Unusual Uses of the Essex Class 

A honorable mention for USS Lexington (the pre-Essex CV-2) for having been used to temporarily provide electricity to the city of Tacoma in 1929.

When I was a kid, I always looked forward to going to my dentist’s office because the waiting room was decorated with all sorts of mid-century navy paintings. F-4 Phantoms, A-6 Intruders, carriers, etc. it wasn’t until I was twelve or thirteen I found out he was a bomber pilot during Vietnam, and one of his shipmates wrote “Flight of the Intruder”, in which he is a character... albeit renamed.

Great Carrier Reef..LOL Saw a good doc about this a few years ago.

"Or will only affect communist" LOL Nice one

Love the Essex class. They were excellent carriers at war and the large number of uses they eventually filled proved the versatility of their basic design and the amount of growth built into them.

"would only affect communists" i almost choked from the biscuit i just ate mate. your humour is bloody dry and brilliant.

And don't forget the USS Valley Forge became a spaceship. She was used as the Valley Forge in the movie "Silent Running" and her CIC was converted to the bridge and her hangar was used pretty much intact as the ship's cargo area.

"Moon disease affecting communists" Saw it!

USS enterprise 65 was pretty great. Got to see the decommissioning. They’re still trying to take the reactor out. My grandpa was a plank owner on it and was head of comms on board

"They sent me off with 3000 boys, farm boys and drugstore clerks, now fliers and sailors. Boys don't have majesty, but my boys did. You there, child of today, standing upon my deck in your brand-new sneakers, a boy fell there. He manned a five-inch gun, and he fell. He fell where your shadow is. Walk softly there. I am Intrepid. I survived. History lived within me. He lives within me still." USS Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum

I remember when they sunk the Oriskany. It was off the coast of my state and the news stations here had the story fairly often until they sunk her. Kinda sad to see an old ship go, but at least she'll be more dignified being a habitat for new life than being turned into razor blades.

Anybody else binge watch this addictive channel?

"Operation Sea Orbit", an around the world cruise in 64' reminiscent of the "Great White Fleet" of 1907-1909. Three nuclear powered ships starting at Time 1:53; USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25). USS Long Beach (CGN-9) USS Enterprise (CVN-65) Note the unusual superstructure on Long Beach and Enterprise. It's an early phased array radar design, the precursor to the SPY-1A combination tracking and illumination radar used aboard the Ticonderoga Class CG and Arleigh Burke DDG. Fun fact; When in 1967 they switched out the Long Beach #SCANFAR air acquisition radar systems vacuum tubes to solid state electronics, the weight of the superstructure was reduced by 20 Tons. In 1980, Long Beach abandoned #SCANFAR entirely and installed the good ole' reliable SPS-48E three dimensional air acquisition radar which is still manufactured (G model I think, although others versions might still be sold ) and still in service with the U.S. Navy (LHA's for example).

Please take an in depth look at the Fletcher class destroyers of WWII. These underappreciated vessels were the workhorses of the fleet and arguably won the naval war against Japan.

Thank you for the history of the Essex Class. My father was a dive bomber pilot on the Essex during WWII and never talked much about the war. Your series helps give me a sense of what life on board ship in the 1940's must have been like.

USS Hornet museum has the old Space Quarantine Winnebago on display on the ship. I've been on Hornet a few times including an overnight stay which is pretty cool and really one of the best ways to experience this piece of naval history.

Always love your videos Drach. You put alot of work into them and everyone appreciates it. Not to mention you put your personality into every video and that makes them special. The Essex class carriers served so long, in so many roles that none of the surviving museum ships look anything like they would have in WW2. And trying to retrofit them as such is impossible.

The Lexington served as a training carrier unti 1991. Do you plan on doing a video about the preserved ships.

At least it's 0600 CDT instead of the previous normal 0400, so I can get a little more sleep between Drach videos. And whoever thought we'd eventually have cruise ships with more displacement and length than even the biggest US carriers?

"Great Carrier Reef" gotta love it.

Awesome work as always. Thanks.

Wonderful work. More please. More Essex Class please. I live in NYC and would enjoy an review of that ship.

Great video man. Thanks for the upload. I'm gonna have to check out your channel now. 🖒

My grandpa was on USS Hancock CV-19 for 18 months flying the F-8 Crusader during Vietnam. Great video.

I think Lexington outlived Oriskany. She certainly had more time in service if we measure by that metric and still lives today as a museum ship.

Very nice. I served on the USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) during the Vietnam war.

Great video mate. I just watched the vid on the Porter and would love a long video covering the fletcher class as a whole.

Got to tour one of the ASW Essex carriers at San Pedro around 1965. I think the Wasp. Still an impressive ship.

I been on the USS Lexington “Blue Ghost” about 4 Boy Scouts campouts. I love the carrier a lot

Good friend of mine served throughout the 60s on Intrepid. Was there picking up space capsules. I also toured her in New York with him years later.

Could you please cover the usage of Ocean Liners as Auxiliary Cruisers and Troop Transports in WWI? I'd especially like to hear you cover the action involving the sinking of SM U-103, and the comical torpedo malfunction of U-53 on September 4th 1918 (incidentally, this involved the same liner).

Ran into a man that served on that last carrier mentioned. He is one of the older security guards out at the FED Center here in Denver. He said the name and I took a moment before asking what class did it belong to. After he said ESSEX class, I just shook my head, "Sir you are OLD but you don't look it."

As an Oriskany native, it did my heart good to hear you pronounce it correctly in this video. Also nice to see the Mighty O in action as well as the Great Carrier Reef creation pictures.

I served 2 1/2 years on the Valley Forge LPH eight. We were on station awaiting one of the space retrieval, but it was fairly far away and the capsule was closer to I believe the Iwo Jima at the time. We did two Westpac trips and function as a helicopter carrier a medivac station, a morgue and had a battalion of Marines and a squadron of marine helicopter on board. I won deployment. We were off the coast of Vietnam for 72 days.

That line of Dreadnoughts at the end dude legit gave me goosebumps 👌

That final image is a rather haunting portrait of the Pri-Fly center. Beautiful!

Very interesting. Thank you.

"Great Carrier Reef"... another great 'Drachism'? .. Gotta love it! :-)

Valley Forge had an interesting film career (ok 1 movie). She was the set for the film 'Silent Running' a 1970 sci movie starting Bruce Dern. By way of paying homage to the ship, the space ship in the film was called Valley Forge.

Do a video on the Balao. I'm mostly just recommending it because my grandfather served on the Lionfish(when it was a trainer sub) and you can still see his name on the lockers!

Hi,thanks again!

What's so "unusual?" What might be considered unusual would be: filming an iconic sci fi film of the 1970s inside a mothballed Essex class ship - unusual, yet true...

Great vid keep up the good work

Love the lessons. Keep feeding the algorithm- I mean the BobDolerythm

The photo at 3:58 is fascinating with its aircraft carrier cruising along flanked slightly ahead by two nuclear-powered submarines on the surface. What was this, a recruiter handout photo?? That's the last place a boat would be underway in a serious situation!

Nice! Can you make in some time a reveue of 'more modern supercaariers' espacially from forestal onwards to Ford-Class, with discussion of the Neo-Panamax canals ability to bring them from the pacific to Atlantic and vice-versa?

Good job and thank you for the chuckle. Lol

Sometime in 1929, USS Lexington CV-2 was plugged in and powered the city of Tacoma, Washington during a drought.

I am sad that one of the more ironic uses of an Essex-class carrier wasn't mentioned: Yorktown (CV-10) attempting to cosplay as an IJN carrier. 🤣 She stood in for the Akagi in the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!". Considering Akagi's size as a battlecruiser-to-carrier conversion and when the movie was made, using an Essex-class as a substitute makes sense logistically.

Ship review suggestion - I'm sure it's on the list, but is there any chance of a vid on the tortured evolution of the Tiger / Blake / Liion group of cruisers; i know you've done a little bit elsewhere but the story si SO labyrinthine (Including the swiftsures) and says so much about defence policy 1945-1975 that they surely deserves their own treatment.

LHD-2 was my berthing @Great Lakes durring B.E.C.C. I always wanted to be stationed on the ship herself, but you go where they send ya.

i really liked the idea of seaplane tender ships. specifically designed to fly planes more frequent and farther away then possible when compared to flying just from land. have you done a video on one of this class before?

The use of the Essex Class as Sub Hunter groups was quite a thorn in Russia side for many years. My father was on CV33 Big K. Those guys were Sub chasers extraordinaire.

The Dixie-class tenders are interesting and (most) served from WWII through the Gulf War. Tenders, on occasion, served as Flag command ships and one of them is shown in an excellent James Cagney movie, The Gallant Hours.

Drachinifel, I would like to see a video on Admiral Farragut's flagship, the USS HARTFORD.

The Great Carrier Reef. That is cute. VERY cute!

Great Barrier Reef? No thanks I prefer to go on holiday to the Great Carrier Reef.

The Brazilian Navy used the HMS Vengeance (NAeL Minas Gerais) as a anti submarine warfare vessel similar to some Essex'es in USN service, It was modernized some 3 times before being retired in 2001, ironically at the end of its life, the ship finally started using fixed wing Aircraft (A-4KU)

Wow, I never really realized how badass the Essex's looked.

Glad to know about the Hornet.

Lexington was the longest-serving Essex, 1940's construction and technology used beyond its serviceable life. The Navy got its money out of the Lexington, she deserved mention. I rode out the trip from Downtown Pensacola to NAS Pensacola in #2 Fireroom, it was a bit dark and strange feeling the ship move with the boilers cold and the turbines quiet, just the noise of the water moving against the double hull a few feet below me.

drach your picture inventory is godlike

this dude is great

Drachinifel, if you have the opportunity, could you do a documentary on the USS KEARSARGE and the CSS ALABAMA?

And with the Forestall... us carriers would begin to look all the same :(

I served on 3 Essex-class carriers: Kearsarge, Lexington, and Ticonderoga.

Actually, dedicating a carrier to task force ASW operations wasn't that extravagant. It was a pretty innovative use of resources to meet an emerging need. From the mid-50s up through the 90s, the Soviet Union, which was perceived by US strategists as the principle threat to the US Navy, had a staggeringly enormous submarine force (upwards of 400 submarines at its peak), most of which were diesel electric boats (which are very difficult to detect using passive measures). Given the nascent state of ASW technology at that time, it took considerable resources (and luck) to detect, track and successfully prosecute a submerged contact, let alone identify and classify the threat. The most effective and versatile ASW platforms for a task force at sea were (and still are) carrier-based aircraft. However, given the state of technology at the time, effective ASW operations required a considerable number of aircraft in order to adequately provide for the task force's protection. With each additional aircraft embarked for dedicated ASW operations, the carrier had one less aircraft (and space) for its primary mission: attacking and destroying enemy targets. So someone at the Bureau of Ships came up with the bright idea of taking the rapidly-obsolescing Essex-class carriers and converting them to ASW operations. Although the class wasn't designed with that role in mind, they nevertheless filled the niche quite commendably until such time as advancements in electronics and computer technology (principally in the form of micro-miniaturization) permitted the consolidation of ASW operations with the attack carrier itself.

Yorktown is docked in my hometown. She looks absolutely beautiful especially when driving across the bridge, or looking at her from across the river at the park.

The Oriskany was William Holden's ship in The Bridges at Toko-Ri.

not sure if you have talked about this but RULE THE WAVES 2 is about to be released soon and now with carriers and aircraft

My dad served on the shakedown cruise for the Oriskany.

Hay you done a series on the U.S. Navy ships Spurance class destroyers? I haven't been able to find any. Hope you can. Such a sad ending to a great group of ships!

I've been to the great carrier reef. Couldn't dive that day because of a strong current that day..😕

Great humor, and dryer than a popcorn fart.

Never seen four carriers docked at North Island. I think the most I’ve seen is three so that was a cool picture at the start.

I live in Pensacola and work at the NAS here... the USS Oriskany spent its final days here before being turned into a reef.

¨the moon plague¨

Suggestion: Please do a review of the Knox-class DE/FFs.

The angled flight deck was invented by Royal Navy Captain Dennis Cambell.

During WWII there were a number of Hunter Killer Anti-Submarine Warfare Carriers but they were much smaller ships. As the Essex class ships moved from being 1st line combat ships this gave those type of task forces much more substantial ships. Given the importance of rushing troops and supplies to Europe during WWIII - and the numbers of Soviet Submarines allocated to stop that - having such ships would seem a good thing. As these Essex Class ships were retired the Navy stopped calling it's Super Carriers CVA's and went back to calling them CV's as they began to carry a complement of ASW Aircraft and Helicopters in addition to their fighters and strike aircraft. .

USS Lexington (the Essex Class one) remained in service as a training ship until (I believe) 1996.

The angled flight deck seems such an obvious idea it's surprising it didn't come along until "flat top" aircraft carriers had been around for nearly 30 years.

Yes, all aircraft carrier classes mentioned; Midway, Forestall, Enterprise, Kitty Hawk, and the new Gerald R. Ford. Numbers and capabilities.

When I feel like nothing will ever go right in my day , I realize one thing would ............. Drachinifel

@drachinifel any records you found that have a composition for the ASW group? I'm looking for the typical escorts one of them would have in this role.

"Would only effect Communists." I fucking LOL'd at that one. Lucky I wasn't drinking anything at that moment. Bravo, mate. Bravo.

I wonder then if the LPH Wasp I saw about 1970 was a conversion from the CV Wasp ?

Great Carrier Reef is my new favorite pun.

I build a scale model of the Uss Yorktown with the Apollo 11 capsual when I was 12 or 13 I did not realies up until now that that ship was an Essex class carrier and if been intressted in history since about 4 years

Pinned post for Q&A :)

My last ship I was stationed on was the USS Essex LHD 2

@Drachinifel Q and A: In WWI how well do you think the British Channel Fleet of Pre Dreadnoughts, led for part of the time by HMS Dreadnought, might have stood up to a sortie south by the German High Seas Fleet?

Have any thing about U.S.S. Bennington (CVS-20)?

Easily the best-designed carriers of WWII. Actually make that the best-designed capital ships of WWII given the uselessness of the battleship concept at that point.

My Dad’s ship: USS Bennington CV / CVA / CVS 20 !!!

I'm glad Drach is brave enough to acknowledge Moon Plague as the real reason for the victorious outcome of the space race; and dare I say the fall if the Berlin Wall as as well.

He missed the major contribution of the USS Lexington (CV-16), which was used to train several generations of Naval Aviators.

MAJESTIC CLASS light carriers please

It seems such a shame to sink such a majestic, heroic and expensive, ship, but it was for a good cause! I guess it's a more fitting end than broken up in a scrap yard as so many wonderful and famous ships that served so heroically have met their end!

Also of notable importance, I believe the Ticonderoga recovered Apollo 13