USS Tarawa (CV-40) goes down the ways at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, after she was christened by Mrs. Julian C. Smith, 12 May 1945.

Copied from typescript "History of the Norfolk Navy Yard in World War II", page 169. The original volume is in the collections of the Navy Department Library.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph (# NH 96330).

We had just come back into SF Bay following one of the largest post WW2 exercises in 1948. The total number of ships included all the West Coast carriers, Boxer, Antietam, Valley Forge, Princeton, and Tarawa. Boxer, Valley Forge, and Tarawa went into SF the others into San Diego. Our force attacked the West Coast from Hawaii, the other force was defending.

A Grumman F8F Bearcat fighter landing on board the carrier at sunset, 4 November 1948, during operations in the western Pacific area.

Crewmen on the flight deck spell out "Connecticut", 16 July 1951.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97598).

Vought F4U-5 Corsair fighters from USS Tarawa (CV-40) fly in formation over the Mediterranean, 15 December 1951.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (# 80-G-443068).

Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (photo # NH 97596).

Original caption from the NHC: "Underway in the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Straits of Messina, Sicily, on 18 December 1952. She has F2H Banshee jet fighters on her catapults."

Note: Dewie Gaul comments: "it is impossible that this picture was taken on the day listed, since that is the day I boarded the Tarawa in Newport, Rhode Island. There is no doubt about this, since I have my diary which so shows. She left for the Med on Jan. 7, 1953 and I was on her". Mr. Gaul was a Seaman when he came on board the Tarawa on December 18, 1952. He became a third class petty officer in May 1953 and left the carrier in July 1953.

Note: Bob Atkinson, Historian, Editor "Tradewinds," USS Tarawa Veterans' Association, adds: "The picture was taken on 18 December 1951, a year earlier, during the Tarawa's 1951-1952 Med Cruise. I used the picture as the centerfold of that trip's cruise book."

USS Tarawa (CV-40) underway, probably in the Mediterranea Sea (see above).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97597).

Lieutenant Commander Wyckoff inspects a radarscope on board the carrier, 1 February 1952.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97599).

Two views of USS Tarawa (CV-40), possibly taken in 1951–1952.

Bob Atkinson, Historian, Editor "Tradewinds," USS Tarawa Veterans' Association, comments: "Noting the crewmen in whites and the landmass in the distance, I wouldn't be surprised if they were taken either while we were entrering or leaving Narragansett Bay, to or from Quonset Point."

USS Tarawa (CVA-40) approaches the Pedro Miguel Locks, while transiting the Panama Canal on 31 August 1954. The carrier was en route back to the Atlantic in the final stages of her September 1953 - September 1954 World cruise. Note Grumman F9F Panther fighter in the right foreground. Most of the other planes visible are swept-wing F9F Cougar fighters.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97600).

USS Tarawa (CVA-40) transiting the Panama Canal, August 31, 1954.

A band welcomes the carrier to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, at the completion of a nearly one-year-long World cruise, 6 September 1954.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97601).

Men of the Sixth Marines ride up on the carrier's deck-edge elevator prior to boarding helicopters of Marine Air Group 26 to take part in a practice landing as part of the 1958 Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Exercises. Photo bears the rubber-stamped date 24 March 1958.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97602).

Good general layout of this class.

Allyn Howard, VS-32 & VS-22, 1957–1960, comments: "The picture [...] had to be taken in Aug–Sep 1958 during the cruise below the equator [...] Project Argus. Note the truck in front of the forward big guns on the flight deck. That truck was there with 'US Air Force' painted on it."

Operation Argus was a series of nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted by the Defense Nuclear Agency in the South Atlantic during August–September 1958, in conjunction with the Explorer IV mission. Task Force 88 staff, aboard Tarawa, was in overall command of Operation Argus. The commanding officer of Tarawa served as Task Group 88.1 commander. Tarawa carried Air Force MSQ-1A radar and communications vans for missile tracking and gathering scientific data. VS-32 aircraft (19 S2F Trackers) flew search and security missions as well as scientific measurement, photographic, and observer missions for each shot.

Two S2F Trackers of VS-32 "Norsemen" fly by an iceberg during Tarawa's August–September 1958 cruise to the South Atlantic.

Allyn Howard comments: "I was an Aircrewman abord one of the S2F's [in this photo]. We were going out on a routine flight and we were directed to fly by the iceberg for pictures. [...] The iceberg was a beautiful blue green color [...]" Tarawa herself can barely be seen in the left background.