December 15, 2009
Post date: Dec 15, 2009 9:51:49 PM
Recently I visited the retired aircraft carrier USS Hornet on San Francisco Bay. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, and opened to the public as a floating history museum in 1998. She is one of the Navy's most decorated ships, and played key roles in World War II and the space program.
The USS Hornet is immense! She is 19 stories tall and 876 feet long. I was lucky enough to have a personal tour by a Navy aviator who landed planes on her during World War II. He said it was especially tricky landing on the flight deck during heavy seas. Cables caught the tail hook of planes when they landed. If the cable snapped, a huge net stopped the plane. Catapults were used to launch aircraft from the ship. The airplanes had foldable wings (see below) to maximize space on the flight deck. During World War II the USS Hornet survived 59 air attacks and a massive typhoon off the Philippines.
Aviation nose art reached its peak during World War II. Crew members were allowed to name and paint unique images on their aircraft to boost morale. Aviation art became so popular that Disney created 1,200 images for airplanes during the war - and never once charged a fee to the military!
The USS Hornet has the largest Apollo exhibit on the west coast. In 1966 she began her role in the space program with an ocean recovery of the second unmanned space capsule to circle the Earth. The capsule was launched to test the strength of the heat shield during landing. The capsule performed so well in water that NASA decided to test it on land too. That drop test resulted in an amazingly small dent.
In July 1969 the USS Hornet recovered the Apollo 11 space capsule containing Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. A helicopter picked up the men after splashdown in the Pacific, and the capsule was retrieved separately by crane.
The Apollo 11 astronauts were immediately taken to a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) on the USS Hornet. The MQF was a modified Airstream trailer used to isolate astronauts in case they brought back "germs" from the moon. President Nixon had his "greatest day" when he stood at the window of the MQF and welcomed them home.
I toured the inside of the MQF and saw the formica tabletop with astronaut names written on it, bunk beds, microwave oven, and control panel on the wall for air and water circulation. Astronauts of the first three moon missions spent 3 weeks in isolation. Afterwards it was no longer necessary, because NASA had determined that "moon germs" do not exist.
Beside the MQF is an exact replica of the Sea King helicopter that picked up the astronauts after splashdown. This helicopter was used in the movie "Apollo 13" with Tom Hanks.
In November 1969 the USS Hornet picked up the capsule and all-Navy crew of Apollo 12 (Richard Gordon, Charles Conrad, and Alan Bean). It was her last space mission. By 1970 the USS Hornet's role in the Navy was complete and she was decommissioned. Now she lives on as a floating history museum to educate visitors from around the world.