USS Hornet (CV-8)

USS Hornet (CV-8) shortly after completion
History
United States
Name	Hornet
Namesake	USS Hornet (1805)
Ordered	30 March 1939
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding Company
Laid down	25 September 1939
Launched	14 December 1940
Sponsored by	Annie Reid Knox
Commissioned	20 October 1941
Nickname(s)	"Happy Hornet", and "Horny Maru"[1]
Honors and awards	4 × battle stars
Fate	Sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 27 October 1942
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Yorktown-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	20,000 long tons (20,321 t) (standard) 25,500 long tons (25,909 t) (full load)
Length	824 ft 9 in (251.38 m) (overall)
Beam	83 ft 3 in (25.37 m) (waterline) 114 ft (35 m) (overall)
Draft	28 ft (8.5 m) full load
Installed power	9 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 120,000 shp (89,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts; 4 geared steam turbines
Speed	32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph) (design)
Range	12,500 nmi (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	2,919 officers and enlisted (wartime)
Armament	8 × single 5 in (127 mm) DP guns 4 × quadruple 1.1 in (28 mm) AA guns 24 × single .50 in (12.7 mm) AA MGs
Armor	Belt: 2.5–4 in (64–102 mm) Deck: 4 in (102 mm) Bulkheads: 4 in (102 mm) Conning Tower: 4 in (102 mm) Steering Gear: 4 in (102 mm)
Aircraft carried	72 × aircraft
Aviation facilities	3 × aircraft elevators 3 × aircraft catapults

USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy.

During World War II in the Pacific Theater, she launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and participated in the Battle of Midway and the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai raid. In the Solomon Islands campaign, she was involved in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where she was irreparably damaged by enemy torpedo and dive bombers. Faced with an approaching Japanese surface force, Hornet was abandoned and later torpedoed and sunk by approaching Japanese destroyers. Hornet was in service for one year and six days, and was the last U.S. fleet carrier ever sunk by enemy fire. For these actions, she was awarded four service stars and a citation for the Doolittle Raid in 1942, and her Torpedo Squadron 8 received a Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism for its performance at the Battle of Midway.

In January 2019, the wreckage of the vessel was located near the Solomon Islands.^[2]