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The years immediately following World War II marked a time of
transition for naval aviation. Indeed, with dwindling defense
budgets and a bitter interservice rivalry with the upstart
United States Air Force over the employment of the nation’s
air power, the very existence of sea-based air power was
seriously questioned. Strategic bombing employing the atomic
bomb in the minds of many had supplanted the Navy as the
nation’s first line of defense, and minimized the importance
of tactical aviation. Such was the severity of the situation
that by mid-1950, a carrier fleet that numbered 98 at the end
of World War II, encompassed fifteen flattops.
In
the early morning hours of 25 June 1950, North Korean tanks
and troops stormed across the 38th Parallel into North Korea
in a sudden attack that took the world by surprise. In keeping
with a subsequent resolution by the United Nations Security
Council, President Harry S. Truman committed U.S. military
forces to battle, and on July 3rd Valley Forge, in
concert with the British carrier HMS Triumph, launched
the first naval air strikes of the war, attacking facilities
at Pyongyang. In this engagement, U.S. Navy F9F-2 Panthers
scored naval aviation’s first jet kills, shooting down two
North Korean Yak-9 aircraft.
In
the ensuing months, which included General of the Army Douglas
MacArthur’s brilliant amphibious assault at Inchon and drive
up the Korean peninsula, through the eventual withdrawal and
settlement into a stalemate, U.S. naval aviation made a
significant contribution to military operations in Korea. By
July-1953, when the cease-fire was signed, U.S. Navy and
Marine Corps aircraft had logged 189,495 attack sorties, jets
had successfully demonstrated their value in combat, and the
helicopter had come of age as a transport and search and
rescue platform. Most importantly, the aircraft carrier had
demonstrated its value as a flexible platform for power
projection in a limited war, a role that continues to this
day.
INTRODUCTION
| KOREAN WAR 1 | KOREAN
WAR 2 | THACH SPEECH
| HELICOPTERS | CORSAIR
RESCUE | LASTING FAME |
TARGETS | TAPS
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