Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "USS Essex - Guide 093" video.

@kentamitchell Yes. When the Russians did land troops in Japan it was AFTER the Japanese had surrendered. There is no way they could have conducted combat landings against an opposing force - unless - the USN did the transportation. The Japanese were ready to fight to the death - but - the Atom Bombs gave Hirohito the impetus to ask his nation to lay down it's arms. The Japanese Emperor's were much like the British Queen's and Kings of recent times and really mostly figure heads - but - they carried immense prestige. If they had interfered with the running of the country on a routine basis ... that would have diminished their prestige but - they didn't - so Hirohito had it there at the end and used it the one time - to stop his people from being killed. Americans and Japanese alike owe this one man an immense debt for all the lives he saved. .
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@royquigley2594 What he no doubt meant - was the when FDR said the Doolittle Raid had come from Shangri La - that was really the Hornet - so the Hornet had two ships named after it - one for it's real name and the other for the euphemism FDR used in referring to it. .
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@ajalvarez3111 NO! There were NOT two Essex class ships named the "Hornet". That would have been 3 ships named Hornet and there were only two. There were two ships named "Hornet". The Yorktown Class CV-8 and Essex Class CV-12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJauHydQofM What had happened was FDR was asked by a reporter where the American Raid came from - and FDR, not wanting to tell the Japanese the details of the raid, joked that it came from "Shangri-La" which was a Paradise that was in a popular novel Lost Horizon . This was a JOKE when he said it. Everyone knew that Shangri-La was a fictional Paradise in a novel - and - he was NOT saying it came from the Hornet. He was saying that the raid had come from this fictional Paradise. It is a real stretch to say that he was calling the Hornet - Shangri-La but some people obviously think so. These people would be WRONG but being wrong doesn't stop people from doing things like that. FDR's joke having become very popular. Subsequently - in a major departure from it's naming conventions - the Navy decided to name CV-38 - an Essex Class Carrier - "Shangri-La". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shangri-La It would be more accurate - to say that CV-38, the USS Shangri-La, had it's name inspired by the Doolittle Raid than that it was named after CV-8 the Yorktown Class - USS Hornet. Saying the USS Shangri-La was one of two carriers named after the Hornet - would be another joke - not something that was literally true. .
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Wikipedia says the Bunker Hill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bunker_Hill_(CV-17) and the Franklin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Franklin_(CV-13) were ironically never recommissioned BECAUSE they had just been repaired. They had in mind conversions to these ships that never ended up being done. The Bunker hill sat in San Diego Bay for a number of years where it was used as an electronics test platform and as I understand it - for office space. And yes - with so many ships in this class that did so much a more in depth look at some of them would be welcome. .
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Yeah ... the US sure built one hell of a navy .... .
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Yeah. I had a friend who was on the Gambier Bay when it was sunk off Samar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gambier_Bay I bought him this book but it wasn't as expensive then. https://www.amazon.com/Escort-Carrier-Gambier-Anatomy-Ship/dp/1557502358/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543186348&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=The+Escort+Carrier+USS+Gambier+Bay .
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