Completed in late , the ship was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force variously designated as Task Force 38 or 58 in the Pacific Ocean , the navy's primary offensive force during the Pacific War. The ship was also used to recover the Apollo 11 crew. In early , she participated in attacks on Japanese installations in New Guinea , Palau and Truk among others.
Hornet then took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and most of the subsidiary operations, most notably the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June that was nicknamed the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" for the disproportionate losses inflicted upon the Japanese. The ship then participated in the Philippines Campaign in late , and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign in the first half of After the war she took part in Operation Magic Carpet , returning troops to the U.
Hornet was reactivated during the Korean War of β, but spent the rest of the war being modernized to allow her to operate jet-propelled aircraft. The ship was modernized again in the late s for service as an anti-submarine carrier.
She played a minor role in the Vietnam War during the s and in the Apollo program , recovering the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts when they returned from the Moon. Hornet was decommissioned in The Essex -class ships were much larger than the preceding Yorktown -class aircraft carriers , which allowed them to carry more aircraft, armor, and armament.
All of the ships had a beam of 93 feet Their designed complement was approximately officers and 2, enlisted men, but more men were added even before the ships were completed; the addition of more light weapons and other equipment greatly increased the overcrowding so that Hornet ' s sister Intrepid had a crew of officers and 3, enlisted men in The short-hull Essex es had a flight deck that was feet Below it was a by 70 feet The hangar was connected to the flight deck by three aircraft elevators , two in the flight deck and a folding one on the port side of the flight deck, abreast the island.
