Ship's Log USS Hornet (CV-8)

USS HORNET (CV-8) The seventh ship to bear the name.

• Cost: $32 Million
• Length: 827 feet
• Draft: 22 feet
• Flight deck width: 114 feet
• Propulsion: 120,000 horsepower
• Displacement: 20,000 tons

25 Sep 1939 - Keel laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia.

14 Dec 1940 - Launched by Mrs. Frank Knox, wife of the Secretary of the Navy.

20 Oct 1941 - Commissioned at Norfolk Naval Base, Virginia.

07 Dec 1941 - Undergoing sea trials and dockyard upgrades at Norfolk Naval Yard, Virginia when Pearl Harbor attacked

28 Dec 1941 - Began one month shakedown cruise in the Gulf of Mexico

02 Feb 1942 - Two B-25 bombers hoisted aboard at Norfolk Navy Base and launched at sea as a feasibility test

04 Mar 1942 - Departed Norfolk for Pacific Ocean via Panama Canal

20 Mar 1942 - Arrived at North Island in San Diego for Air Group 8 carrier qualifications

31 Mar 1942 - Arrived at Naval Air Station Alameda and moored at Pier 2

01 Apr 1942 - Sixteen USAAF B-25 Mitchell bombers and 134 Army personnel loaded aboard

02 Apr 1942 - Departed San Francisco bay with sealed orders to execute the Doolittle Raid on the Japanese home islands

13 Apr 1942 - Hornet (w/ Task Force 16.2) and USS Enterprise (w/ Task Force 16.1) rendezvous near Midway

18 Apr 1942 - Task Force detected by Japanese picket ship 650 miles east of Japan. Doolittle Raid launch begins at 0820 hours, in gale force winds and high seas

25 Apr 1942 - Arrived at Pearl Harbor and moored off Ford Island for a brief refit

30 Apr 1942 - Departed Pearl Harbor to participate in the Battle of Coral Sea but arrives one day late

28 May 1942 - Departed Pearl Harbor to participate in the Battle of Midway and arrives on time

04-06 Jun 1942 - Battle of Midway; Air Group 8 helps sink one enemy cruiser. All 15 aircraft of VT-8 are shot down with only one survivor

17 Aug 1942 - Departed Pearl Harbor for combat operations in the Solomon Islands

26 Oct 1942 - Heavily damaged during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands when hit by six bombs, four torpedoes and two suicide aircraft

27 Oct 1942 - Sunk at 0135 hours after being hit by 4 torpedoes from two Japanese destroyers