Figure 1: USS Randolph (CV-15) in the Chesapeake Bay area during her shakedown period, 12 November 1944. She is wearing camouflage Measure 32 Design 17a. Photographed from USS Charger (CVE-30). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Randolph (CV-15) alongside a repair ship at Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands, 13 March 1945, showing damage to her after flight deck resulting from a "kamikaze" suicide plane hit on 11 March. Photographed from a USS Miami (CL-89) floatplane. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Randolph (CV-15) crewmen fighting fires on the ship's flight deck after she was hit by a "kamikaze" suicide plane, 11 March 1945. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Damage done to the flight deck of USS Randolph (CV-15) after hit by a “kamikaze” suicide plane on 11 March 1945. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: Another view of the damage done to the flight deck of USS Randolph (CV-15) after hit by a “kamikaze” suicide plane on 11 March 1945. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Randolph (CV-15) at anchor in the western Pacific, June 1945. Photographed by Lieutenant Barrett Gallagher. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Commander of Task Force 58 Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, left, with his Chief of Staff, Commodore Arleigh A. Burke, on board USS Randolph (C V-15) during operations off Okinawa. Photograph is dated June 1945, but was probably taken in May. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Official US Navy photograph of USS Randolph (now CVA-15) after her SCB-27A modernization, with an interesting mix of F9F Cougars, AD Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs on deck. This photograph was probably taken during her post-modernization shakedown cruise to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, August to November 1953, with Carrier Air Group 10 (CAG-10) aboard. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Official US Navy photograph of USS Randolph (now CVA-15) after her SCB-27A modernization, with an interesting mix of F9F Cougars, AD Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs on deck. This photograph was probably taken during her post-modernization shakedown cruise to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, August to November 1953, with Carrier Air Group 10 (CAG-10) aboard. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Randolph (CVA-15) at Gibraltar, mid-February 1954. Randolph was relieving USS Bennington (CVA-20) after her Mediterranean cruise was completed. Photograph courtesy of Louis Hodgson. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Randolph underway circa 1956-57. Photograph courtesy Don Smith (USN-RET). Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Randolph (CVA-15) stands at her assigned anchorage in Hampton Roads, Virginia, during the International Naval Review, 12 June 1957. Note her deck load of aircraft, with two AJ Savage attack planes and 14 FJ Fury fighters parked on the flight deck, forward. Photographed by PH2 Hughes. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS Randolph (now CVS-15) refueling at sea from USS Pawcatuck (AO-108), circa 1960. USS Waller (DDE-466) is refueling from the oiler's starboard side, while USS Eaton is steaming astern, waiting her turn for a "drink." Photograph received from USS Waller, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: Official US Navy photograph of USS Randolph (CVS-15) during an UNREP (UNderway REPlenishment) in the Atlantic, somewhere along the East coast, while conducting ASW (anti-submarine warfare) operations, September 1960. She is replenishing from USS Marias (AO-57) along with USS Cony (DDE-508). Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: USS Randolph (CVS-15) underway at sea on 27 February 1962, with two S2F airplanes on her catapults. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 16: Official US Navy photograph of USS Randolph (CVS-15) in September 1968. However, this photograph was possibly taken during the summer of 1967, since it shows Anti-Submarine Carrier Air Group 56 (tail code "AU") aboard Randolph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 17: Sir Winston Churchill salutes as he receives honors during a visit to USS Randolph (CVA-15), 26 October 1958. Photographed by J.C. Ricks. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after Peyton Randolph, the first president of the First Continental Congress, USS Randolph (CV-15) was a 36,380-ton, Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier that was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on 9 October 1944. The ship was approximately 888 feet long and 93 feet wide, had a top speed of 32 knots, and had a crew of 3,448 officers and men. Randolph was heavily armed with 12 5-inch guns, 68 40-mm guns, and 59 20-mm guns. The carrier also carried roughly 80 aircraft, depending on the mission.
After a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Randolph went to the Pacific via the Panama Canal and on 31 December 1944 arrived at San Francisco, California. After taking on two air groups, Randolph left San Francisco on 20 January 1945 and steamed to Ulithi atoll in the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Once there, she joined Task Force 58 and on 16 February her aircraft began offensive bombing operations against the Japanese home islands. Randolph’s aircraft also supported American troops during the invasion of Iwo Jima, bombing enemy targets on land and shooting down Japanese suicide aircraft, or “kamikazes,” that were being launched against the American invasion fleet. On 25 February, after numerous bombing runs were made against Iwo Jima, Randolph returned to Ulithi for provisions.
But on 11 March 1945, while Randolph was at anchor at Ulithi, a Japanese suicide aircraft suddenly appeared over the island. It was a twin-engine bomber and it immediately dove towards Randolph. There was almost no time to react and the plane crashed through the starboard side of the rear flight deck and exploded inside the ship. The explosion and fire killed 25 men and wounded 106. But the crew scrambled into action and quickly put out the fire before it could do even more damage to the ship. The Navy decided to repair the carrier at Ulithi and, by 7 April, Randolph was able to join the invasion task force headed for Okinawa. Randolph’s planes not only hit targets on Okinawa, but they also provided critical combat air patrols that assisted in the protection of the invasion force against the dreaded Japanese kamikazes. Randolph itself was also under daily enemy air attacks from 17 April on, but the ship was not damaged. On 15 May, Randolph became flagship of Task Force 58 and continued supporting the occupation of Okinawa until 29 May, when she was sent to the Philippines.
Randolph then was attached to Admiral William “Bull” Halsey’s famous Third Fleet and her aircraft made a series of strikes against the Japanese home islands. On 10 July 1945, Randolph alone launched eight air strikes against airfields near Tokyo. On 14 July, her aircraft hit the airfields and shipping in and near Tsugaru Strait, in which two important Japanese train ferries were sunk and three were damaged. These aerial attacks against the Japanese home islands continued for several days until Randolph and several other carriers were moved to the southwest of the Japanese home islands. Once there, they began bombing targets on 24 July, hitting airfields and factories on Kyushu, Honshu, and Shikoku. Randolph’s pilots estimated that, from 10 to 25 July 1945, they destroyed 25 to 30 Japanese ships, ranging in size from small coastal transports to a 6,000-ton freighter, and had damaged 35 to 40 others. Randolph’s aircraft continued pounding Japanese ground targets right up until the morning of 15 August, when Japan surrendered.
After the war ended, Randolph was sent back to the United States in September 1945 and, after transiting the Panama Canal, joined the Atlantic Fleet. Over the next several months, Randolph was part of Operation “Magic Carpet” and made two round-trip crossings to the Mediterranean to bring home American servicemen. Randolph also made two trips to Europe while serving as a training ship in 1946 and 1947, but was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in February 1948.
Randolph was one of the carriers selected to undergo SCB-27A modernization and was re-commissioned in July 1953. The changes made to Randolph after the conversion were quite extensive. Her flight deck was reinforced to handle heavier and faster jet aircraft that were entering the Navy. More powerful catapults were installed, new arresting gear was added, and the gun armament was modernized. A distinctive feature was a new “island” structure on the starboard side of the flight deck that was taller in height and shorter in length than the previous structure. Other additions included increased storage for aviation gasoline, more powerful electrical generating capabilities, and better and safer weapons storage facilities. Randolph was now re-classified an attack aircraft carrier and given the new classification CVA-15.
Randolph was assigned to the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean in 1954. From 1955 to 1956, Randolph was modernized once again and received an angled flight deck and an enclosed “hurricane” bow. She made three more deployments with the Sixth Fleet from 1956 to 1959, but was then converted to an anti-submarine support carrier in March of 1959 and was re-classified CVS-15. For the next ten years, Randolph participated in anti-submarine exercises in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and off the coast of northern Europe. Randolph also acted as the support ship for the early Mercury manned space flights and then took a very active part in the naval “quarantine” of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since the Soviet Union sent submarines to Cuba and Randolph was an anti-submarine warfare carrier, there was a very real possibility that Randolph’s aircraft could have been on the front lines of a naval war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Luckily, it did not come to that.
USS Randolph continued her duties until she was decommissioned for the last time on 13 February 1969 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. This proud ship was sold for scrapping in May of 1975. Randolph received three battle stars for her service during World War II.
