USS ''Lake Champlain'' (CV/CVA/CVS-39) was one of 24 s completed during or shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. She was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the

Battle of Lake Champlain The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final British invasion of the northern states of the United States during the War of 1812. An army under Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadr ...

in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

. Commissioned on 3 June 1945, ''Lake Champlain'' did not participate in World War II, but did serve as a transport, bringing troops home from Europe as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She participated in the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

but spent the rest of her career in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean. In the late 1950s, she was redesignated as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was the prime recovery ship for the first manned

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

mission (''

Freedom 7 Mercury-Redstone 3, or ''Freedom 7'', was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The project had the ultimate objective of putting an astr ...

''), the second unmanned Gemini mission (

Gemini 2 Gemini 2 (Gemini-Titan 2; GT-2) was the second spaceflight of the American human spaceflight program Project Gemini, and was launched and recovered on January 19, 1965. Gemini 2, like Gemini 1, was an uncrewed mission intended as a test fligh ...

), and for the third manned Gemini (

Gemini 5 Gemini 5 (officially Gemini V) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was a 1965 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini. It was the third crewed Gemini flight, the eleventh crewed American spacefligh ...

) space mission. ''Lake Champlain'' had a unique modernization history. She was the only ''Essex''-class ship to receive the SCB-27 conversion which was a rebuild of the superstructure, flight deck and other features but without also receiving the SCB-125 conversion which would have given her an

angled flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopter ...

and

hurricane bow Aircraft carriers are warships that evolved from balloon-carrying wooden vessels into nuclear-powered vessels carrying scores of fixed-wing, fixed- and rotary wing, rotary-wing aircraft. Since their introduction they have allowed navy, naval for ...

. Therefore, she was the last operational US aircraft carrier with an axial flight deck. ''Lake Champlain'' was decommissioned in 1966 and sold for scrap in 1972.

Construction and commissioning

''Lake Champlain'' was one of the "long-hull" ''Essex''-class ships. She was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

in Drydock No. 8 at the

Norfolk Navy Yard The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling and repairing the Navy's ships. It is the oldest and largest industrial facility t ...

, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 March 1943. The hull was launched from drydock on 2 November 1944. ''Lake Champlain'' commissioned on 3 June 1945 under the command of Captain Logan Ramsey. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Warren Austin, wife of Senator Austin of

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

Service history

Operation Magic Carpet

After shakedown and visits to New York and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, ''Lake Champlain'' was assigned to "Magic Carpet" duty to repatriate US military personnel. She departed Norfolk for England on 14 October, and arrived at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on the 19th where she embarked veterans and returned them to New York. She set a speed record, averaging 32.048 kn, for crossing the Atlantic on 26 November 1945 when she arrived at

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

, Virginia, having completed a run from

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = "Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gibr ...

, a distance of 3360.3 nautical miles, in 4 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes. This record stood until surpassed by in the summer of 1952. ''Lake Champlain'' was laid up in the

reserve fleet A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; ...

at Norfolk on 17 February 1947.

Korean War

''Lake Champlain'' was needed again for the

. In August 1950, she began her SCB-27A modernization program at

Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

. She recommissioned on 19 September 1952. A shakedown cruise in Cuban and Haitian waters lasted from 25 November to 25 December 1952. The carrier departed Mayport, Florida, for Korea on 26 April 1953 via the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

, Indian Ocean, and

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Ph ...

. ''Lake Champlain'' became the largest ship to date to transit the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popula ...

. She moored at

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city ...

, Japan, on 9 June 1953. As flagship of Carrier Task Force 77 (TF 77), she sailed from Yokosuka on 11 June and arrived off western Korea on 14 June. The carrier's air group immediately launched sorties cratering runways; assaulting enemy troops; attacking trenches, bunkers, gun positions; and giving

close air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movemen ...

to hard pressed ground forces. Her planes also escorted

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 ...

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range ( takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larg ...

s on their way to enemy targets. ''Lake Champlain'' continued to strike at the enemy until the truce was signed on 27 July. Relieved by on 11 October, ''Lake Champlain'' headed toward the South China Sea arriving Singapore on 24 October. Bidding farewell to the Pacific Ocean on 27 October, she steamed toward home, touching at

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

, and

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

before arriving Mayport, Florida, on 4 December 1953.

Postwar years

NATO, Middle East and reclassification

In the years that followed, ''Lake Champlain'' made several cruises to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, participating with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

forces. On 25 April 1957, in response to tensions between Jordan's king and parliament (see 1957 alleged Jordanian military coup attempt), she joined elements of her fleet in a high-speed run to the vicinity of Lebanon, where she backed King Hussein. King Hussein ended Jordan's constitutional democracy, dissolving political parties, dismissing municipal councils, censoring the press, imposing military curfew, and culling the military of dissenting elements. The tensions eased and ''Lake Champlain'' returned to Mayport on 27 July. Converted to an antisubmarine carrier and reclassified (CVS-39) on 1 August, ''Lake Champlain'' trained off the eastern seaboard to master her new role. ''Lake Champlain'' was near the island of

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...

when the Spanish city of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

was devastated by floods on the night of 14 October 1957. The American ambassador to Spain, John Davis Lodge, requested that ''Lake Champlain'' provide assistance for rescue operations. The ship's

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...

helicopters undertook numerous rescue missions, and the ship's crew fought in the "mud battle" that followed the disaster. She departed

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine r ...

, New Jersey, on 8 February 1958 for another Mediterranean cruise returning to Mayport, Florida, on 30 October. After a yard overhaul, she departed for the Mediterranean on 10 June and visited Spain, Denmark, and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, before returning to Mayport on 9 August. The carrier operated off Florida and in the Caribbean until 15 June 1958, when she sailed on another Mediterranean cruise returning to her newly assigned home port,

Quonset Point Quonset Point (), also known simply as Quonset, is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Its name is widely known from the Quonset hut, which was first manufactured there. ''Quonset'' is an Algo ...

, Rhode Island, on 4 September. The carrier operated out of Quonset Point until 29 June 1960, when she made a midshipmen's cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia, returning on 12 August. Beginning on 7 February, she made a cruise to the Caribbean, returning on 2 March.

Project Mercury

''Lake Champlain'' was selected as the prime recovery ship for America's first manned space flight. She sailed for the recovery area on 1 May, and was on station on 5 May when Commander

Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he beca ...

was recovered, along with his spacecraft ''

'', after

splashdown Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft by parachute in a body of water. It was used by crewed American space capsules prior to the Space Shuttle program, by SpaceX Dragon and Dragon 2 capsules and by NASA's Orion Multipurpose Crew ...

some down range from

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type = Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

. Helicopters from the carrier visually tracked the descent of the capsule and were over it two minutes after splashdown. They recovered Shepard and the ''Freedom 7'' capsule, delivering them safely to ''Lake Champlain''s flight deck. During retrieval, the vessel was under the command of then-

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Ralph Weymouth Ralph Weymouth (May 26, 1917 – January 22, 2020)Ralph Weymouth
. Military Times. Acc ...

. There were some complications in retrieval, as the helicopters that were to retrieve Alan Shepard from the craft did not have the explosive squibs required to cut the Mercury craft's radio antenna. The Mercury craft's antenna was designed to help locate the craft if it landed out of visual tracking range. The antenna would have gotten in the way of retrieving Shepard from the craft if it had deployed; fortunately, it had a malfunction and was unable to deploy.

Caribbean and Cuban blockade

USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) at sea in 1960

For the next year, the ship operated along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. In June 1962, she and her escorts embarked First and Third Class Regular NROTC Midshipmen for a summer training cruise from NAS Quonset Point to offshore training areas,

Canadian Forces Base Halifax Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Royal Canadian Navy Atlantic fleet, known as Canadian Fleet Atlantic (CANFLTLANT), that forms part of the formation (military), formation Maritime Forces Atl ...

Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ( es, Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by members of the U.S. military) is a United States military bas ...

, and

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inte ...

, where she represented the US at the island's celebration of its independence on 3 August. The midshipmen acted as tour guides for visitors aboard and provided an honor guard ashore for then-VP Lyndon Johnson's speech in a local park. On 24 October, ''Lake Champlain'' joined in a classic exercise of sea power – the quarantine of Cuba, where the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

was constructing bases for offensive missiles. To block this grave threat, U.S. warships deployed throughout the western Atlantic, choking off the flow of military supplies to Cuba and enforcing American demands for the withdrawal of the Russian offensive missiles. After the American demands were substantially complied with, ''Lake Champlain'' sailed for home on 23 November via St. Thomas,

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...

, and arrived Quonset Point on 4 December 1962. For the next few months the carrier was in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

waters for operations and overhaul. In September 1963, while she was on a cruise to Guantanamo Bay, her training schedule was interrupted when she was ordered to Haiti to relieve distress caused by

Hurricane Flora Hurricane Flora is among the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history, with a death total of at least 7,193. The seventh tropical storm and sixth hurricane of the 1963 Atlantic hurricane season, Flora developed from a disturbance in th ...

. Her helicopters located homeless victims and flew them food and medical supplies. On 6 May 1964, an collision occurred between ''Lake Champlain'' and

USS Decatur Five ships of the United States Navy have been named ''Decatur'', in honor of Commodore Stephen Decatur. * , was a sloop-of-war built in 1839 and in service from 1840 to 1859. * , was a which served mainly in or near the Philippines The P ...

while underway in the Atlantic Ocean. No one was injured during the accident and Decatur sailed back to Norfolk under her own power with significant damage to her mast, superstructure and stack.

North Atlantic and Project Gemini

''Lake Champlain'' returned to Quonset Point on 9 November for operations in New England waters. She visited

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

briefly in spring of 1964 and steamed to Spain in the fall for landings near

Huelva Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The ria ...

. She sailed on 6 November from

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

for the United States, touched at

and arrived at Quonset Point on 25 November. The first half of 1965 found ''Lake Champlain'' performing training duties and conducting exercises up and down the East Coast, and on 19 January 1965, was the recovery ship for the unmanned

mission. For FY 1966, the Navy proposed a modernization program for ''Lake Champlain''.

Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

refused to authorize the proposal, citing the limited effectiveness of anti-submarine carriers. ''Lake Champlain'' completed her last major duty on 29 August 1965 when she served as the primary recovery ship for

. Shortly afterward, she sailed to

Philadelphia Navy Yard The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries. Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the ci ...

, where she commenced inactivation. She was decommissioned on 2 May 1966 and was laid up in the Reserve Fleet. The 24-year-old ''Lake Champlain'' was stricken from the Navy List on 1 December 1969, and sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping on 28 April 1972.

Awards

USS_Lake_Champlain_(CV-39)_at_Norfolk_VA_1945

American Campaign Medal The American Campaign Medal is a military award of the United States Armed Forces which was first created on November 6, 1942, by issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The medal was intended to recognize those military members who had perfo ...

* European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal *

World War II Victory Medal The World War II Victory Medal is a service medal of the United States military which was established by an Act of Congress on 6 July 1945 (Public Law 135, 79th Congress) and promulgated by Section V, War Department Bulletin 12, 1945. The Wo ...

Navy Occupation Service Medal The Navy Occupation Service Medal is a military award of the United States Navy which was "Awarded to commemorate the services of Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel in the occupation of certain territories of the enemies of the U.S. durin ...

(Europe clasp) *

National Defense Service Medal The National Defense Service Medal (NDSM) is a service award of the United States Armed Forces established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. It is awarded to every member of the US Armed Forces who has served during any one of four ...

(2) *

Korean Service Medal The Korean Service Medal (KSM) is a military award for service in the United States Armed Forces and was established November 8, 1950 by executive order of President Harry Truman. The Korean Service Medal is the primary US military award for s ...

battle star A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

) *

Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal The Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces, which was first created in 1961 by Executive Order of President John Kennedy. The medal is awarded to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who, after ...

* United Nations Korean Medal * Republic of Korea War Service Medal (retroactive)

Gallery

File:USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) underway in November 1952.jpg, ''Lake Champlain'' in November 1952 File:Aft view of USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) in 1953.jpg, ''Lake Champlain'' in 1953 File:F2H-2 of VF-62 on elevator of USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) 1953.jpg, F2H-2 Banshee onboard ''Lake Champlain'' in 1953 File:F9F-6 Cougar of VF-61 aboard USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), circa in 1954.jpg, F9F-6 Cougar onboard ''Lake Champlain'' off Korea in 1954 File:Overhead view of USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) c1955.jpg, ''Lake Champlain'' in 1955 File:Shepard on Deck of Champlain after Recovery - GPN-2000-001362.jpg,

Astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Alan B. Shepard onboard ''Lake Champlain'' on 5 May 1961 File:Astronaut Charles Conrad Jr. tweaks astronaut L. Gordon Cooper's eight-day growth of beard for the cameramen.jpg, Astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and L. Gordon Cooper aboard ''Lake Champlain'' on 29 August 1965

References

* *

External links

Naval Historical Center page on ''Lake Champlain''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake Champlain (CV-39) 1944 ships Cold War aircraft carriers of the United States Korean War aircraft carriers of the United States Ships built in Portsmouth, Virginia Ticonderoga-class aircraft carriers World War II aircraft carriers of the United States Space capsule recovery ships