USS Bon Homme Richard, a 27,100-ton Essex class aircraft carrier, was built at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York. Commissioned in November 1944, she went to the Pacific in March 1945 and in June joined the fast carriers in the combat zone and took part in the final raids on Japan. With the end of hostilities in mid-August, Bon Homme Richard continued operations off Japan until September, when she returned to the United States. "Magic Carpet" personnel transportation service occupied her into 1946. She was thereafter generally inactive until decommissioning at Seattle, Washington, in January 1947.
The outbreak of the Korean War in late June 1950 called Bon Homme Richard back to active duty. She recommissioned in January 1951 and deployed to the Western Pacific that May, launching her planes against enemy targets in Korea until the deployment ended late in the year. A second combat tour followed in May-December 1952, during which she was redesignated CVA-31. The carrier decommissioned in May 1953 to undergo a major conversion to equip her to operate high-performance jet aircraft.
Bon Homme Richard emerged from the shipyard with an angled and strengthened flight deck, enclosed "hurricane" bow, steam catapults, a new island, wider beam and many other improvements. Recommissioned in September 1955, she began the first of a long series of Seventh Fleet deployments. Additional Western Pacific cruises followed in 1957, 1958-1959, 1959-60, 1961, 1962-63, and 1964, with the last including a voyage into the Indian Ocean.
The Vietnam war escalation in early 1965 brought Bon Homme Richard into a third armed conflict, and she deployed on five Southeast Asia combat tours over the next six years. Her aircraft battled North Vietnamese MiGs on many occasions, downing several, as well as striking transportation and infrastructure targets. Occasional excursions to other Asian areas provided some variety to her operations. Bon Homme Richard was ordered inactivated at the end of her 1970 deployment. She decommissioned in July 1971, becoming part of the Reserve Fleet at Bremerton, Washington. Following two decades in "mothballs" she was sold for scrapping in March 1992.
This page features selected views of USS Bon Homme Richard.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 97341 USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) Anchored in New York Harbor, with supply barges alongside, 9 January 1945. Photographed from a Naval Air Station, New York, aircraft, flying at an altitude of 300 feet. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97340 USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) Tied up at Carrier Pier # 2, Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, on 27 October 1945. USS Commencement Bay (CVE-115) is in the right background. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97342 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) Arrives off Pearl Harbor, returning from a Korean War combat tour, 31 December 1952. Aircraft on her flight deck include three R4D transport planes in addition to F4U fighters and AD attack planes of her air group. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97343 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) With her crew "spelling out "Hello San Diego", while en route to San Diego on 9 February 1963. She returned to San Diego, her home port, on 11 February, following a Western Pacific cruise that had begun seven months earlier, on 12 July 1962. Aircraft on her flight deck include three E-1, eleven F-8, six F-3, thirteen A-4 and nine A-1 types. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 144KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97344 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) Operating in the Gulf of Tonkin, 2 November 1964. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97345 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) Underway at sea, circa 1965. Photograph bears a "received" stamp dated 4 January 1966. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-3888 (Color) USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) Slides down the building ways, as she is launched at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, on 29 April 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 147KB; 740 x 595 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 97347 Douglas F4D-1 "Skyray" fighter Landing on board USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31), 30 August 1957. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 615 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97346 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) Steams with an "honor guard" of four destroyers, as a Change of Command ceremony takes place on her fight deck, 28 November 1962. Captain E.P. Kline relieved Captain G.C. Bullard as the carrier's Commanding Officer during the ceremony, which took place while she was operating in the Western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet. The destroyers, all units of Destroyer Squadron Nineteen, are (at left): USS Ernest G. Small (DDR-838) and USS Turner Joy (DD-951); (alongside the carrier): USS Black (DD-666) and USS Dennis J. Buckley (DDR-808). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 134KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: USN 1142110 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) Catapults an A-4 "Skyhawk" attack plane, during operations off Vietnam, March 1967. Photographed by JOC R.D. Moeser, USN. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 166KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1142110. |
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Photo #: USN 1142199 USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) A Sailor reads in the shade of an aircraft parked on the carrier's flight deck, during operations off Vietnam, March 1967. Photographed by JOC R.D. Moeser, USN. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1142199. |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 20 September 2000
Link added 8 October 2001