Aircraft Carriers-Part 1 of 3

It is December 7, 1941, 6 Japanese aircraft carriers are secretly stationed 300 miles north of the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor. At 6am the carriers launch over 300 planes for an attack that would become America’s greatest naval defeat in history. Their mission? To destroy as many battleships and aircraft carriers as possible and to leave America helpless for the war to come. In the next 3 hours 2,400 Americans are killed and two/thirds of America’s navy are destroyed by Japanese planes.

But Japan made a mistake that would come back to haunt them. Not one American Aircraft Carrier had been in Pearl Harbor during the raid, as Japan had planned, where they would have been destroyed along with everything else. I believe that aircraft carriers won World War II for America and that is why we are still a free nation today. Aircraft carriers are enormous ships that essentially operate as mobile air-force bases. They launch, land, and store aircraft while at the same time running just like a ship would. Let me tell you, first of all, what carriers have done for America, secondly, how carriers operate today, and last of all, how life is onboard.

So, what have carriers done for America? The very first U.S. aircraft carrier entered the navy in the early 20s’, two years after World War I was over. It had originally been a coal ship until it was converted and named the USS Langley. The USS Langley was a new and big achievement at that time. Not only was it one of the very first carriers ever built, but it was longer, bigger, and could carry more planes than all the carriers previously made by other countries. The Langley’s flat top deck was 542 feet long, almost the length of two football fields put together, with which she could launch and land her 36 planes.

By the time World War II was just around the corner, 18 years later, carriers had doubled in size and could carry twice as many planes. America had 7 of them.

Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before attacking, the Japanese commander, Admiral Nagumo who controlled the operation, received a report that no carriers were in the harbor. Even though his most important targets were gone, he decided to attack, for fear his position would be discovered before the raid was carried out. This left America with 7 carriers all of which were used to hold Japan at bay.

4 months after Pearl Harbor, America was able to bomb Tokyo, Japan with planes from the carrier the USS Hornet. This enraged Japan so they quickly tried to invade an American base in Port Moresby, next to the Coral Sea. Carriers were there to stop them. The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first battle to be fought entirely by carriers. Then, with a large fleet, Japan again tried to invade an American island called Midway. Again they were stopped by carriers in a battle that proved to be a decisive turning point in World War II. Japan lost 4 of their own carriers and most of their best pilots, which left America with the upper hand. From then on carriers led the way for America invading base after base up to the last and largest naval battle of the war, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. This battle lasted for 3 days as Americans were trying to recapture the Philippines and the Japanese were trying to fight back. 282 ships fought and dodged while planes were swarming like flies. There were over 900 planes involved. By the end of the battle the Japanese fleet had virtually been destroyed. Carriers proved themselves to be more effective than any other ship during World War II and have ruled the seas ever since.

Grandpa in the Navy

Grandpa's ship was the USS Mt. McKinley, AGC-7. It was also nick-named the "Mighty Mac" or "The Admiral's Go Cart". (AGC) The crew and captain's primary duty was to transport the Admiral and his staff to their destination(s) and to do it safely. The captain controlled the ship and the admiral went through the captain for orders. To see some more cool info on the USS Mt. McKinley, click here.

According to my grandpa, the ship was made to comfortably hold 1800 crew members. While Grandpa was a crew member there were roughly 2100 sailors.

Here are some more WW2 pictures that will give you an idea of what my Grandpa may have seen while in the war.

See if you can count all the planes in this picture. This is a procession(?) of the U. S. navy after the Japanese surrendered. After doing some research, I learned that at the "Battle of Leyte Gulf", there were nearly 1000 aircraft and 280 ships involved in the battle; Japanese and American combined. It must have been quite a sight to see.

Anti-aircraft guns. 40mm pom-pom cannons.

Grandpa had these guns on his ship and witnessed them in action also. Grandpa remembers that if you were under-deck you could determine the distance away an enemy plane was by the sound of the guns up on deck. The 5 inchers would be the first to fire at an enemy plane(s). These sounded big but slow and the plane would still be far away so you had nothing to worry about. If the plane(s) got closer the pom-poms would open up. These fired about the speed that a man could load 4 shells at a time. Sometimes, when things got hot, there would be 2 loaders. These had a steady pom-pom sound; firing about 3-4 shells every second. You would start to pay attention when you heard these guns open up. Then, if the plane(s) got past those, the 20s (mm) would open up. The planes generally didn't get past these guns. They would either get shot down or turn aside. If the planes got past these guns, the 20 caliber machine guns would open up. That's when you would jump for cover or something.

A downed kamikaze. My Grandpa saw kamikazes and witnessed the damage they could do.

World War 2 and My Grandpa

This is me, my Grandpa Hal, and my brother Caleb. I'm showing him a short war movie I made with a friend; "Army of 2". It's about 2 soldiers who lose their platoon in woodsy, German territory and they have to find their way to their platoon. It's during the Second World War.





My Grandpa, Harold Carleton Steves served in the U. S. Navy during World War 2. He was a radar man on an admiral/command ship. It was when radar had just been discovered by the U. S. He was one of the first few people to know about it and operate the radar equipment. For a time, the U. S. kept it a secret because it gave them such an advantage. Grandpa was ordered not to tell anyone about it.

Grandpa witnessed many of the humongous Naval battles that went on between Japan's and America's Navy. He also saw many of the huge Aircraft carriers* from World War 2.












One of the biggest invasions my Grandpa witnessed was the "Battle for Peleliu."
Here is a summary of the battle.

For 2 full days, starting on Sept. 12, 1944, Cruisers, Battleships, and Aircraft Carriers bombed and shelled the Island to "soften-it-up" for the Marines to land. Umurbrogol Mt. on the Island was nearly leveled in the process.The island was similar to Iwo Jima in that the Japanese had hidden pillboxes, tunnels, and hidden artillery all over the Island. The Navy, in total, fired 519 rounds of 16-inch shells, 1,845 rounds of 14-inch shells, 1,793 500-pound bombs and 73,412 .50 caliber machine-gun bullets into the island before stopping.

My grandpa remembers seeing planes going one after another to bomb the island; and the continuous pounding of the ships hurling their shells across the shore. He saw (and heard) all of this from his admiral ship.

I read in D-Day that when those huge battleships and cruisers would be firing, they would create large waves from the rocking of the ship.

After the ships and planes had finished "softening up" the island for invasion, they sent the marines in amtraks(tanks/boats) to the beach. The first wave of amtraks were totally obliterated by Japanese fire. The amtraks afterward didn't do much better. But steadily, the waves of Marines started pushing up the shores and making progress. After nearly a whole month of fighting against entrenched and pill-boxed Japs, the Marines completely controlled the entire Island.


Grandpa recalled watching all of this from his admiral ship. After the first and second waves of marines had charged, the hospital ships were already overflowing. Grandpa's ship was elected as an overflow ship, along with many others. Grandpa remembers helping the wounded on deck and one of the wounded men from the second wave of amtraks was badly wounded. This man was missing a large chunk of flesh from his side and his leg was gone. He was losing blood so quickly and they were having to pump so much plasma into him, that his blood was no longer red but clear. Grandpa and everyone else thought he wasn't going to make it but some days later he was up on deck doing fine with crutches.

Remains from the battle still exist today.Japanese tank

American Amtrak

More Amtraks

Coming Soon!
More pictures of what Grandpa probably saw while in the Navy are coming next.

*Last year I wrote a speech on Aircraft carriers. Let me know if you want me to post it sometime.