USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, a 45,000-ton Midway class large aircraft carrier, was built at the New York Navy Yard. Commissioned on Navy Day, 27 October 1945, she made a shakedown cruise to Brazil in February 1946. During April and May of that year, she took part in Eighth Fleet maneuvers off the east coast, the Navy's first major post-World War II training exercise. The first of Franklin D. Roosevelt's nearly two dozen deployments to the Mediterranean Sea followed in August-October. Her second Med cruise began in July 1948 and lasted into early 1949. As the Cold War became increasingly tense in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the carrier regularly crossed the Atlantic for operations with the Sixth Fleet off Southern Europe, carrying both conventionally and nuclear-armed aircraft to deter the Soviet Union and its client states. She was reclassified as an attack aircraft carrier in October 1952, changing her hull number from CVB-42 to CVA-42.
In early 1954, Franklin D. Roosevelt steamed around Cape Horn to begin a two-year-long modernization on the west coast. When this work was completed, she was newly equipped with an angled flight deck, "hurricane" bow, steam catapults and many other features that facilitated the operation of high-performance aircraft. In November 1956, following her return to the east coast, Franklin D. Roosevelt made another cruise to European waters. Over the next decade, she deployed to the Mediterranean another seven times, doing her part to provide a powerful and continuous U.S. Navy presence in that often-troubled region. She recorded her 100,000th aircraft landing in March 1961.
From August 1966 to January 1967, Franklin D. Roosevelt made her only Western Pacific cruise, during which she conducted combat operations against enemy targets in Southeast Asia. Her seventeenth Sixth Fleet tour followed in 1967-68, after which she entered the shipyard for additional modernization work that gave her an additional deck-edge aircraft elevator, located forward of the island on the starboard side.
Franklin D. Roosevelt returned to the Mediterranean six more times during 1970-77. Her twenty-first Sixth Fleet deployment was marked by indirect participation in the October 1973 Middle East war, as she served as a transit landing "field" for aircraft en route for delivery to Israel. She received another change in hull number, to CV-42, in June 1975. Franklin D. Roosevelt completed her twenty-third, and final, Mediterranean tour in April 1977. Decommissioned in October of that year, she was sold for scrapping in April 1978.
This page features selected views of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB/CVA/CV-42).
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 #: 80-G-467203 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) Operating at sea during her second Mediterranean tour, 28 November 1948. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 81905 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) Off Nice, France, on 24 October 1951, with crewmen in formation on the flight deck spelling out "Vive La France". Courtesy of Captain H.H. Smith-Hutton, USN (Retired), via Captain Paul B. Ryan, USN, 1975. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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Photo #: USN 1074673 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) Underway at sea, 3 March 1963. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 625 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1074673. |
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Photo #: USN 1120428 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) Underway in the Gulf of Tonkin, during her Vietnam War combat deployment, 19 October 1966. A UH-2 "Seasprite" helicopter is in flight at left. Photographed by PH1 Hendricks. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 625 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1120428. |
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Photo #: NH 97636 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) Underway at sea, circa 1970-73. The original print accompanied a 26 January 1974 press release concerning the Meritorious Unit Commendation awarded to Franklin D. Roosevelt in recognition of her performance during a ten-month Sixth Fleet deployment, from 9 March to 1 December 1972. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 117KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 97637 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) Underway in the Mediterranean Sea, 6 June 1971. Photographed by Ph2 W. Striegel. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 565 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-59661 President Harry S. Truman (center) talking with Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (right center, in ball cap) On board USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42), 22 April 1946, during Eighth Fleet maneuvers off the U.S. east coast. Among the others present are Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (behind Truman) and Mr. Steelman (at the extreme left). Behind them, painted on a hangar deck fire door, is a caricature of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a sailor in similar poses. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-702898 McDonnell XFD-1 "Phantom" jet fighter Lands on USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) during initial carrier trials for this aircraft type, 21 July 1946. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 625 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-12443 (Color) Grumman F9F-2 "Panther" jet fighter On the deck edge elevator of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42), circa 1950. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-629296 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) Launches a Lockheed P2V "Neptune" bomber with "JATO" assist, during a Task Force 21 cruise, 2 July 1951. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 90KB; 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 97638 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) Photographed from the cockpit of a Grumman A-6A "Intruder" aircraft making its final approach for recovery aboard the ship, during operations in the Caribbean Sea, August 1969. The aircraft is assigned to Attack Squadron 176 (VA-176). Photographed by Ph2(DV) William R. Curtsinger. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 11 July 2001