USS Randolph ( CV - 15 ) USS " Randolph " ( CV / CVA / CVS - 15 ) was one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy . The second US Navy ship to bear the name , she was named for Peyton Randolph , president of the First Continental Congress . " Randolph " was commissioned in October 1944 , and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations , earning three battle star s . Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war , she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier ( CVA ) , and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier ( CVS ) . In her second career she operated exclusively in the Atlantic , Mediterranean , and Caribbean . In the early 1960s she served as the recovery ship for two Project Mercury space missions , including John Glenn ' s historic first orbital flight . She was decommissioned in 1969 and sold for scrap in 1975 . Construction and Commissioning . " Randolph " was one of the " long - hull " ships . She was laid down on 10 May 1943 , at Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co . , Newport News , Virginia . She was launched on 28 June 1944 , sponsored by Rose Gillette ( wife of Guy M . Gillette , a US Senator from Iowa ) . " Randolph " commissioned on 9 October 1944 , Captain Felix Locke Baker , USN in command . Service history . World War II . Following shakedown off Trinidad , " Randolph " got underway for the Panama Canal and the Pacific . On 31 December , she reached San Francisco where Air Group 87 was detached and Air Group 12 reported on board for four months duty . On 20 January 1945 , " Randolph " departed San Francisco for Ulithi , from which she sortied on 10 February with Task Force 58 ( TF 58 ) . She launched attacks on 16 – 17 February against Tokyo airfields and the Tachikawa engine plant . The following day , she made a strike on the island of Chichi Jima . On 20 February , she launched three aerial sweeps in support of ground forces invading Iwo Jima and two against Haha Jima . During the next four days , further strikes hit Iwo Jima and combat air patrol s were flown almost continuously . Three sweeps against airfields in the Tokyo area and one against Hachijo Jima followed on 25 February before the carrier returned to Ulithi . Riding at anchor at Ulithi on 11 March , a Yokosuka P1Y1 " Frances " " kamikaze " hit " Randolph " on the starboard side aft just below the flight deck , killing 27 men ( including four reported missing and five transferred to the hospital ship where they died ) and wounding 105 during Operation Tan No . 2 . Repaired at Ulithi , " Randolph " joined the Okinawa Task Force on 7 April . Combat air patrols were flown daily until 14 April , when strikes were sent against Okinawa , Ie Shima , and Kakeroma Island . The following day , an air support mission of fighters , bombers , and torpedo planes hit Okinawa and a fighter sweep struck an airfield in southern Kyūshū . Under daily air attack from 17 April on , " Randolph " continued to send her aircraft on CAP and support missions throughout the month . In May , planes from the carriers hit the Ryukyu Islands and southern Japan , Kikai ( Amami Islands ) naval base and airfields , and Kyūshū airfields . Becoming the flagship of TF 58 on 15 May , " Randolph " continued her support of the occupation of Okinawa until 29 May , when she retired via Guam to the Philippines . On her next war cruise , as a part of Admiral Halsey ' s famed 3rd Fleet , " Randolph " made a series of strikes up and down the Japanese home islands . With Air Group 16 replacing Air Group 12 , the ship launched eight raids on 10 July against airfields in the Tokyo area , principally those on the peninsula east of Tokyo Bay . On the 14th , her planes struck the airfields and shipping in and near Tsugaru Strait . In this attack , two of the important Honshū - Hokkaidō train ferries were sunk and three were damaged . Attacks on the Japanese home islands continued for the next few days , and on 18 July , the Japanese battleship – lying camouflaged alongside a pier at the Yokosuka Naval Base – was bombed . Moving southwest , " Randolph " and other carriers were off the coast of Shikoku on 24 July , for an anti - shipping sweep of the Inland Sea , during which the carrier - battleship was heavily damaged and airfields and industrial installations on Kyūshū , Honshū , and Shikoku were hit hard . " Randolph " s pilots estimated that from 10 – 25 July they had destroyed 25 to 30 ships , ranging in size from small luggers to a 6 , 000 - ton ( 5 , 400 metric ton ) freighter , and had damaged 35 to 40 others . " Randolph " s strikes continued right up to the morning of the 15 August surrender , when her planes hit Kisarazu Airfield and surrounding installations . Post - war . Following the end of the war , " Randolph " headed home . Transiting the Panama Canal in late September , she arrived at Norfolk on 15 October , where she was rigged for " Magic Carpet " service . Before the end of the year , she completed two trips to the Mediterranean area to return American servicemen . Then , in 1946 , she became a training ship for reservists and midshipmen , and made a Mediterranean cruise in the latter half of the year . After another voyage to the Caribbean , she embarked midshipmen in the early summer of 1947 for a cruise to northern European waters . " Randolph " was placed out of commission , in reserve , 25 February 1948 , and berthed at Philadelphia . In June 1951 , " Randolph " commenced her SCB - 27 A modernization program at Newport News . To handle the new generation of carrier aircraft , the flight deck structure was reinforced . Stronger elevators , more powerful hydraulic catapults , and new arresting gear were installed . The island structure was rebuilt , the anti - aircraft turrets were removed , and blisters were added to the hull . Reclassified CVA - 15 on 1 October 1952 , " Randolph " recommissioned on 1 July 1953 . After shakedown off Guantanamo Bay with Carrier Air Group 10 , she took on Carrier Air Group 14 , departed Norfolk for the Mediterranean , and joined the 6th Fleet on 3 February 1954 . Deployed to the Mediterranean for 6 months of Fleet and NATO exercises in 1954 – 1955 , " Randolph " entered the Norfolk Navy Yard on 18 June 1955 for installation of an angled flight deck and other SCB - 125 modernizations . Leaving the yard in January 1956 , " Randolph " conducted air operations off the East Coast for the next six months , and was the first Atlantic Fleet carrier to launch a Regulus guided missile from her flight deck . On 14 July 1956 , " Randolph " again steamed east for a seven - month tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean . When Israel , Britain , and France invaded the United Arab Republic in October of that year , " Randolph " stood ready . Operating near the Suez Canal , her aircraft provided air cover and surface and air reconnaissance for the evacuation of U . S . nationals from Alexandria . She returned to the United States on 19 February 1957 . After a few months operating off the East Coast , " Randolph " deployed to the Mediterranean again on 1 July 1957 . Between August and December , as political turmoil in Syria threatened to further disturb the already turbulent Mideast , she patrolled the eastern Mediterranean . Back in the United States on 24 February 1958 , the flattop made her 5th Mediterranean deployment from 2 September 1958 – 12 March 1959 . Anti - submarine warfare . " Randolph " was reclassified CVS - 15 on 31 March 1959 , and conducted anti - submarine warfare ( ASW ) operations off the East Coast throughout that year and the next , receiving her fourth consecutive Battle Efficiency Award in September 1960 . From October 1960 to March 1961 , " Randolph " underwent the SCB - 144 upgrade as part of the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization program . She received the new SQS - 23 bow sonar , as well as improved displays in the Combat Information Center . In the summer of 1962 , " Randolph " again steamed to the Mediterranean . Returning to the western Atlantic as the Cuban Missile Crisis broke , she operated in the Caribbean from the end of October through November . On 27 October , " Randolph " and a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers entrapped a nuclear - armed Soviet Foxtrot class submarine " B - 59 " near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges , explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification . Allegedly , the captain of the submarine , Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky , believing that a war might already have started , prepared to launch a retaliatory nuclear - tipped torpedo , but Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov persuaded the captain to surface to await orders from Moscow . After a Norfolk overhaul , " Randolph " resumed her station in the Atlantic . Over the next five years , she made two Mediterranean cruises and a northern European cruise , while spending most of her time off the East Coast and in the Caribbean . NASA – Mercury Project . In July 1961 , " Randolph " sailed for operations in the Caribbean and served as the recovery ship after splashdown for astronaut Virgil Grissom on America ' s second manned space flight , a suborbital shot . In February 1962 , " Randolph " was the primary recovery ship for astronaut John Glenn on his flight , the first American orbital voyage in space . After his historic three - orbit flight , he landed safely near from which he was transferred , by helicopter , to " Randolph " . Unusual incident . On 1 April 1964 , in an unusual accident , the Number Three deck elevator of the tore loose from the ship during night operations and plunged into the Atlantic off Cape Henry , Virginia , taking with it an Grumman S - 2D Tracker , five crewman , and a tractor . Three crew were rescued by the , but two were lost at sea . Disposal . On 7 August 1968 , the Defense Department announced that it would deactivate " Randolph " and 49 other ships to reduce fiscal expenditures in 1969 . " Randolph " decommissioned on 13 February 1969 at Boston Navy Yard and was laid up in the reserve fleet at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . " Randolph " was stricken from the Navy List on 1 June 1973 . In May 1975 , the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service sold the ship to Union Minerals & Alloys for $ 1 , 560 , 000 . " Randolph " was towed to Kearny , New Jersey , and broken up for scrap . Awards . " Randolph " earned three battle star s for World War II service .