Operating with VS-27 Squadron, 1957–1959.

Med Cruise 1958. 100th Destroyer Refueling.

Mayport, Florida, December 1958.

Mayport, Florida, December 1958.

Mayport, Florida, December 1958.

Changing homeport from Mayport, Fla. to Quonset Point, R.I. in 1958. Loading of personnel cars onto Lake Champlain in prep for the trip.

December 1958.

January 1959.

May 1960.

May 1960.

May 1960.

May 1960.

USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) anchored at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, while making a liberty call after exhaustive anti-submarine warfare exercises in the Caribbean. Presence of Sikorski HSS/SH-34 helicopters on her flight deck indicates that the photo was taken during the early 1960s. The original print was received by "All Hands" magazine on 23 April 1965.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97439).

USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) underway at sea. The original print bears the rubber stamp date 1 July 1960.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97437).

On May 5, 1961, CDR Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to fly into space. His Freedom 7 "Mercury" capsule was launched suborbitally to an altitude of over 116 miles, 303 statute miles down range from Cape Canaveral. After a 15.5-minute flight, the spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean where USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) awaited its arrival. The capsule came through the entire flight in such excellent shape that the engineers who examined it decided that it could easily be used again. The doctors also assessed that the astronaut was in excellent shape, physically and psychologically and "...could be used again too."

An aerial view of Lake Champlain (CVS-39), 29 August 1961 (photo # USN-1077581).

Members of the carrier's V-2 Division rigging arresting gear on the flight deck, circa 1962. The caption released with this photo on 24 July 1962 reads: "Speeding toward a record-breaker, V-2 divisionmen aboard the USS Lake Champlain show what it takes to come out on top in barrier rigging. The 'Champ' crew recently broke the Atlantic Fleet record for setting the Davis (S2F) barrier with a time of 59 seconds flat. Having gained momentum, they went on to rig the conventional (AD) barrier in a pace-setting 53 seconds. When the men slowed down enough to look in the record books, they quickly found out that the record they had broken was their own, set in July of '61."

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97441).

USS Decatur (DD-936) receives serious topside damage in a collision with USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39), after suffering a steering casualty and running under the carrier's bow overhang, 6 May 1964. Taken from the carrier's bridge. Note S-2 aircraft parked forward, and Decatur's mainmast breaking away. Halftone photograph copied from Decatur's 1968 Cruise Book, page 1. The book is in the Collections of the Navy Department Library.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph (# NH 98178).

Gemini Titan 2 Suborbital Test, 19 January 1965 — "U.S.S. Lake Champlain — Navy frogmen place the floatation collar around the Gemini Titan 2 spacecraft. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched the spacecraft from Cape Kennedy, Jan. 19, 1965 at 9:03 and it was recovered by the recovery forces aboard the U.S.S. Lake Champlain some 2100 miles downrange at 10:45 a.m. Flight time was 19:03 minutes. Actual landing was 16 miles short of the programmed landing area." Quoted from the original caption released by NASA with this photograph. Lake Champlain (CVS-39) is in the background. One of her SH-3 helicopters is hovering over the spacecraft.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. (# NH 97442).

USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) underway while conducting anti-submarine exercises in the western Atlantic, circa early 1965. The original print was received by "All Hands" magazine on 23 April 1965. Note flight deck markings on this ship, the last axial-deck fixed-wing aircraft carrier in U.S. Navy service.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97438).

View of the island of USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39), August 1965 (Gemini 5 recovery operation.)

The Gemini 5 spacecraft is brought aboard USS Lake Champlain, the recovery ship, after a successful landing at the end of its mission, August 29, 1965.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Photograph # S65-46630 (GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2000-001343).

As above.

Astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. (left) and L. Gordon Cooper Jr. walk across the deck of USS Lake Champlain, the recovery aircraft carrier, following splashdown and recovery from the ocean, August 29, 1965 (Gemini 5).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Photograph # S65-51442 (GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2000-001494).

In 1966, when the USS Lake Champlain left Quonset Point for the Philadelphia Navy Yard for decommissioning, many of the crewmen had their cars transported on the Champ's flight deck, so they wouldn't have to make their way back to Rhode Island to collect them after getting to Philly.

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, May 1970. Official US Navy Photograph #1146926 by PHC Tommy Cobb. From the US Naval Photographic Center, Naval Station, Washington, DC.