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Manhattan - USS Intrepid

A Brief History: The USS Intrepid, originally a CV-11 Aircraft Carrier, was built by Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia beginning December 1, 1941 just six days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Commissioned August 16, 1943, the USS Intrepid was first tasked with joining the Pacific Fleet where she participated in the Navy’s lofty island hopping campaign. Starting out in the Marshall Islands, the ship took part in raids from the 29th of January through the 2nd of February 1944 destroying all 83 Japanese aircraft stationed on the islands as well as providing support for ground forces landing on the shores. From there the USS Intrepid made her way towards the Japanese base on Truk in the center of Micronesia. In two days of almost continuous bombardment she sank two Japanese destroyers and 200,000 tons of merchant shipping, thus demonstrating Truk’s vulnerabilities greatly curtailing its usefulness as a base for the Japanese. The USS Intrepid; however, did not come out of these battles unscathed as she was the victim of an aerial torpedo that killed five crew members and forced her to return to US for repairs to flooded compartments and a jammed rudder. After the repairs were made, the USS Intrepid made her way back into the fray in The Palaus Island chain. Here she also took part in strikes against Japanese airfield bases in the Philippines, Formosa, and Okinawa. In the midst of aiding ground forces deal with heavily entrenched Japanese soldiers in the marshes and swamps of these island chains, she had her part in the downing of numerous enemy aircraft and successfully sinking four carriers and a destroyer. Again throughout the ordeal of pushing the mighty Center Fleet back to mainland Japan the Intrepid was not without its casualties as she was the victim of four kamikaze attacks that killed a total of twenty-nine crewmembers and injuring over twenty others. After World War II the USS Intrepid went under a modernization and operated with the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean mostly policing for submarines between 1955 and 1962. She then served as the recovery ship for the Mercury VII space capsule May 24, 1962 and the Gemini III space capsule March 23, 1965. Decommissioned in 1974 after three combat cruises with the Pacific Fleet of Vietnam, she was brought into Philadelphia for the country’s bicentennial celebration. From there the USS Intrepid was brought to her final resting place in New York City in July of 1982 where she opens to the public as the Intrepid Sea-Air Museum.


Haunted History: There have been reports of people claiming to feel cold spots and seeing an apparition on the lower decks of the USS Intrepid. People have also claimed to see balls of white light form and then disappear on the outer deck of the ship.



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