USS Yorktown CV-5....

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Great video. I fast forwarded it through the "empty frame" shots but the images are amazing. It saddens me that we can photograph Hornet and Yorktown but Enterprise is gone forever.
I lament that Enterprise-aside the US can't give such great names to their carriers anymore. Politicians are well and good I suppose, but Saratoga, Yorktown? These are the foundational battles of the nation.
 
I lament that Enterprise-aside the US can't give such great names to their carriers anymore. Politicians are well and good I suppose, but Saratoga, Yorktown? These are the foundational battles of the nation.

I don't mind Lincoln, Washington, or Roosevelt for a carrier -- these were Presidential badasses of the first order. Stennis or Vinson? Sorry, they carried some water for the Navy but were not salutary figures nationwide, Senators who had some vision at most. So I'd rather ditch all the politician's naming and go back to naming them after storied warships or battles of yore.

I will say that Nimitz should always have a flattop named after him, and not an amphibious assault ship.

I want Yorktown, Lexington, Sara, Hornet, and Wasp resurrected for fleet carrier names. I'm good with Essex too. And I would laugh and love it if we had another Shangri-La -- whoops upside your head, from a fictional place.
 
I don't mind Lincoln, Washington, or Roosevelt for a carrier -- these were Presidential badasses of the first order. Stennis or Vinson? Sorry, they carried some water for the Navy but were not salutary figures nationwide, Senators who had some vision at most. So I'd rather ditch all the politician's naming and go back to naming them after storied warships or battles of yore.

I will say that Nimitz should always have a flattop named after him, and not an amphibious assault ship.

I want Yorktown, Lexington, Sara, Hornet, and Wasp resurrected for fleet carrier names. I'm good with Essex too. And I would laugh and love it if we had another Shangri-La -- whoops upside your head, from a fictional place.

....and don't forget Coral Sea and Midway, those two are well overdue to be resurrected as well!
 
I lament that Enterprise-aside the US can't give such great names to their carriers anymore. Politicians are well and good I suppose, but Saratoga, Yorktown? These are the foundational battles of the nation.
Agreed.
Yorktown, Saratoga, Bunker Hill, Lexington, Essex, Bon Homme Richard, Intrepid, Tichondoroga, etc. were all inspiring and touch-stones to America's founding.
 
....and don't forget Coral Sea and Midway, those two are well overdue to be resurrected as well!

Right! Point being, these ships should honor the deeds of our sailors, just as destroyers honor the individuals who performed them.

I mean, really, Gerald Ford? Yes, I get it, he was on a ship caught in one of Halsey's typhoons that got pretty beat up. Okay. Give him a destroyer as an honorable sailor and call it a day. That's all Spruance got, and lord knows he did so much more, like kicking some serious ass -- and he had the good sense to stay out of politics.

There's an awful lot of political hogwash going on with our naming conventions nowadays. The Royal Navy honors their fine history when they name their modern ships after fine standard-bearers.

Name the ships with history and bearing in mind.
 

The Evil I. Dished it out, and took some too.

Bon Homme Richard

Fun fact: Benjamin Franklin is the only American to have two carriers named after him -- BHR, and Franklin itself, which suffered so badly in 1945. And he's another person who I think would merit another carrier named after him, even without the valor displayed on the first Franklin when it got smacked. I want a carrier like that.

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The battle between USS Bon homme Richard and HMS Serapis has got to be one of the top five most epic naval battles in history.

I do appreciate the USN's naming of the LHA ships after key battles, a tradition that's been carried down since they evolved from converted Essex class carriers.

Also, the USN's Tichonderoga class missile cruisers (CG) follow this tradition (with two exceptions), too.
 
Around my house, growing up, if one mentioned USS Yorktown it was presumed to refer to Yorktown CV-5. If you wanted to mention Yorktown CV-10, one would simply say "CV-10" and any discussion or mention of cruisers simply elicited a grunt or heavy sigh. Dad was a fighter pilot off Yorktown from June 1941 through the bitter end in June 1942, one of the last fighters launched into the face of the incoming Japanese torpedo planes. He shot down one and shared another with a destroyer.
 
Around my house, growing up, if one mentioned USS Yorktown it was presumed to refer to Yorktown CV-5. If you wanted to mention Yorktown CV-10, one would simply say "CV-10" and any discussion or mention of cruisers simply elicited a grunt or heavy sigh. Dad was a fighter pilot off Yorktown from June 1941 through the bitter end in June 1942, one of the last fighters launched into the face of the incoming Japanese torpedo planes. He shot down one and shared another with a destroyer.

This is your dad taking off on the morning of the 4th of June, 1942, in #13 right?

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It's been a while since I built that machine in 1/48....
 
I lament that Enterprise-aside the US can't give such great names to their carriers anymore. Politicians are well and good I suppose, but Saratoga, Yorktown? These are the foundational battles of the nation.
Famous sailing ships and famous battles, they way they used to be named.

My proposals.

CVN-81 Essex 2032
CVN-82 Yorktown 2036
CVN-83 Saratoga 2040
CVN-84 Lexington 2044
CVN-85 Hornet 2048
 
CVN-85 Wasp.
I figger by 2048 the name might be available.

"Who says a wasp can't sting twice?" It's a pity the carrier Churchill was talking about caught three torpedoes and went down as a pyre after rendering fine service supporting Malta. The Japanese said it can't. Doesn't mean the name is wrecked, only the ship.

I doubt we'll ever see another Wasp as a carrier, for the same reason we'll never see another Arizona as any USN ship.
 

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