World War II in the
Caroline Islands on 13 March 1945, showing damage to her after flight deck resulting from a
kamikaze hit on 11 March. Photographed from a floatplane 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 patrols 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 later died, and wounding 105, during
Operation Tan No. 2. The initial damage assessment by the ship's captain and later confirmed by task force commander, Admiral
Raymond Spruance, was that
Randolphs damage was beyond the repair capabilities at Pearl Harbor and the ship would have to return to Navy facilities on the US west coast, effectively taking
Randolph out of action for some five months, including the upcoming invasion of Okinawa. At this point,
Randolphs catapult officer was able to convince the captain and Spruance that repairs could be completed at sea utilizing , a
repair ship in the immediate vicinity. What ensued became the most extensive repair at sea ever performed by the US Navy. The captain's first act was to move number six (forward) arresting-gear catapult engine aft to replace the destroyed number one engine. This returned
Randolph, very quickly, to an operational status. With
Randolph able to launch and retrieve aircraft, and thus defend herself, repairs focused on the massive task, at the ship's stern, involving the replacement of structural steel components forming the hangar deck, aircraft elevator framework and flight deck support, all warped or destroyed by the fires ignited by the kamikaze hit. Some 29 tons of structural steel, including I-beams salvaged from a Japanese sugar mill on newly liberated
Saipan, were utilized. An additional 7,500 board feet of lumber was required to repair
Randolph’s flight deck. In the words of Cmdr. Charles Minter, assistant air officer on board
Randolph, "That decision to remain in the forward area [for repairs] allowed us to complete the war in an operational status. I doubt anyone could estimate how long we would have been in the yard had we gone back to the States, and the loss of the
Randolph at that particular time would have been crucial. Slingin' Sam (Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Humphreys) saved the day". USS
Jason repaired
Randolph in four days, due to the damage being far less severe than the Kamikaze attack. On her next war cruise, as a part of Admiral
Halsey's
3rd Fleet,
Randolph made a series of strikes up and down the Japanese home islands. With
Carrier Air Group Sixteen (CVG-16) (distinct from the later
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.
Randolphs pilots estimated that from 10 to 25 July they had destroyed 25 to 30 ships, ranging in size from small
luggers to a 6000-ton
freighter, and had damaged 35 to 40 others.
Randolphs strikes continued right up to the morning of the 15 August surrender, when her planes hit
Kisarazu Airfield and surrounding installations. After an overhaul at Norfolk,
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.
Decommissioning On 7 August 1968, the
Defense Department announced that it would inactivate
Randolph and 49 other ships to reduce fiscal expenditures in 1969.
Randolph was decommissioned on 13 February 1969 at
Boston Navy Yard and laid up in the reserve fleet at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Another anchor was placed at a Naval Reserve unit in
Kingsport, Tennessee. That building was later designated for decommissioning and destruction. With the blessing and approval of the Randolph Association, that anchor was kept in Kingsport and then relocated in 1990 to
Sullivan North High School for representation of their newly commissioned
NJROTC program. After the closing of that school, the anchor was moved on 7 June 2023 to its new home in Lebanon Missouri where it's being refurbished and being placed on display in the city's Veterans Park with a dedication on Veterans Day, 11 November 2023. Her binnacle is preserved at the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum. ==Awards==