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USS Cowpens (CVL-25)

1943 COLD WAR WORLD WAR 2

History of USS Cowpens (CVL-25)

The Independence class was a group of light aircraft carriers whose designs attracted great interest after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The attack pushed the U.S. into official war with Japan, Italy and Germany, so any war manufacturing was not high on the U.S. agenda. These types are built on the hulls of existing cruiser battleships and do not have the performance and capabilities of large dedicated fleet carriers, but are faster and less expensive to build.

The Cleveland-class cruisers were selected for refit work, resulting in a fleet of nine light carriers based on standard independent designs. The lead ship became USS Independence (CVL-22).

USS Cowpens (CVL-25), one of the sisters of this class, was laid down on 17 November 1941. She was launched on January 17, 1943, and officially commissioned on May 28 of the same year.

Cowpens was formed from the wreckage of the USS Huntington (CL-77), which was originally a Cleveland-class cruiser but ended up being a light carrier. The New York Shipbuilding Company directed the work, and the warship was named after the town of Cowpens, South Carolina.

She is affectionately known as "Mighty Moo".

When completed, the USS Cowpens will have a displacement of 11,000 tons, a length of 622.5 feet, a beam of 71.5 feet, and a draft of 26 feet. Her installed power includes 4 x boilers and 4 x General Electric turbines, producing 100,000 hp on 4 x axles. Under ideal conditions, she can sail at 32 knots and reach a range of 15,000 miles.

The island's superstructure was shifted to starboard and installed forward amidships. The flight deck is placed on top of the existing hull of the Cleveland-class cruiser, and the origins of the cruiser are clearly visible, especially at the pointed hull that extends below the flight deck bow.

The flight deck has a simple, traditional "north-south" layout, and the hangar elevator manages the inventory of onboard aircraft - primarily the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter jets.

Internally, the ship had 1,569 people. Its air wing was designed with a total of 30 aircraft, but was increased to 34 in war service. Point defense is provided by a network of 26x40mm Bofors automatic cannons designed throughout the ship to cover nearly all approaches.

Armor protection extends to 5 inches at the waistband and 3 inches along the main deck.

Cowpens fought in several major battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II (1939-1945), serving her war effort. She attended the Marshall Islands in 1943, followed by further assignments to the Marshall Islands in 1944, where she was involved in the Mariana Islands and the Philippines.

In early 1945, their planes deployed during the Lingayen Bay landings before supporting operations on Iwo Jima and Okinawa later that spring.

In June 1945, she was sent to San Francisco for a much-needed overhaul before rejoining the force attacking Wake Island. Next up is action against the Japanese mainland, including Tokyo itself. With Japan's surrender in August 1945, the USS Cowpens became the first American aircraft carrier to call at the Port of Tokyo, and its troops were the first to set foot on Japanese soil.

After major combat activity ceased, she was used on various runs to and from the war front to bring veterans back to the United States in what would become Operation Magic Carpet.

Like many other USN ships, the USS Cowpens was placed in reserve status in December 1946 after the war. She was decommissioned on 13 January 1947 and then reclassified as an "air carrier" (well, as USS Cowpens (AVT-1)) on 15 May 1959. She held the role until her final retirement.

Her name was removed from the Naval Register on November 1, 1959, and her dismantled hull was sold as scrap in 1960.

The USS Cowpens and her crew are now on the water with less than 12 Battle Stars - a sure sign of how important she and her sisters are. World War II was the first real carrier war, and ships like the Mighty Moo were in high demand.