USS Shangri-La (CV/CVA/CVS-38) was one of 24 s completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy.
Commissioned in 1944 and named after the mythical paradise of the same name, Shangri-La participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II, earning two battle stars. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She operated in both the Pacific and Atlantic / Mediterranean for several years, and late in her career was redesignated as an anti-submarine carrier (CVS). She earned three battle stars for service in the Vietnam War.
Shangri-La was decommissioned in 1971 and sold for scrap in 1988.
Name
The naming of the ship was a radical departure from the general practice of the time, which was to name aircraft carriers after battles or previous US Navy ships. After the Doolittle Raid, launched from the aircraft carrier , President Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from "Shangri-La", the fictional faraway land of the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon.
Construction and commissioning
Shangri-La was one of the "long-hull" Essex-class ships. She was laid down by the Norfolk Navy Yard, at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 January 1943, and was launched on 24 February 1944, sponsored by Josephine Doolittle (wife of Jimmy Doolittle). Shangri-La was commissioned on 15 September 1944, with Captain James D. Barner in command.
Service history
World War II
Shangri-La completed fitting out at Norfolk and took her shakedown cruise to Trinidad, between 15 September and 21 December 1944, at which time she returned to Norfolk. On 17 January 1945, she stood out of Hampton Roads, formed up with large cruiser and destroyer , and sailed for Panama. The three ships arrived at Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone on 23 January and transited the canal the next day. Shangri-La departed from Balboa on 25 January and arrived at San Diego, California, on 4 February. There she loaded passengers, stores, and extra planes for transit to Hawaii and got underway on 7 February. Upon her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 15 February, she commenced two months of duty, qualifying land-based Navy pilots in carrier landings.
On 10 April, she weighed anchor for Ulithi Atoll where she arrived 10 days later. After an overnight stay in the lagoon, Shangri-La departed Ulithi in company with destroyers and to report for duty with Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 (TF 58). On 24 April, she joined Task Group 58.4 (TG 58.4) while it was conducting a fueling rendezvous with TG 50.8. The next day, Shangri-La and her air group, CVG-85, launched their first strike against the Japanese. The target was Okino Daito Jima, a group of islands several hundred miles to the southeast of Okinawa. Her planes successfully destroyed radar and radio installations there and, upon their recovery, the task group sailed for Okinawa. Shangri-La supplied combat air patrols for the task group and close air support for the 10th Army on Okinawa before returning to Ulithi on 14 May.
While at Ulithi, Shangri-La became the flagship of Carrier Task Force 2. Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Sr. hoisted his flag on Shangri-La on 18 May. Six days later, TG 58.4, with Shangri-La in company, sortied from the lagoon. On 28 May, TG 58.4 became TG 38.4 and McCain relieved Mitscher as Commander, TF 38, retaining Shangri-La as his flagship. On 2–3 June, the task force launched air strikes on the Japanese home islands – aimed particularly at Kyūshū, the southernmost of the major islands. Facing the stiffest airborne resistance to date, Shangri-Las airmen suffered their heaviest casualties.
On 4–5 June, she moved off to the northwest to avoid a typhoon; then, on 6 June, her planes returned to close air support duty over Okinawa. On 8 June, her air group hit Kyūshū again, and, on the following day, they came back to Okinawa. On 10 June, the task force cleared Okinawa for Leyte, conducting drills en route. Shangri-La entered Leyte Gulf and anchored in San Pedro Bay on 13 June. She remained at anchor there for the rest of June, engaged in upkeep and recreation.
On 1 July, Shangri-La got underway from Leyte to return to the combat zone. On the 2nd, the oath of office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air was administered to John L. Sullivan on board Shangri-La, the first ceremony of its type ever undertaken in a combat zone. Eight days later, her air group commenced a series of air strikes against Japan which lasted until the capitulation on 15 August.