(CV/CVA/CVS-38)
The USS Shangri-La was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy.
Commissioned in 1944, Shangri-La participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II, earning two battle stars. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She operated in both the Pacific and Atlantic/Mediterranean for several years, and late in her career was redesignated as an anti-submarine carrier (CVS). She earned three battle stars for service in the Vietnam War.
DEPLOYMENTS
The Gladiators of VA-106, flying the A4 Skyhawk, made five deployments onboard the USS Shangri-La
as part of Carrier Air Group TEN (CVG-10) and Carrier Air Wing TEN (CVW-10) attached to the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
06 SEP 60
– 20 OCT 60
The Squadron embarked onboard USS Shangri-la for her first Atlantic deployment, a NATO exercise followed by liberty in Southampton, England.
02 FEB 61 – 15 MAY 61
As part of Carrier Air Group 10 (CVG-10), flying the A4D-2 Skyhawk, the squadron deployed onboard the USS Shangri-la to the Mediterian.
07 FEB 62 – 28 AUG 62
As part of Carrier Air Group 10 (CVG-10), flying the A4D-2 Skyhawk, the squadron deployed onboard the USS Shangri-la to the Mediterian.
01 OCT 63 – 23 MAY 64
As part of Carrier Air Wing 10 (CVW-10), flying the A4C Skyhawk, the squadron deployed onboard the USS Shangri-la to the Mediterian.
15 FEB 65 – 20 SEP 65
As part of Carrier Air Wing 10 (CVW-10), flying the A4C Skyhawk, the squadron deployed onboard the USS Shangri-la to the Mediterian. On 07AUG65 at 0115hrs in the Tyrrhenian Sea about 115 miles southwest of Naples, Italy, the USS Shangri-la collided with the distroyer K. Perry (DD-883) Shangri-La was struck below the waterline, breaching the hull. On the destroyer, one man was killed and another injured. There were no casualties onboard the USS Shangri-la and the hole was quickly patched.
15 NOV 60 – 28 NOV 60
Following a request from Guatemala and Nicaragua, a Navy Patrol was established off the coast of Guatemala and Nicaragua to prevent infiltration by communists from Cuba. The Squadron operated from Shangri-la as part of the patrol force.
02 JUN 61 – 19 JUN 61
Following the assassination of the Dominican Republic’s dictator, General Rafael Trujillo, the squadron operated from USS Shangri-la off the coast of the Dominican Republic until the domestic situation began to stabilize.
22
OCT 62 – 28 NOV 62
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the squadron was attached as part of Air-Wing attached to the USS Shangri-la, however, the USS Shantri-la was in the New York ship yard at the time for repair and was not online. The squadron was then sent TAD to the U.S. Airforce’s Tactical Air Force onboard the USS Lexington in an alert status.
May 1963
The squadron operated from USS Shangri-la in the Caribbean during the period of unrest in Haiti and the civil strife with the dominican Republic.
The naming of the ship was a radical departure from the general practice of the time, which was to name aircraft carriers after battles or previous US Navy ships. After the Doolittle Raid, launched from the USS Hornet, President Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from “Shangri-La”, the fictional faraway land of the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon.
Shangri-La was decommissioned in 1971 and remained in the reserve fleet for the next 11 years, and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 July 1982. She was retained by The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) for several years to provide spare parts for the training carrier Lexington. On 9 August 1988, she was sold for scrap and later towed to Taiwan for demolition.
