USS Tarawa (CV-40, later CVA-40, CVS-40 and AVT-12), 1945-1968

USS Tarawa, a 27,100-ton Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia. Commissioned in December 1945, she made a shakedown cruise to the Caribbean in early 1946 and joined the Pacific Fleet in July. From mid-1946 until April 1947, the new carrier operated in the central and western Pacific, then spent more than a year in the vicinity of the U.S. west coast. Tarawa began a voyage to the east coast "the long way round" beginning in late September 1948, calling on ports in China, Singapore, Ceylon, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean before arriving at Norfolk, Virginia, in February 1949. She was placed out of commission at the end of the following June.

Tarawa was recalled to active duty after the outbreak of the Korean War, recommissioning in February 1951. She spent the war years in the Atlantic area and with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, and was redesignated CVA-40 in October 1952. From September 1953 until September 1954, Tarawa cruised around the World eastbound, conducting operations in the Mediterranean and the Far East along the way. Upon her return to the Atlantic coast, she began conversion to an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) support aircraft carrier. Redesignated CVS-40in January 1955, she was employed for the next five years in ASW and helicopter amphibious exercises in the east coast and Caribbean areas.

Decommissioned again in May 1960, Tarawa entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was reclassified as an aircraft transport in May 1961, with the new hull number AVT-12, but saw no service in that role. In June 1967, USS Tarawa was stricken from the list of Naval vessels. She was sold for scrapping in October 1968.

 

 

USS Mississippi (CGN-40), a Virginia class, nuclear fuel powered, U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state admitted to the Union.

Her keel was laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Newport News, Virginia, on 22 February 1975. She was launched on 31 July 1976. The ship was commissioned on 5 August 1978 by President Jimmy Carter, then serving as the 39th President of the United States. Early deployment included escorting the carrier USS Nimitz. She also was deployed in 1989 as a response to the capture and subsequent murder of U.S. Marine Corps Colonel William R. Higgins by terrorists.

The USS Mississippi (CGN-40) was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 July 1997, and she entered the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program around October 2004.