Keel laying ceremony at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, 4 July 1928. Note: seated crowd, loud speaker, and wooden model of cruiser.

Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo #NH 70480.

Under construction in dry dock at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, 3 June 1930.

Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo #NH 70479.

Louisville (CL 28) on 27 August 1930 undergoing final launching preparations at Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington. Taken from just forward of starboard beam.

Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo #NH 65632.

The Christening and "Launching" of Louisville on 01 September 1930. All ships built at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard were constructed in drydock, not on a shipway as in other shipyards. The "Launching" of a ship was just the flooding of the drydock.

USS Louisville (CA 28) Photographed during the early 1930s.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 51903.

View taken from the deck atop the aircraft hangar of USS Chicago (CA 29, circa 1932, and shows in line astern formation:USS Salt Lake City (CA 25), USS Louisville (CA 28), USS Northampton (CA 26), USS Pensacola (CA 24), USS Chester (CA 27), and USS Augusta (CA 31).

Naval History and Heritage Command, Catalog No. NH 51838

Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, Oahu, Hawaii - Scouting Force ships at, and off, the yard, 2 February 1933. Cruisers tied up at 1010 Dock are (from left to left center) Augusta (CA 31), Chicago (CA 29) and Chester (CA 27). USS Northampton (CA 26) is alongside the dock in the center, with USS Kane (DD 235) in the adjacent Marine Railway and USS Fox (DD 234) tied up nearby. USS Louisville (CA 28) is in the center distance. Moored off her bow and at the extreme right are USS Salt Lake City (CA 25) and USS Pensacola (CA 24).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph #80-G-451164, now in the collections of the National Archives.

USS Louisville (CA 28) steams past Battery Park, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, New York City, in 1934

. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 51905.

"Vanguard of Fleet Honors War Dead.".
"Veterans and sons of veterans stand at attention at Grant's Tomb as the U.S.S. Louisville fires a salute." (quoted from the original photo caption).
These Memorial Day ceremonies took place in New York City, 31 May 1934.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 684.

Louisville arrives at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, 14 March 1937 with passengers rescued from the British M. S. SILVER LARCH, which was afire about 450 miles northeast of Honolulu.

Naval History and Heritage Command Photo #NH 96170.

Starboard bow photo of the USS Louisville (CA 28) approaching Melbourne, Australia on 15 February 1938.

State Library Victoria, Photo #H91.325/416

USS Louisville (CA 28) moored astern of HMS Achilles (70) at Melbourne, Australia in February 1938.

State Library Victoria, Photo #H91.108/2381

Starboard side view while underway circa 1940 - 1941, taken from the USS Wasp (CV 7).

Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 92972

USS Louisville (CA 28) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 26 May 1942.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

USS Louisville (CA 28) off the south end of Mare Island Navy Yard. She was at the yard from 23 October - 11 November 1942 for repairs. Note the large number of barrage balloons above the yard in the background.

Photo from the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum.

Starboard quarter aerial view while under way, location unknown, 29 November 1942.

U.S. Navy photo.

USS Louisville (CA 28) operating in the Bering Sea during May 1943. She is followed by USS San Francisco (CA 38)

. Collection of Vice Admiral Robert C. Giffen.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #NH 94642.

USS Louisville (CA 28) steams out of Kulak Bay, Adak, Aleutian Islands, bound for operations against Attu, 25 April 1943. The photograph looks toward Sweepers Cove.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives #80-G-72060.

USS Louisville (CA 28) in rough weather possibly in the Aleutian Islands in 1943.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #3179-44.

USS Louisville (CA 28) in rough weather possibly in the Aleutian Islands in 1943.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #3180-44.

View in the Combat Information Center (CIC), taken at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, 17 December 1943.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92376.

View in flag plot, taken at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California,17 December 1943.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92377.

Forward plan view of USS Louisville (CA 28) at Mare Island on 17 Dec 1943. Louisville was in overhaul at Mare Island from 8 Oct until 24 Dec 1943. The stern of USS Chincoteague (AVP 24) and the bow of the USS Ballard (AVD 10) can be seen above Louisville.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #8320-43.

Aft plan view of USS Louisville (CA 28) at Mare Island on 17 Dec 1943. Louisville was in overhaul at Mare Island from 8 Oct until 24 Dec 1943. The USS Chincoteague (AVP 24) ahead of USS Ballard (AVD 10) can be seen to the right of Louisville.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #8321-43.

Stern view of USS Louisville (CA 28) off Mare Island on 17 Dec 1943. Louisville was in overhaul at Mare Island from 8 Oct until 24 Dec 1943.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #8344-43.

Bow on view of USS Louisville (CA 28) off Mare Island on 17 Dec 1943. Louisville was in overhaul at Mare Island from 8 Oct until 24 Dec 1943.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #8345-43.

Broadside view of USS Louisville (CA 28) off Mare Island on 17 Dec 1943. Louisville was in overhaul at Mare Island from 8 Oct until 24 Dec 1943.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #8348-43.

USS Louisville (CA 28) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 17 December 1943. Her camouflage scheme is probably Measure 32, Design 6d.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives #19-N-57222.

The photo is Official USN, taken by VJ (Utility) Squadron 7, photo number 6141, dated 30 December 1943.
It is listed as a Bureau of Aeronautics photograph. Note the censor notes at the bottom of the photo to delete ships number, paravane downhaul chains and flag. This photo was taken right after her late 1943 refit at Mare Island.

Official USN Photo #6141.

U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA 28) in a Pacific anchorage in 1944, while wearing camouflage Measure 32, Design 6d.

Louisville and USS Tennessee (BB 43) bombarding Roi in late January 1944 as seen from USS Hughes.

Photo by Chester Bradley.

Photo of USS Louisville (CA 28) firing a bombardment in the fog.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #3173-44.

View from the aircraft hangar, where heavy seas have battered through the hanger doors.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #3174-44.

First half of 7th Division - 20mm AA gun crews, 1944. The photo was taken on the fo'c's'le, starboard side, by the No. 1 turret. My dad was Enrico Trotta who is shown in the 3rd row up and 2nd man over from the left.

James "Pappy" Blaylock is shown in the 3rd row up and 3rd man over from left. James Blaylock was the oldest of the 20 mm crew at 45 years old and was killed in action on 6 January 1945. The kamikaze hit at the starboard side signal bridge and wiped out a 20 mm crew and a 40 mm Quad crew. Also, Rear Admiral Theodore Chandler died the next day after helping the sailors man the water hoses. My dad knew Blaylock and he was a nice man and father figure who had a son in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

7th Division - 20 mm AA gun crews - 2nd half - partial starboard & partial port side gun crews, 1944.

Photo of USS Louisville (CA 28) firing an its main battery.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #3176-44.

5" gun firing aboard the USS Louisville (CA 28).

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #3178-44.

USS Louisville (CA 28) in June 1944, from the port side, wearing measure 33/6d camouflage. Louisville is supporting Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) in support of the landings at Saipan.

United States National Archives, Photo #80-G-274670, courtesy of C. Lee Johnson, (usndazzle.com).

Starboard side view, wearing measure 33/6d camouflage, 26 June 1944, off Saipan, during Operation Forager; the Mariana Islands campaign.

USS Louisville Photograph Collection, donated by Don S. Montgomery, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, KY [017PC2] (courtesy of Jennie Cole).

A collection of firepower underway on 12 September 1944 somewhere in the Pacific. The USS Louisville (CA 28) nearest, USS Mississippi (BB 41) next and USS Idaho (BB 42) in background, The photo is taken from USS Portland (CA 33).

United States National Archives, Photo #80-G-283711, courtesy of C. Lee Johnson, (usndazzle.com).

About to be hit by a kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands, 5 January 1945. Note plane smoking and flak.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives, Photo #80-G-363218

USS Louisville (CA 28) is hit by a Kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands, 5 January 1945. Photographed from USS Salamaua (CVE 96).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives #80-G-363217.

Just after being hit by a kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands, 5 January 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives #80-G-363216.

January 1945 photo of the interior of 8" turret #2 showing damage from kamikaze hit taken on 5 January 1945. The damage to this turret was caused by the impact of a bomb-carrying kamikaze on the top; the bomb exploded on the top of the turret, which deflected the kamikaze upwards and into the superstructure behind. This turret was removed and replaced, later being allocated to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as explained below in photo 0402853.

NARA San Francisco, Mare Island Ship Files #1328-45.

USS Louisville (CA 28) arrives off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 6 February 1945 to receive repairs for damage inflicted by two Kamikazes a month earlier. The photograph is annotated with details about the suicide plane crashes and the damage inflicted. The ship's camouflage scheme is Measure 33/6d.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph #80-G-363217.

06 February 1945 photo of starboard side forward superstructure showing location and damage from 2 kamikaze hits taken on 6 January 1945.

NARA San Francisco, Mare Island Ship Files #893-45.

Port side photo showing path of Kamikaze #1 and fire damage from Kamikaze #2. Photo taken on 06 February 1945 at Mare Island. Note the 8" shells on deck next to the catapult pedestal.

National Archives, San Francisco Branch, Mare Island Naval Shipyard General Correspondence files, 1941-47.

View looking aft at Turret #2 and superstructure showing path of Kamikaze #1 along with the damage caused by bomb detonation and impact from plane. Note the propeller embedded in 5" Gun Director. Photo taken on 07 February 1945 at Mare Island.

National Archives, San Francisco Branch, Mare Island Naval Shipyard General Correspondence files, 1941-47.

View of Turret 2 interior showing damage sustained by impact of Kamikaze #1 and detonation of bomb it was carrying Photo taken on 07 February 1945 while at Mare Island for repairs.

National Archives, San Francisco Branch, Mare Island Naval Shipyard General Correspondence files, 1941-47.

View of wrecked 40mm quad mount and other kamikaze damage by the bridge received January 1945 in Lingayen Gulf. Taken at Mare Island, 7 February 1945.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92367.

Damage to Signal Bridge and forward Stack from impact of Kamikaze #2. Photo taken on 07 Feb 1945 at Mare Island.

National Archives, San Francisco Branch, Mare Island Naval Shipyard General Correspondence files, 1941-47.

Damage to starboard side of Signal Bridge from impact of Kamikaze #2. Photo taken on 09 Feb 1945 at Mare Island.

National Archives, San Francisco Branch, Mare Island Naval Shipyard General Correspondence files, 1941-47.

Aft plan view of USS Louisville (CA 28) at Mare Island in dry dock #2 for an inclining experiment on 25 March 1945. She was not landed on the dry dock blocks during this period. She was in overhaul at the yard from 6 Feb until 13 April 1945.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #2182-45.

General quarters drill showing personnel at their stations on the open bridge, circa early April 1945. Taken at Mare Island Navy Yard. Note that protective paper has not yet been removed from new Lucite windscreens.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92378.

View on open bridge, at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, April 1945.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92375.

My late father, Ensign James H. Doyle Jr., took this of his crew on the "Lucky Lou" in 1945.

MK 34 gun director, with MK 8 MOD 3 Radar, and Shield MK 7 onboard USS Louisville (CA 28), at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, 6 April 1945.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92370.

Radar equipment MK 8, MOD 3 (main battery control) in the foreword fire control station of USS Louisville (CA 28), at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, 6 April 1945.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92371.

Radar equipment MK 8, MOD 3 (main battery control) in the main battery plotting room of USS Louisville (CA 28), at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, 6 April 1945. Note manufacturers' approval tag on console in lower left.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92374.

Radar equipment MK 8, MOD 3 (main battery control) in the aft fire control station of USS Louisville (CA 28), at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, 6 April 1945.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92372.

Radar equipment MK 8, MOD 3 (main battery control) in the foreword fire control station of USS Louisville (CA 28), at Mare Island Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, 6 April 1945.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92373.

USS Louisville (CA 28) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 April 1945.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives #19-N-83896.

Stern view of USS Louisville (CA 28) off Mare Island on 7 April 1945.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #2488-45.

Bow on view of USS Louisville (CA 28) departing Mare Island on 7 April 1945.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #2489-45.

Aft plan view of USS Louisville (CA 28) at Mare Island on 10 April 1945.

Mare Island Navy Yard Photo #2538-45.

View of Kamikaze damage, received off Okinawa on 5 June 1945 looking forward from atop the hangar, showing collapsed #1 stack.

Naval History and Heritage Command photo #NH 92604.

Ship's bell, currently located in Louisville, KY.

Photo taken by LS1(AW) Kimberly Kelly.

Ship's bell, currently located in Louisville, KY.

Photo taken by LS1(AW) Kimberly Kelly.

Ship's bell, currently located in Louisville, KY.

Photo taken by LS1(AW) Kimberly Kelly.

This is a link to a document on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website concerning a Gun Turret in the Yucca Flats valley area of the Nevada Nuclear Security Site which is believed to have come from the Louisville. - The document has been removed but here is the story:

Of all the improbable things to find lying abandoned in the Nevada desert, a gun turret from a World War II era U.S. Navy cruiser might be near the top of the list.

Nevertheless, a turret answering that description can be seen there, rusting in the sun at what used to be called the Nevada Test Site, some 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

On careful examination, the scars of devastating naval battles and frightening kamikaze aircraft attacks are visible on parts of the turret.

No one paid attention to these historical clues until recently. For decades, the purpose of the gun turret would be explained to visitors, but its exact origin was a mystery, a matter of speculation.

The turret's purpose, in the days when nuclear tests were conducted on towers above-ground, was to cut costs by eliminating multiple stations for measuring the gamma ray output of nuclear explosions detonated at different sites.

The late Bill McMaster of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory saw a way to create a single station that could turn and point its detectors at many sites. He had a surplus Navy gun turret shipped in from Mare Island Shipyard in the Bay Area.

The turret was installed as if aboard ship and fitted with a lead-lined barrel that could be aimed precisely at the top of a 500-foot tower a thousand or more yards away where the burst of gamma rays from a nuclear detonation would indicate its explosive yield.

The turret was used to diagnose three tests in 1957, all part of Operation Plumbbob. Soon after that, the turret was retired, as the U.S. and Soviet Union entered into agreements that led to an end to testing in the atmosphere.

While the turret’s brief role was known and discussed by old timers and tour guides, its deeper history was a mystery. Now it has been revealed through the personal efforts of Rob Hoffman, a theoretical physicist in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory weapons program who comes from a Navy family.

The Navy connection is not just a figure of speech. Hoffman’s father and younger brother were both chief petty officers. His uncles served in the Navy as well. His twin brother was a career officer in the Marine Corps and is now an intelligence analyst with the Coast Guard.

With this family background and his work at LLNL, Hoffman took on the historian role almost exactly one year ago after visiting the abandoned turret as part of a tour of the Test Site, now called the Nevada National Security Site.

Since then, he has spent nights and weekends scanning the internet, corresponding with aging Navy veterans and with the Desert Research Institute, and checking archival records at sites around the country, from San Bruno to Washington, D.C.

He continues to make new contacts and uncover new information, but in the meantime he published a historical report at LLNL late last year and has plans for a more formal article, perhaps in a Naval history journal.

The turret is from the 1930s and is known as a Mark 9, he found. It housed three 8-inch guns and was carried by a dozen U.S. ships, 10 of them cruisers, but two aircraft carriers as well.

“The battle history of these ships is a tale of great success and sorrow,” he wrote in the LLNL report. Five were lost to enemy action in battles with names like Sunda Strait, Coral Sea and Guadalcanal that are burned into the memories of those who fought in the Pacific in World War II.

Which of the ships did the turret come from?

Opinions varied among people who had worked at the Test Site. Hoffman eliminated the names of those that were sunk in action. Then he familiarized himself with the battle histories of surviving ships that carried the Mark 9. He studied repair records at places like Pearl Harbor and Mare Island and traveled to the desert to crawl over the turret to compare battle and repair records with scars, misaligned seams and repair welds.

He was able to eliminate from consideration the USS Portland, Pensacola and Salt Lake City. All of these were damaged in battles near Guadalcanal in 1942, but none appeared to sustain damage that would match scars on the Nevada turret in detail.

By contrast, he found a close connection with the damage and subsequent repairs to the USS Louisville, which was hit twice by kamikaze attacks in January 1945 en route to the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines.

Dozens were killed or wounded. The Louisville was forced to limp back to the Bay Area for repairs at Mare Island Shipyard, arriving a month later.

Repair records from the shipyard match the Nevada turret down to scrapes, scars, bolt and welding patterns and a slightly displaced faceplate where a replacement part was installed.

Hoffman continues to gather new information and interact with historians and others who might shed light on the history of the turret, but for now he is convinced that he has identified the ship that it came from.

The process has been a lot of fun, he said. He was happy to recognize the Louisville for serving her country by contributing to LLNL’s nuclear testing program “long after her last salvo was fired.”

Photo caption: Mark 9 turret from the USS Louisville, rusting in the Nevada desert, where it once served in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's nuclear testing program.

05/08/1937 - 10/29/1938