00:00.18 kinkella Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 139 I'm your host Dr Andrew Kingkella and tonight the aircraft carrier uss hornet is it haunted now. No, it's not haunted show the hornet. Why am I talking about an aircraft carrier from world war 2 ah well, it's because it's because my dad used to work on it actually? um. And I have like some little side stories on so some little insider tips. My friends on um on the ship on the aircraft carrier the uss hornet and um yeah I thought I just I just talk about it a bit so the the hornet is a aircraft carrier as I've said from world war two. It's number 12 it's number cv 12 not to be confused with cv 8 which was also called the uss hornet more on that in a minute. And why am I bringing this up on the pseudo archeology podcast you're like did yes I get it. You can talk about you're dead good for you. But it's because there's all this stuff online and at the ship itself about how haunted it is right. 01:31.48 kinkella There's even this quote floating around that says it's the most haunted ship in America what you see behind the scenes in these places and you'll know this if you work at any kind of museum. Um, especially. It's like a local museum. You know you need to drum up some sort of interest and so I guarantee you basically every ship every sort of historic ship wherever it may be docked is going to have some sort of like. Who there were ghosts who somebody saw an apparition. You know what I'm saying and the hornet just gets in line and does that too I mean they have to do this because right now the hornet is in Alameda. Right? It's in Alameda California which is in in the bay area right? It's in the bay now I'll talk about its history in a minute and yes it was in the later part of world war two and it did see action in Korean and Vietnam too a little bit but after it was decommissioned. It was basically. Set up to be moored forever. Um, in Alameda and for those you who don't know Alameda in the Bay Area Bay area um Alameda is like a little island. It's like its own island but it's super close. This is hard to explain. It's like super close to the shore like you need the world's shortest bridge. 03:06.40 kinkella To get from Oakland over to Alameda. It's like right there like if you're looking at a um like a Google earth image of the San Francisco bay you might not even notice that Alameda is actually an island because it's so close to the mainland in the bay. 03:25.76 kinkella But anyway there's a long history there of the military right? various military bases there and of course it makes sense. There's a ton of naval history there because you're in the San Francisco bay one of the world's best natural harbors for this kind of stuff. So the um. 03:45.67 kinkella There's a group of people that's basically made this into a museum and we've heard this story before right? Whether it's like the um, the battleship Missouri which has ended up in Pearl Harbor right we can we can list a bunch of kind of world war two era aircraft carriers as well and others of these sort of stately historic famous ships. It's kind of a double edge sword though I think um, when places receive something like this. It's a gift but at the same time they're like a great now. We're going to have to keep this thing afloat make sure it doesn't sink and make sure it doesn't rushst to death. You know it's a full time job keeping these things afloat and it's cost it costs thousands upon thousands of dollars even though they never go anywhere. So all of this to say that the main way to get money is through tourism dollars right? So I do have to say as I go through this I am not making fun of the hornet and I don't find anything at fault with those guys I have a lot of respect for those people. The people who work on the hornet are. Docent. They're usually older retired people. That's what my dad did he was a docent on the hornet. Um, and I just again I have nothing but respect for these guys. That's ah ah, a difficult job where you get no money and you just do it out of the goodness of your heart right. 05:13.88 kinkella The only thing that I'm going to make fun of you guessed it is the haunting aspect. Um, now. What's funny so they have actual tours right that they have on the ship and all ships like this have that. Ah. I've been on the hornet several times because my dad used to be a docent.. There's a tour of kind of below the decks and then there's a tour above decks of the Island on the Aircraft carrier if you know Aircraft Carriers. That's the part above the flight deck right? So you can either go up or down I kind of prefer the down one. There's there's. Pluses and mins to both but beyond that in order to make more money they'll have like a nighttime tour right? or they'll have an overnight where um, you kind of look for apparitions and and you hear stories of long lost seamen right? Where are they. I don't was that him. He just turned a corner or did he you know what? I'm saying that kind of thing so and I got to say would I go on the haunted tour. Yes, of course I would right. No I don't believe in any of this stuff but a it might be kind of fun and I have to say for my students right? I've talked about this kind of stuff with my students and I always ah have them vote like there was one point where we were going to go check out the Queen Mary in Long beach. 06:42.56 kinkella Same kind of story as the as the horner right? They have a haunted tour too and I asked them I'm like which tour do you guys want to go on and all of them of course they were like King Kela we need to go on the haunted one and I'm like oh my god yeah I understand I understand so I guess. Where we have to start beyond the ghosts and the goblins and the apparitions there is some real history here now when you hear the name hornet if you're in a world war two junkie like me, you're going to hear some. Famous famous world war two stories like the first one you're going to hear is the famous 30 seconds over Tokyo where an aircraft carrier took a bunch of b twenty five s and they took off from like the middle of the pacific and they flew over. Japan and they drop bombs on Japan and this is even though they didn't do that much damage. It was huge in terms of morale right for the United States that after Pearl Harbor this this would have been in like mid 1942 that we actually kind of counterattacked right. Those um b twenty five bombers were launched off of the hornet. But that was hornet version 1.0 that is not the hornet that's in Alameda today. So that ship cv 8 that one was built. 08:13.91 kinkella Right? before world war two I think it was built right around 1940 or so right? and it sees service early in the war. So everything that happens in kind of like 1942 1940 you know, basically 1942 as we'll see in a minute That's the first hornet. So that one is the Jimmy Dolitle raid over Tokyo famous. Oh and as an aside, if you're from the bay area like I am you're from the area of Oakland or San Leanro you will see names like do little There's a. Major road do little drive right? named after Jimmy Dolittle because of this raid on Tokyo um, just after that you're going to have the battle of midway which is basically what is it June 1942 or so the ah hornet took play took part in that. Um. You've heard these famous names guadalcanal solomon islands right? This is. We're kind of rocketing through 1942 and the earlier hornet was at all of these until um, there's a battle called the battle of the Santa Cruz islands which i. Hadn't really heard that name right? The ah these other ones like guadal canal midway good god we've all heard those a hundred times but the um first hornet was basically sunk at the end of October 1942 it was attacked by the japanese um, it sustained major major. Ah. 09:46.14 kinkella Damage and basically the um it was in such bad shape that they abandoned ship. The americans tried to sink it I believe and they were unsuccessful because a bunch of the american torpedoes didn't go off. There were a ton of problems with that early in World World war two where the um. Torpedoes just sucked. They weren't nearly as good as the japanese ones then the japanese actually came by they. There's a long story to this. But basically the japanese ended up sinking it even after it was yeah there was nobody on it anymore. Um, and and it was done. It actually is I believe the last. US carrier ever sunk by an m and enemy force right? isn't that interesting. The last one was was the hornet version one point zero now even though the first hornet was now gone they were just building and you guys know this during world war two there. In terms of building ships. It's amazing, right? They're building aircraft carriers all the time and so they just repurposed the name and they made a new hornet and they built these things they built the hornet in a year I mean from nothing to a full aircraft carrier. In in riot almost exactly I believe 1 year isn't that amazing. It's like you can't get a permit to add on to your fence in California in like a year you know and I mean but they used to be able to build an aircraft carrier. 11:21.70 kinkella Think I'm going to have to give the greatest generation their title as greatest generation good for them so hornet version two point. Ah which is CV 12 right that's the one that ends up in Alameda and this is this is the 1 11:40.50 kinkella That's going to see some fighting later in the war 1944 and into 1945 battle of the Philippines sea um stuff in kind of new guinea and that area as they're kind of um, hopscotching up the pacific islands towards Japan near the end of the war you know. It's going to see action there. Um it was damaged really badly in a typhoon right? near the end of the war so it had to kind of sit out a little bit. It was used to carry soldiers home right? after the war of course then it was decommissioned then it was recommissioned for the korean war for a little bit where it had some. Um. Some limited exposure I believe in the korean war same with the vietnam war had little bits and bobs that it did but you know I think it's probably I think it's probably best known for um, scooping up the apollo eleven astronauts that was the hornet. That the um excuse me that the when the apollo eleven this is the first moon mission right? in 1969 when their capsule splash down in the ocean it was the hornet that picked them up. You know, got them on the ship and steamed back home. So it's It's really famous for that. They also did apollo 12 but since apollo eleven was the first one you know there's all kind of famous people that were related to that. Um, amazing moment in Us history. So after that we're talking 69 right. 13:14.66 kinkella After that the next year it's decommissioned in 1970. It's um, demarcated as a historic landmark both at the federal level and at the state level in California and in 1998 it opens its doors as. The uss hornet museum. So it's you know the real ship and you can go on and take a tour when we come back a deeper dive into the uss hornet.