CV-39 was named Lake Champlain after a lake in the State of New York which was the scene of Commodore Thomas Macdonough's victory, 11 September 1814, over a larger and more heavily armed British squadron in the War of 1812. (Map courtesy of Google Maps.)

NS0239aua: Macdonough's Victory on Lake Champlain, 1814, watercolor by Edward Tufnell, depicting the U.S. corvette Saratoga (left center) and sloop Eagle (right) engaging the British flagship Confiance (center) off Plattsburg, New York, 11 September 1814. Saratoga was flagship of the American commander, Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Naval History & Heritage Command Photograph Collection, NH 51480-KN (Color).

One ship had previously borne the name:

1. A transport acquired by the Navy in 1918.

Aerial view of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia (USA), from an altitude of 3,500 feet, on 17 January 1944. The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable (92) is visible in the upper left. The ship under construction in front of Indomitable is probably the future USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), which was launched on 2 November 1944.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-209655.

The future USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) under construction in Dry Dock 8 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, 4 July 1944. She would be floated on 2 November 1944.

Note the future USS Shangri-La (CV-38) in the final stages of outfitting at Berth 42. She would be commissioned on 15 September 1944.

Also note an unidentified escort carrier—USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) or USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60)—, camouflaged in Design 4A, to the left, at Berth 39.

NNY photo serial no 8008(44).

"1018935 Norfolk, Va., (June 3, 1945)—The aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), as she appeared following christening and commissioning at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Mrs. Warren R. Austin, wife of the U.S. Senator of Vermont, was the ship's sponsor. A highlight of the ceremonies was the decoration of Pacific Combat Veterans on the flight deck of the new ship. (U.S. Navy photo via International News Photos)"

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), starboard bow view, Norfolk Navy Yard. Official US Navy photo, serial 10742(45), 15 June 1945.

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), starboard broadside view, Norfolk Navy Yard. Official US Navy photo, serial 10743(45), 15 June 1945.

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), starboard quarter view, Norfolk Navy Yard. Official US Navy photo, serial 10744(45), 15 June 1945.

National Naval Aviation Museum (NNAM) photo, # 1996.488.100.002.

Underway at sea on 23 June 1945, less than three weeks after she went into commission.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (photo # 80-G-265465).

"Philadelphia, Pa. 27 September 1945. The Navy's newest aircraft carrier the USS Lake Champlain CV-39 steams up the Delaware River toward the port of Philadelphia, for a week's visit. The ship's will hold open house so that the public may tour the carrier." International News Photo #C 1025571.

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) underway. Jack Sauter—author of USS Lake Champlain CV/CVA/CVS-39 (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 2002)—comments: "I would guess that it was taken in the fall of '45 when CV-39 was visiting various east coast ports: NY, Philadelphia and Boston just after war's end. The fact that nearly all aircraft are on the flight deck indicates that there were no flight operations. She was rigged for sight-seeing."

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) at anchor, around 1945–46, painted in Measure 21 and fitted with only two deck-edge masts. SK-2 and SC-2 radar was fitted at this time. Two Mk-37 directors with radar Mk12/22, 4 Mk-63 and some Mk-51 directors were also fitted. USN Photo.

Colorized version of photo above, by Yu Chu.

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) as built.

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) as built, 1945.

Gayle's father, Frank W. Stubbs, Jr., was one of Lake Champlain's plankowners.

View of hangar deck showing progress of bunk construction aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), looking aft, 9 October 1945. Bunks were made to bring troops, dependents, back to the United States.

U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), # 80-G-347986.

Passengers aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) study their passenger regulations in their bunks. The ship was converted to a troop ship. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701562.

Soldiers muster on docks at Naples, Italy. They are awaiting the signal to go aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), which was converted to a troop ship to bring the soldiers home. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701563.

Earl Demms, Daniel Varrisse, George Masaru and Alter J. Goetz gather to chat after boarding USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), which was converted to a troop ship to bring the soldiers home. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701564.

U.S. Troops who would return to the U.S. from Naples, Italy, aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39). The ship was converted to a troop ship. Soldiers are shown filing aboard. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701569.

Quarters are crowded aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) as she was converted to a troop ship and picked up 5,000 soldiers at Naples, Italy. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701570.

Soldiers mustered on docks at Naples, Italy. They are waiting the signal to go aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39). Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701571.

Large signs aboard USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) direct the men to the sections to which they are assigned. The passengers enjoy playing cards while enroute from Rome to Naples, Italy. The ship was converted to a troop ship. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701573.

U.S. Soldiers are checked before they board USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) at Naples, Italy. The ship took aboard 5,000 soldiers for the return back to the United States. Photograph released 19 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-701574.

USS Lake Champlain (CV-39). Transfer of blister sub-assembly. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, 19 January 1951.

Starboard bow view of USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) off Norfolk Navy Yard, 1 November 1952. She had just completed SCB-27A modernization. Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia, photo, # NY6-9905.

National Naval Aviation Museum, photo # 1996.488.100.031.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) at anchor in Aden harbor, 18 May 1953, while she was en route to take part in the Korean War. Among the planes on her flight deck are a few Douglas F3D Skyknight all-weather fighters, parked just in front of the carrier's island.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph (# NH 95918). Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

Photos from the collection of William A. Smith, Jr, a 1951 Naval Academy graduate and eventually a Captain in the US Navy.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), 1953. Curran, McBrearty.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), 1953. Foster.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), 1953. Meggison, Turner.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), 1953. Rupprecht, Willams.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), Lisbon, Portugal, 1953. LCDR Wirsing, CDR Simonsen, Williams, ENS Macindoe.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), 1953. Mitchell.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), Lisbon, Portugal, 1953. Williams.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), Lisbon, Portugal, November 1953. Depron, Schlageter, Watts, Curran, Collins, Campbell.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) dockside at Yokosuka, Japan, 1953.

Photo by Charles R. Tabor.

At anchor, Hong Kong harbor.

In port, Sasebo, Japan. USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) is in the background.

Recovering aircraft in the Sea of Japan.

Looking up through #3 elevator.

5-inch rockets waiting to be loaded. BuNo 123351 was an F2H-2 assigned to VF-22 "Cavaliers."

F2H-2 Banshee on #2 elevator, off Korea.

F4U-4 Corsairs (left) and F2H-2 Banshees being armed for sortie.

F4U-4 Corsairs of VF-44 "Hornets" being loaded with 5-inch rockets.

F9F-5 Panthers of VF-111 "Sundowners" on flight deck, Hong Kong harbor.

AD-4 Skyraider of VA-45 "Blackbirds" takes off.

VC-33 men besides an AD-4N Skyraider.

VC-33 ordnancemen loading an anti-submarine patrol AD Skyraider during Korean Cruise 1953.

Gerstel and Devaney loading 20-mm guns on Skyraider.

Gerstel loading 20-mm guns on Skyraider.

Cleaning 20-mm guns on Skyraider. Notice the painted over numbers of the aircraft. VC-33 was an all-weather, night attack squadron, hence the painted over white numbers.

Rearming anti-sub patrol. Believe it or not, that's Bill with the depth charge!

AD-4N Skyraider of VC-33 "Night Hawks" loaded with 265-lb fragmentation bombs. Take notice to the long rods on the ends of the bomb fuses. These are called "daisy cutters" and are used to explode the fragmentation bombs three feet above the ground to provide larger area of shrapnel!

VC-33 AD-4N Skyraider loaded with frags and flares.

VC-33 AD-4N Skyraider modex SS-803, with LT J.K. Gill piloting.

USS Lake Champlain in the South China Sea.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) catapults a pair of F2H-2 Banshee jet fighters for her first Korean War strikes, 15 June 1953.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97440).

"A flight of (F2H-2) Banshees streaks over the USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) in a photo taken by an accompanying destroyer of Task Force 77. The Essex-class carrier, recently arrived in the Far East, is in her first tour of Korean duty." Quoted from original caption released with this photograph by Commander Naval Forces Far East, under date of 18 July 1953.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center (# NH 97435).

McDonnell F2H-2 Banshee jet fighters over Hungnam, North Korea. Photo is dated 26 July 1953, the day before the Korean armistice took effect. These planes are from USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39). Hungnam's port area is below the left plane. In the upper left is the mouth of the Songchon River.

Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (# 80-G-630625).

Two F2H-2 Banshees of VF-62 "Gladiators" fly over Lake Champlain during operations with Task Force 77, 26 July 1953 (photo # USN-630627).

Sailors crowd around [Grumman F9F-5 Panther] V134 aboard Lake Champlain in 1953. The assigned pilot was LT(JG) Rollo Young, but on 27 July BuNo 126037 was flown by LT(JG) W[illiam] A. Finlay, who dropped the squadron's [(VF-111 "Sundowners")] last bombs of the Korean War. The Panther's nose cone has been pulled forward to permit access to the four 20mm cannon (Archibald McCleish via Henk van der Lugt).

Photo and text from VF-11/111 "Sundowners" 1942–95 (Aviation Elite Units #36), by Barrett Tillman.

"An errant VF-111 F9F-5 (BuNo 126037, as seen above) returns to Lake Champlain during post-armistice operations in 1953. After erroneously landing aboard USS Yorktown (CVA-10), the 'Sundowners' jet received graffiti applied by its 'hosts.' [...]"

Photo and text from VF-11/111 "Sundowners" 1942–95 (Aviation Elite Units #36), by Barrett Tillman.

Detonator mines aboard USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) at sea, 4 March 1954. Skid handler pushing a Mk-36 mine.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-635137.

Detonator mines aboard USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) at sea, 4 March 1954. Stowage of mine, MK-25, in Class 1 rack in C-501-M by removing stanchions and battens on one side. Mines stow the same as a 2,000 lb bomb in this one rack.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-635146.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) underway, location and date (1954–1955?) unknown.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) underway with Carrier Air Group (CVG-8), circa 1954–1955.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) underway, circa 1954–1955.

Taxiing to the catapult, this is possibly FJ-3 Fury, BuNo 135831, C202, Fighter Squadron (VF) 33 "Tarsiers," 1954–1955. Nominally assigned to LT(JG) Fred A. Neth, who would die during the Vietnam War.

FJ-3 Fury, BuNo 135796, XC94 (left), and 135795, XC93, Air Development Squadron (VX) 3, 1954–1955.

F9F-5 Panther, BuNo 125232 (modex E-415), Fighter Squadron (VF) 84 "Sidewinders," Carrier Air Group (CVG) 8, crashed into the barricade during the 28 September 1954–22 April 1955 Mediterranean Cruise of USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39).

Photo from the Lake Champlain 1954–1955 Cruise Book.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), and USS Purdy (DD-734) refueling at sea from USS Neosho (AO-143), in the Mediterranean, 20 October 1955.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), # 80-G-684504.

USS Lake Champlain in Gibraltar with F9F-8 Cougars assigned to VF-74 "Be-Devilers."

As above.

USS Lake Champlain in Gibraltar, 1955.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) near Sardinia, Italy, November 1955.

"The photographer in front of the lens this time. My dad, AB3 Richard L. Kaumeier, posing with a Piasecki HUP-2 Retriever [(HU-2 "Fleet Angels" Det. 34)] aboard USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) in 1956. There would be two new stars to add to that 48-star flag before the decade was out."

HUP-2 Retriever, BuNo 128497 (modex UR51), Helicopter Utility Squadron (HU) 2 "Fleet Angels" Det. 34.

Photo by Vincent Bellissimo.

AJ-1 Savages, Composite Squadron (VC) 9 "Hooters" Det. 36 (redesignated Heavy Attack Squadron [VAH] 9 on 1 November 1955; nickname changed to "Hoot Owls").

Photo by Vincent Bellissimo.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) probably while conducting local operations in the Western Atlantic, November–December 1956. The plane closest to camera is an FJ‑3/3M Fury from VF-84 "Vagabonds."

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), with Air Task Group (ATG) 182, conducting an UNREP with general stores issue ship USS Altair (AKS-32), circa 1957, during the carrier's final deployment as a CVA.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39), with Air Task Group (ATG) 182, at anchor, circa 1957.

"On 25 April 1957 [USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39)] joined elements of the fleet in a high-speed run to the scene of tension in the Middle East, cruising in the vicinity of Lebanon and backing Jordan’s stand against the threat of Communism. The swift and firm reaction averted a near catastrophe in the Middle East." (Quoted from DANFS, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships). This aerial photo shows Lake Champlain, with Air Task Group (ATG) 182, steaming off Greece, on their way to Lebanon. Note that crewmembers are spelling out "Chaere Hellas" ("Greetings to Greece") in Greek characters.

Piasecki HUP-2 Retriever helicopter (Bureau # 128533), of Helicopter Utility Squadron Two (HU-2) lowers guard mail to the foredeck of USS Salem (CA-139), during operations in the Mediterranean Sea, 29 April 1957. In the background, USS Caloosahatchee (AO-98) is refueling USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) and a destroyer.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) anchored, probably, off Barcelona, Spain, May–June 1957.

Photo Galilea.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) anchored at Cannes, France, on 17 June 1957, during her final deployment as an attack aircraft carrier. Among the planes on her flight deck are three large AJ Savage attack aircraft. Photographed by PH2 J.R. Sholar.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History & Heritage Command (NH&HC), # NH 97436.

An AJ tanker had a wheel slip into the forward catwalk and it took the crew several days to get it back on the deck.

As above.

Photo by Vincent Bellissimo.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) with Carrier Air Group 182, 1957.

USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) with an AD-6 Skyraider, 1957.

Even though the photo is dated "1967," the correct date is probably 1957, as Lake Champlain did not operate Skyraiders with 400-series side number after the latter year, and she was decommissioned in 1966.

Magazine advertisement, 1957.