CAF Rocky Mountain Wing

The arrow on our tail and wing represent the USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), which was one of the most damaged carriers to survive WWII. Much of that damage came in a kamikaze attack on 11 May 1945, when the ship was struck by two Japanese Special Attack planes in quick succession while supporting the invasion of Okinawa. The catastrophic attack resulted in 393 crewmen killed or missing, 264 wounded, and severe damage to the ship.

Some of that damage can be seen here in this photo taken on 16 June 1945 as Bunker Hill sat in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s Dry Dock No. 5 shortly after arriving at Bremerton, Washington. Note hole in the after flight deck and the collapsed aircraft elevator.

While the ship would be repaired, it would not be until after the war ended. She would report for duty in September under Operation Magic Carpet, bringing home American personnel from overseas. She was then placed in reserves. She and USS Franklin (CV-13), which had also been badly damaged by aerial attack, were the only Essex-class aircraft carriers that saw no combat or flight operations after the war. Although both ships had been fully repaired, their nearly new post-repair condition kept them in reserve while the Navy considered an “ultimate reconfiguration” for Bunker Hill and Franklin that was never carried out.

Rather than returning to sea, she found a second life as a stationary electronics test and support platform. Beginning in the 1960s, she served at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego as a moored test ship used for evaluating electronics, communications systems, and carrier-related equipment.

She was finally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1973 and sold for scrap in 1974. Ironically, one of the most heavily damaged Essex-class carriers of World War II survived the war, survived the reserve fleet, and lingered for nearly thirty years afterward, only to end her days tied to a pier rather than under way at sea.

Join us in wishing a happy birthday to the USA that's older than the USA! 😉

Established as the Continental Army on 14 June 1775, the US Army predates the Declaration of Independence by more than a year, making it older than the nation it would help create.

Just two weeks after its 132nd birthday, the Army would begin an aviation lineage that carries through to the present day:

✪ 1 Aug 1907: Creation of the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps
✪ 18 Jul 1914: Aviation Section, Signal Corps
✪ 20 May 1918: Division of Military Aeronautics
✪ 24 May 1918: Air Service, U.S. Army
✪ 2 Jul 1926: United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
✪ 20 Jun 1941: United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)

Even after the independent US Air Force was created in 1947, the Army retained an Aviation Branch, which today operates over 4300 aircraft, roughly 4000 of which are helicopters. In fact, the Army operates more helicopters than the air forces of most nations operate aircraft of all types combined. Army Aviation is one of the largest aviation organizations in the world.

Any Army Aviators in the audience?

This striking U.S. Navy photo of an Avenger on the flight deck of an es**rt carrier leaves us with more questions than answers. World War Photos simply captions it: "TBF on the flight deck of an es**rt carrier operating in the Atlantic on June 13, 1944," but provides no details about the carrier, location, crew, or mission.

Interestingly, the photograph was taken just one week after D-Day. While es**rt carriers supported anti-submarine operations connected with Operation Neptune, the carriers identified in those roles were Royal Navy ships. The invasion itself relied primarily on land-based Allied air power rather than American es**rt carriers.

At the same time, U.S. es**rt carriers in the Atlantic were busy elsewhere. USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) was operating with her hunter-killer group and had famously captured U-505 on June 4, 1944, just days before the Normandy landings. Other American CVEs, including USS Mission Bay (CVE-59), USS Croatan (CVE-25), USS Wake Island (CVE-65), USS Card (CVE-11), and USS Bogue (CVE-9), were conducting offensive anti-submarine operations across the Atlantic rather than serving directly with the invasion fleet.

Without an original Navy photo number or caption, it's impossible to know exactly where this image was taken or which carrier is pictured. It may simply show another day in the long and often overlooked Battle of the Atlantic.

Does anyone know more of the story behind this photograph?

Tomorrow, you can win Father's Day. Give Dad a surprise flight in the historic Grumman TBM Avenger, or treat yourself to one! Reserve a seat at https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html

📸 GJT Jet Photos

Did you know that Grumman was developing a twin-engine replacement for the Avenger?

This photo, taken on 11 June 1944, shows the wooden mock-up of the XTB2F at Grumman's Bethpage, New York facility. It was an ambitious but ultimately canceled attempt to create a next-generation carrier attack aircraft. It was a large twin-engine torpedo bomber intended for operation from the Navy's new Midway-class carriers, which were then under construction. Unlike the single-engine Avenger, the XTB2F would have been closer in size to a medium bomber.

Twin Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engines, each producing about 2,100 hp would have enabled a payload of TWO Mark 13 torpedoes or roughly 8,000 pounds of bombs. It had heavy defensive armament, including dorsal and ventral turrets, plus fixed forward-firing guns. Some design studies even envisioned a 75 mm cannon in the nose for anti-shipping attacks.

Though as shown here, the XTB2F reached the full-scale mockup stage, when Navy evaluators reviewed it in 1944 they concluded it was simply too large and heavy for practical carrier operations. Even the huge Midway-class carriers would have struggled to handle it efficiently, and concerns were raised about deck handling, storage, and the complexity of the wing-fold system. The project was canceled just four days after this photo was taken, before a prototype was built.

The XTB2F's influence can be seen in later Grumman designs, including the S2F Tracker. Aviation historian Alain Pelletier even described it as "a Tracker before its time."

It never fails, you start making fun of someone, and they suddenly appear, right? 🤣

Don't forget, you can ride either of these famous warbirds this weekend in Grand Junction. Grab your seat at https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html

📸 GJT Jet Photos

On 8 June 1945, USS Makin Island (CVE-93) eased into the giant floating drydock ABSD-6 at Guam. The picture captures a side of the Pacific War that rarely receives as much attention as battles and carrier strikes.

The real star of the photo is the enormous drydock itself. ABSD-6 was not a fixed shipyard but a floating naval repair base assembled from nine giant sections built at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California. Once joined together at Guam's Apra Harbor, the structure stretched more than 800 feet in length and could lift roughly 90,000 tons. It was essentially a portable navy yard, complete with cranes, machine shops, repair facilities, power generation equipment, and hundreds of sailors assigned to operate it. The dock's wartime complement was about 22 officers and 471 enlisted personnel. More than a typical destroyer in WWII!

The Pacific War posed a unique logistical problem. A damaged or worn-out ship operating near Japan might be thousands of miles from Pearl Harbor or the West Coast. Sending major warships back across the Pacific for repairs could remove them from combat for months. The solution was the Advance Base Sectional Drydock program. Massive floating docks such as ABSD-6 could be towed to forward bases like Guam and assembled near the fighting. There, they could lift carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and amphibious ships completely out of the water for hull work, painting, propeller repairs, and battle damage restoration.

By the time Makin Island arrived, Guam had become one of the busiest naval repair hubs in the world. Only weeks earlier, ABSD-6 had handled the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57) after an accidental explosion damaged the ship while rearming. The dock worked continuously because nearly every vessel supporting the Okinawa campaign required maintenance after months of nonstop operations. Makin Island's visit was part of this enormous effort to keep the fleet at peak readiness as planners prepared for the proposed invasion of Japan.

The famous photograph shows Makin Island only partway inside the dock, illustrating the remarkable engineering involved. The drydock would first flood its ballast tanks and sink low enough for the ship to enter. Once properly positioned, operators pumped out water from the ballast compartments, causing the entire structure to rise and lift the vessel clear of the sea. What appears in the image as a routine maintenance stop was actually the product of one of the most sophisticated logistical systems of the war. Without floating docks like ABSD-6, the U.S. Navy's fast-moving Pacific offensive would have slowed dramatically.

One week from today, we'll be doing our next hometown ride day with BOTH the historic TBM 309 and our venerable Cub. Rides for all budgets are available at https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html