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia. Sponsored by Miss Stephanie Sarah Pell, she was launched on February 7, 1944 and renamed Ticonderoga on May 1. Ticonderoga was commissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard on May 8, 1944, with Captain Dixie Kiefer in command.

USS Ticonderoga embarked Air Group 80, left Norfolk on June 26, and trained extensively during her shakedown cruise to Trinidad. Returning to Norfolk in July, Ticonderoga steamed for San Diego via the Panama Canal, arriving September 13. Taking on an additional 77 aircraft and their complement of Marine Corp aviation and defense units, Ticonderoga departed for Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor on September 24, 1944.

Following experiments in the underway transfer of aviation bombs from cargo ship to carrier, Ticonderoga conducted landing and antiaircraft defense drills prior to departing for the western Pacific on October 18.Calling at Eniwetok, she arrived at Ulithi Atoll on October 29, becoming part of Task Group 38.3. Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi on November 2, to take part in the extended air cover for ground forces capturing Leyte. Striking enemy shipping and air installations near Luzon, the air group launched from Ticonderoga struck Manila and Ormoc Bay before returning to Ulithi on November 17.

Departing Ulithi on November 22, Ticonderoga returned to the Philippines. Launching air strikes on central Luzon and adjacent waters, her pilots also destroyed the damaged cruiser Kumano and an enemy convoy in Dasol Bay. Ticonderoga's sister ship Essex (CV-9) was heavily damaged by enemy aircraft, and after extending her hospitality to the airmen of both Essex and Intrepid (CV-11), Ticonderoga turned to Ulithi for replenishment. Ticonderoga departed Ulithi for the Philippines once again on December 11, arriving at her launch point on December 13. For the following three days, her air group struck Japanese airbases on Luzon. Surviving an unexpected and violent hurricane that cost the task force three destroyers and over 800 lives, Ticonderoga arrived back in Ulithi on Christmas Eve.

After repairs occasioned by the typhoon were completed, the carriers returned to sea December 30. In spite of rough weather, strikes on Luzon were carried out on January 6 and 7, although an earlier strike on Formosa was aborted. Then steaming north for an assault on airfields in the Ryukus, foul weather forced Ticonderoga to turn and join TG 38.3 in the strikes against Formosa. Ticonderoga next provided combat air patrols while the task force deployed to a point 150 to 200 miles off the coast of Indochina. From that point on January 12, 1945, the task force made a series of successful anti-shipping sweeps and then moving northeast, struck Japanese airfields on the Chinese coast on January 15. After a series of anti shipping raids and airfield sweeps at Hong Kong, Ticonderoga and the task force sailed northward to Formosa, arriving on January 21.

Struck by a Kamikaze aircraft and later an enemy bomb, on January 22, Ticonderoga suffered great loss of life with hundreds wounded, including Captain Kiefer. Briefly calling in Ulithi to discharge the wounded and transfer her air group, Ticonderoga proceeded to Puget Sound Navy Yard, arriving February 15, 1945. Repairs completed, Ticonderoga returned to Hawaii via the Alameda Naval Air Station, arriving at Pearl Harbor on May 1, 1945. Taking on Air Group 87, she steamed to Ulithi and rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force on May 22. Ticonderoga spent the last weeks of the war in Japanese home waters. Striking at airfields on Kyushu, Nagoya, Osaka and Miko, she then conducted air strikes at Honshu, Hokkaido and Tokyo until the Japanese capitulation. Then participating in Operation Magic Carpet, Ticonderoga delivered thousands of soldiers from the Pacific home to the United States. USS Ticonderoga was placed out of commission on January 9, 1947 and berthed with the Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

After an extensive conversion at the New York Naval Shipyard, Ticonderoga was re-commissioned on September 11, 1954 with Captain William A. Schoech in command. Arriving at her new home port of Norfolk, Virginia on January 6, 1955, Ticonderoga took her shakedown cruise near Cuba. She participated in tests of new aircraft in September and then steamed to Gibraltar where she spent eight months patrolling the Mediterranean. Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk August 2, 1956 to receive further modifications. Her next home port was Alameda, California, arriving May 30, 1957. Ticonderoga completed her first deployment since re-commissioning on April 25, 1958, after a six-month tour from Japan to the Philippines.

Ticonderoga would make four peacetime deployments to the western Pacific between 1958 and 1963. From 1963 to 1969 she was actively deployed at either "Dixie" or "Yankee" Stations, the carrier operating points off South and North Vietnam, respectively. Ticonderoga departed Subic Bay September 4, 1969, concluding a highly successful deployment. She then moved to Long Beach Naval Shipyard for overhaul and conversion, and was re-designated an antisubmarine warfare carrier, CVS-14, on October 21. Based out of San Diego, Ticonderoga made two more deployments to the Far East and participated in the recoveries of Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 in 1972, and Skylab 2 astronauts in June of 1973.Ticonderoga was decommissioned on September 1, 1973 and struck from the Navy list November 16, 1973.

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