Originally Posted by
dawg80
My Uncle Al (married one of my dad's sisters) was a fireman on the USS Enterprise. He was one of those guys in the fireproof suits with the foam hoses, dealing with fires on deck. He was a crewman on the Enterprise, the US flagship, for the duration of the war, and was present for every action the Enterprise saw, from Midway to Okinawa, where on May 14, 1945 she took one too many hits. A bomb-ladened kamikaze slammed into her, marking the 4th kamikaze hit she had taken. It took out her main elevator making flight operations impossible. She was ordered back to the shipyard in Virginia for full repairs. She was still in the Virginia area, just back to sea, when the A-bombs were dropped and the war ended.
And here's a little tidbit I just learned. The Enterprise did take part in the Battle of Pearl Harbor. She was out to sea but was alerted of the attack by radio. She steamed full speed toward Hawaii. Along the way her scout planes spotted a Jap sub running on the surface. Divebombers were launched and they sunk the sub. Then while still at maximum range, the absolute extent of the range of her planes, the Enterprise heard a US destroyer relaying intelligence about the Jap attack, the Jap planes coming and going to Pearl. The Enterprise decided to launch a squadron of fighters. They managed to intercept a flight of Jap divebombers heading back to their carrier, and they shot down two of them. They did not pursue the rest due to fears of running out of fuel.
Three times during the war the Enterprise took such vicious hits that the Japs surely thought she was sunk. The Big E was the prized target of the Japs. She was our flagship, and the pride of the US Navy. But after all three attacks...she emerged damaged, but still defiant. The Japs were so surprised after the second time that happened they dubbed her "the gray ghost."
In the weeks and months after the war was over, Big E served as big passenger ship, ferrying US soldiers home from England. On one such trip to England the British Admiralty asked permission to fly a royal pennant on her, the ultimate show of respect and admiration, one ally to another.
She was built in 1933 and by 1945 there were 12 other US carriers, more modern and better equipped to carry on. She was decommissioned and removed from service. There were efforts to buy her and turn her into a museum, but not enough money was raised. By 1960 she was sold for scrap metal. Only a few artifacts were salvaged. One being the ship's bell, which today is kept at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. It is only rung...when the Navy football team beats Army.