What's It Like Aboard a WW2 Aircraft Carrier? - Let's Visit the USS Hornet 

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1:35 Imagine an aircraft carrier launching ships

How I wish the USS Enterprise CV-6 wasn’t scrapped

When I was in the Navy I was in an F-14 squadron round about the first Persian gulf war era.. and seeing that tomcat on deck was awesome!

The Hornet is a great ship to visit, but in terms of this video title, many of the features he is showing were added in refits after WWII, as many Essex-class carriers would be kept in service (at least as second-line vessels) for another 20-25+ years.

Kitchen=galley. Dining room=mess hall(on land) or mess deck. Restroom=the head or latrine. Medical area=infirmary, sick bay. Jail/lock up=brig.

Fun fact: The newest carriers in America's fleet have replaced steam catapults with electromagnetic ones. The reason why it took them so long was because it was found that the extremely powerful electromagnets used in early Mag catapults didn't have enough shielding, and this caused a few aircraft to have their computer systems go AWOL on them from the small EMP that it produces. Needless to say, with all modern aircraft being primarily fly-by-wire, computer-driven affairs, losing your ECUs/computers right after takeoff is a rather bad turn of events. Since the shielding required for such a system was super-expensive, as well as extremely heavy, tis something that we haven't been able to effectively incorporate into a carrier's systems until somewhat recently. Even so, a mag-catapult is easily the heaviest piece of equipment on the entire ship, if you don't count the reactor or its turbines, and having that much weight right up top had to have some clever engineering decisions undertaken in order to make it a sea-worthy system. You'd be amazed how much care and due diligence is required for adjusting the ballast on one of those asymmetrical behemoths. If you took the ballast away, in the blink of an eye, the ship would develop a heavy list in excess of 90 degrees, and it would do so quite rapidly.

My grandfather was on the USS Sawanee and survived the first Kamikaze attack. He loved the open water and passed that on to me :) great video!

The flight deck superstructure is called the Island, not the control tower.

I grew up on that base, at the height of the Vietnam war. Grew up with Carriers. Had holiday meals on several of them. The British invented the angle deck. The design mainly allowed for the simultaneous launching and retrieval of aircraft. The safety feature was a secondary and welcome feature. Imagine, how the battle of Midway, could have been much different, had the Japanese carriers been "angle decked".

One of my best memories was touring the USS Enterprise with my Uncle who served on her in WWII and retired as Captain in the US Navy. That was an interesting and awesome day. Wish I had videoed it for posterity

We are incredibly lucky to be able to visit these Amazing ships that took part in Historical Battles that will be remembered for millennia! Very unfortunate that the UK didn’t maintain their heroic ships from WW2 or earlier. How did the Brits not preserve the Dreadnaught or Warspite? Madness!

The "control room" overlooking the deck is Primary Flight Control (aka PRI-FLY). The person in charge there is known as the Air Boss. The speed control in the "wheel house" is known as a Telegraph. The "primitive" charting computer (yes, it was technically a computer) was rather advanced technology for the time. Been there four times, met Buzz Aldrin during the 40th Apollo anniversary.

WW2 aircraft carrier but discussing systems that were installed post WW2 for jets.

Thank you much for doing a video on the USS Hornet! I lived in Alameda in my childhood and I have been the Hornet many times. I think it is the best out of all Essex class carrier museums because of its authentic look, smell, and many of the staff have worked on the Hornet and ships of the same class. I have seen many people whining online about how few aircraft there are, the missing parts, and the need paint job, ect...but do not forget that the Hornet is privately owned and these veterans are doing an impressive job with a small budget. Unfortunately, the USS Hornet is often forgotten in the bay. Many people that live in the bay do not even know what the Hornet is. California's education system is failing us, with history classes only talking about the American homefront of WW2, the LGBTQ, and minorities. They only teach us trash revisionist history. Since I've seen that you have enjoyed the museum, there are many other military museums in the bay, the following: Oakland Aviation Museum, USS Pampanito, SS Jeremiah O'Brien, SS Red Oak Victory, and Alameda Air Naval Station Museum. No worries about waiting in long lines and overcrowded areas because no one else cares about our history.

My grandfather served on this ship, he was in flight group VB-11

Tiny nitpick. The pilots get briefed on the mission at hand. They get debriefed when they return.

Yes I could see several things that military, especially Navy and Marine veterans would want to correct. I do appreciate your enthusiasm and respect for those who served. I enjoyed the video and chose to overlook the minor stuff. Thanks for sharing, keep up the great work. I will subscribe to your channel.

At 17:50 mark Ready Room my father was there in 1944 (Commander John W Ramsey VF-11 Sun downers fighter pilot) on the Hornet tour WESPAC. I visited the ship spring 2018 it was a great experience. He was with the US Navy from 1941 to 1964 thru two wars. Good clear video. His picture is with the rest of the squadron in the Sundowners exhibit on the ship a few doors down from the Ready Room.

I was on this ship I met the pilot on this ship who had an amazing experience of being ditching his damaged aircraft and then being rescued You can listen to the entire event with film on RU-vid Awesome tour by a veteran and a ride to the train station by the same person Saved me a long walk Thank you sir From Victoria bc Canada

Thank you for this great work

The Hornet was refit and rebuilt many times after the end of WW II, she really doesn’t look anything like what the ship did in the 1940’s. Still awesome to see though. The ship is configured now as she looked in the early 1970’s as an anti-submarine carrier. Still an awesome place to visit, of course. Oh, and this Hornet is an Essex class ship, not Yorktown class. The first Hornet that sank at Guadalcanal was Yorktown class. Thanks for a very good post.

I live about a mile away from this museum. I've enjoyed many a visit since it opened. Such an amazing slice of military history.

A bit nostalgic for me. I was onboard the Constellation in 1967 in the Tonkin Gulf off of Vietnam. A very busy place,

This was an awesome video. Genuinely interesting seeing the carriers inner workings and just how it used to operate.

Cool vid USS Intrepid CV11 here in NY

My father served aboard the USSHornet in the Pacific during WWII. It is wonderful to get a picture of what life was like for him during those years. Thank you .

Filming showers, " A lot of happiness happened here ", loved the on site visit!

War is bad but these machines are amazing though.

The yellow shirt in the hangar in the little room elevated above the floor of the hangar deck has the same job as the flight deck director in tracking what planes are where on the hangar deck organizing who is in line to elevate to the flight deck.

This is awesome. No joke, I thought about visiting a ship somewhere after seeing Midway, but kind of need to be close to a coast for that lol.

truly amazing

I got to visit this ship a few years back. It was amazing to be onboard something with so much history.

Excellent thankyou.

great video!

I've visited the Midway, I learned more about the Aircraft than the ship. It was fun

My grandfather served on the Carrier named after our family ancestor, Peyton Randolph. Our name is also Randolph, making it really cool that he served on the USS Randolph, CV-15

This is great information!

Bedding areas referred to as crew berthing.

Awesome video.

“How hectic it would be trying to launch ships” Oh wow I never knew there was a boat carrier on sea

I visited the USS Yorktown, very cool.

I toured this vessel a few years ago. Amazing experience!

humans are terrifying creatures. all this ability and ingenuity, used to build entire floating cities capable of decimating entire coastlines of entire countries. will we ever stop fighting these wars? the lengths we'll go just to kill each other is fascinating, but also horrifying and depressing..

Excellent Documentary. The visuals and the easy understanding narration are On Point. Thank You. My Father was a Signal Officer aboard a very similar Essex Class Carrier. CV33 Kearsarge. 1958-1962. What an Amazing Time Machine The Hornet is.

I've visited a Carrier, Submarine and the destroyer at Charleston, SC. They have a interesting little exhibit on Korea/Vietnam along with some older weapons from the Civil War.

Very neat

Wow... I mean WOW! That's like some flight simulator I used to play a long time ago. Imagine going there as a kid!

Great video. I rode that ship during it’s dead-stick move from the Army Supply Depot across the bay to the pier opposite where she sits now at NAS Alameda (ex). I went all over that ship during that move. They did a lot of work since then. A good documentary to watch to give better insight on what it is like to be on that ship in wartime is the wartime documentary The Fighting Lady. Also watch the 1976 Movie, Midway Staring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda. I am looking forward to the dvd release of the movie remake. You might find the documentary The Fighting Lady on youtube. If you want to learn more, read the book (audiobook is better) titled Enterprise: America’s Fightingest ship and the Men who helped Win WW2. The ship was involved in every major sea battle from begining to end, and is still the Navy’s highest decorated warship to this day. After WW2 she went on to develop what is todays modern naval aviation. It is unfortunate that out of all the carriers that were in service, she was not saved, but scrapped.

Nice video.

I served aboard carriers USS Forrestal (CVA-59) and USS Constellation (CV-64) and spent somelimited time aboard ten or twelve other carriers... As big as Hornet seems if you have never visited a carrier - we used to call the Essex Class Carriers "small decks". Our size was so much greater and our living conditions were a lot better (air conditioning in most compartments as an example). BTW: the Essex Class Carriers and Midway Class Carriers were not converted to angled decks until post World War Two. As far as visiting historical military and naval sites; the San Diego, California area is blessed with a plethora of such sites. As an example; USS Midway Museum in downtown San Diego Harbor; Flying Leathernecks Museum aboard Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar; Marine Corps Recruit Depot Museum, near Old Town San Diego; and The Amphibious Vehicle Museum aboard Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California. The Aerospace Museum in San Diego's Balboa Park is another site well worth visiting!

A bit if clarification is need this hornet under went a very extensive modernization program during the cold war. The original flight deck was a straight wood deck and the planes would land and take off under own power and with there own brakes. The catapult and cable system along with the angled metal deck was installed post war to deal with heavier jet fighters.

I have been Aboard and Hosted events aboard the Hornet,,,it is a Fantastic Ship and being on board is like watching an old movie

Your introduction VoiceOver is so well done, music nicely matching. Thank you for the effort.

The "S" in "fresnel" is SILENT. Carriers don't "catch" landing aircraft, they "TRAP" them. There isn't a "control tower" but there IS a "Pri-Fly" near the top of the island (superstructure). If you live in the USA, you're probably fairly close to one of the four Essex-class carrier museums. The Intrepid is in NYC, the Yorktown is at Patriot's point near Charleston SC, the Lexington is in Corpus Christi TX, and the Hornet's in the San Francisco Bay area. Each is definitely worth visiting. The ships may not move any more but they are anything but static displays. I've been a member of the Lex Museum for many years and every time I visit there's a new exhibit, airplane, activity, or film to experience.

That Fresnel light system is so cool

I know it was briefly touched upon here, but if you could do a Doolittle Raid video similar in style to your Midway video, that would be EPIC.

They don't say "full speed ahead", it would be "ahead flank". In the engine room, if you had a big speed change you would open the main turbine throttles, put additional boiler oil atomizer guns online, possibly startup another feed pump and/or condensate pump, and keep a close eye on boiler water levels as the quantity of bubbles would rise sharply and push the water level higher.

I've been on the USS Yorktown in Charleston. Very fascinating ship.

When I Lived In The SF Bay Area I Visited The USS Hornet Two Time, The First Time It Had Just Started To Be Restored So A Lot Of The Equipment and Air Planes that was shown in this video They Didn't Have Yet, but The Second Time I Visited It That They Had most of that stuff all Ready my Favorite Part Of The Tour Was The Apollo 11 Display That Was Cool

One interesting thing to note as you go through the sick bay and see how complete it was. The Carriers Sick bays weren’t just for the Carriers crews. From the Lexington class on, the Carriers were functioning as fleet hospitals. They could provide more extensive medical services than were possible aboard a destroyer or sub. This became crucial in late ‘44 and into ‘45 when the large fleets sailed west with no plans to return until Japan surrendered. Conducting continuous fleet operations deep at sea for 9 months or more at a stretch.

I would strongly recommend learning a bit more about your topic before trying to narrate a documentary about it. This comes across as a kid trying to give an oral book report to a class without bothering to actually read it.

Appreciate the Tour. I gave a Thumbs up but would have appreciated your focusing exclusively on elements of this newer ship that would have been in play during WW2.

Loved the tour, thnx for the vid!

Your descriptions and terms were out to lunch but I really appreciate your enthusiasm. Thanks for the video.

Amazing. That ship could set sail today and wouldn't look out of place.

On the Hornet there's an escalator running from the hanger deck to the flight deck.

Great video! If I hear you say the word "urge" one more time though...

Nice video, good commentary. I would've watched more.

Good shit.

During WWII's pre-catapult days the propeller-driven carrier planes took off using the full length of the deck under their own power. Even post-war's first jet-powered planes took off the same way up until or early Korean War when the British developed catapult system was adopted by the US Navy.

My uncle, Lt. j.g. Keith Messenger flew a Corsair fighter off the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12). He passed away a few years ago at the age of 90. Fair winds and following seas, uncle Keith.

Used to love crawling around that ship before I left California. Took my Dad there once and he showed me what would have been his anti-aircraft station on the Essex class Wasp.

Seeing this makes me miss it so bad.

While you're in town also check out the Oakland Aviation Museum and the WWII Sub U.S.S. Pompanito at Fisherman's Wharf in SF. Also the Victory ship SS. Red Oak in Richmond and the Rosie the Riveter Museum. LOTS of military history in the Bay.

You should’ve gone to the USS Midway. It is docked in San Diego and is open to the public. I’ve been multiple times and it is amazing!

I eventually muted the mindless narration because (as many comments pointed out) it's full of erroneous info. Having served aboard an Essex-class carrier for 3 years, this was all pretty familiar to me. Go Navy!!!

I love the Hornet. I was on her three times and saw something new every time. Everyone should see and experience these floating museums. Pure Joy. Unfortunately I didn’t see any ghosts. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Great job. Nice tour. Very informative. ... There is a parallel story that runs like this. Visitors to this museum seem to encounter waves of ghosts from time to time that seem to be deceased US Service personnel serving on this ship. They are very kind, more angelic than ghostly, and will talk with you at some length about world peace.

If you pay attention at 01:40, you'll see that behind that yellow trainer plane lies the most dangerous piece of equipment on that entire ship; A blue Genie Lift lol. They don't call them widow-makers, but they sure as hell should. The problem with them, especially on sea-borne operations, is that they're way too narrow, which makes them handy in tight spaces, but also quite dangerous. I've seen one of those lifts tip over on a perfectly level concrete pad, and that was from within the "safe operating limits" that were stated in the manual. It was one of the few cases where a work-place accident could be blamed almost entirely on the machine. Everything on that machine was running within specified parameters, so it's not something that could be blamed on a mechanic. Just imagine how much worse operating one on a swooping and heaving CV deck would make it. Then again, I very much doubt that any CV would be using Genie lifts like that one on an operational ship. Stuff like that only belongs on a decommissioned ship that never moves or on perfectly level terrain.

Were you able to visit the CIC? I didn't see any footage but I feel like you'd be right at home in that room.

Been on the Intrepid :)

I will never forget the day I visited the Hornet. I slammed my head into a drop tank on the F-14 at the head of the flight deck, and now I have a scar in the middle of my forehead to remind me forever.

I worked at a factory without windows, 12 hour shift. Hated it. Even the break room didn't have windows. After a few years they moved the break room so it had windows. I need to see outside during some of the day. Also the low ceilings and drab colors would also suck.

I seen that throttle "communications system" on the Titanic. The ones on the bridge did nothing but tell the people below deck how to set the speed. Obviously was a very old system for setting the speed on large ships.

Watch a documentary called the fighting lady!! It gives a very good vision of what it was really like!!

Fresnel/parallax for landing is genius.

Wait wut i thought uss hornet was sunk on the battle of santa cruz

what about the boilers and engine rooms?

So Hornet only got the initial partial angled deck refit? Not the full later deck refit that some of the others of her class such as Intrepid got?

Sweet! I work on merchant ships, tanker specifically, sometimes I see navy ships, wonder how's the life there..

At 13:01, that was exactly what I was thinking of... Its WW2 the Hornet is in a naval battle, I'm trying to get a plane ready, and suddenly a kamikaze comes through the ceiling

How many times do you think you said variations of, "This is gonna be..."?

I am a former catapult and arresting gear crew member. This is a very poor description of the topic.

A Royal Navy Officer, Captain Dennis Cambell was the designer of the Angled Flight Deck, with the first Aircraft Carrier to be tested with the Angled Flight Deck, HMS Triumph, with HMS Ark Royal launched in 1955, being the first ever Aircraft Carrier to be purpose built and launched with an Angled Flight Deck, the lead Carrier of the Royal Navy Majestic Class being launched after, followed by the U.S.S Forrestal The Optical Landing System, the 'Meatball', this was also another British invention, invented by Nicholas Goodhart, and was first trialed aboard HMS Illustrious and HMS Indomitable, it was installed on all Royal Navy Aircraft Carriers by 1954, and then in 1955 that U.S Aircraft Carriers adopted the system The third Royal Navy invention for use on Aircraft Carriers was the Steam Catapult, invented by Commander C. Mitchell Royal Naval Reserve, it was first trialed onboard HMS Perseus in 1950, the Steam Catapult was found to be more reliable than the Hydraulic Catapult being used on U.S Aircraft Carriers during the 1940's, and by 1952, the Steam catapult was widely accepted and adopted for use in all Aircraft Carriers

1:35 "launch ships" *space battleship yamato theme intensifies*

A lot of things wrong with this narration.

You should be on the USS Midway. It’s still in the WW2 vintage. While the hornet has modern things like the catapult

"Gizmos." I love informed technobabble.

Now a LH. I was on the RSCP test bed for CDS of the test bed of LH.bin 1988. Years later to now, my grandson serves on her. Go Navy from an old Grunt.