The History of the USS Hornet

The USS Hornet played a pivotal role in virtually all of the assault landings in the Pacific from March 1944 until the end of World War II. The ship was decommissioned in 1947 and became an attack aircraft carrier and then an anti-submarine warfare support ship. In 1961, when wildfires destroyed much of the Tony Belair neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Hornet helped with cleanup efforts. She recovered the unmanned Apollo AS202 capsule when it returned to its suborbital space flight in 1966. On July 24, 1969, she was part of history again after recovering the Lunar Command Module for this historic walk on the moon.