**The first official history of the legendary aircraft carrier that
fought in World War II and Vietnam and continues to serve as a major air
and space museum in New York City
**
The USS Intrepid is a warship unlike any other. Since her launching in
1943, the 27,000-ton, Essex-class aircraft carrier has sailed into
harm's way around the globe. During World War II, she fought her way
across the Pacific--Kwajalein, Truk, Peleliu, Formosa, the Philippines,
Okinawa--surviving kamikaze and torpedo attacks and covering herself
with glory. The famous ship endured to become a Cold War attack carrier,
recovery ship for America's first astronauts, and a three-tour combatant
in Vietnam.
In a riveting narrative based on archival research and interviews with
surviving crewmen, authors Bill White and Robert Gandt take us inside
the war in the Pacific. We join Intrepid's airmen at the Battle of
Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, as they gaze in awe at the apparitions
beneath them: five Japanese battleships, including the dreadnoughts
Yamato and Musashi, plus a fleet of heavily armored cruisers and
destroyers. The sky fills with multihued bursts of anti-aircraft fire.
The flak, a Helldiver pilot would write in his action report, "was so
thick you could get out and walk on it." Half a dozen Intrepid
aircraft are blown from the sky, but they sink the Musashi. A few
months later, off Okinawa, they again meet her sister ship, the mighty
Yamato. In a two-hour tableau of hellfire and towering explosions,
Intrepid's warplanes help send the super-battleship and 3,000 Japanese
crewmen to the bottom of the sea.
We're next to nineteen-year-old Alonzo Swann in Gun Tub 10 aboard
Intrepid as he peers over the breech of a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun.
He's heard of kamikazes, but until today he's never seen one. Swann and
his fellow gunners are among the few African Americans assigned to
combat duty in the U.S. Navy of 1944. Blazing away at the diving
Japanese Zero, Swann realizes with a dreadful certainty where it will
strike: directly into Gun Tub 10.
The authors follow Intrepid's journey to Vietnam. "MiG-21 high!"
crackles the voice of Lt. Tony Nargi in his F-8 Crusader. It is 1968,
and Intrepid is again at war. Launching from Yankee Station in the
Tonkin Gulf, Nargi and his wingman have intercepted a flight of
Russian-built supersonic fighters. Minutes later, after a swirling
dogfight over North Vietnam, Nargi--and Intrepid--have added another
downed enemy airplane to their credit.
Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship brings a
renowned ship to life in a stirring tribute complete with the personal
recollections of those who served aboard her, dramatic photographs, time
lines, maps, and vivid descriptions of Intrepid's deadly conflicts.
More than a numbers-and-dates narrative, Intrepid is the story of
people--those who sailed in her, fought to keep her alive, perished in
her defense--and powerfully captures the human element in this saga of
American heroism.
