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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS TRIPOLI   (CVE-64)
(later CVU-64)

(Ex-DIDRICKSON BAY)
USS Tripoli (CVE-64)
Contributed and digitally enhanced by Wolfgang Hechler

Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: November - Kilo - Victor - Tango

Unit Awards, Campaign and Service Medals and Ribbons

   

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: American Campaign Medal
2nd Row: European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal / Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal / World War II Victory Medal
3rd Row: Navy Occupation Service Medal ("Europe" clasp) / National Defense Service Medal / Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal

CLASS - CASABLANCA
Displacement 7,800 Tons, Dimensions, 512' 3" (oa) x 65' 2" x 22' 4" (Max)
Armament 1 x 5"/38AA 8 x 40mm, 12 x 20mm, 27 Aircraft.
Machinery, 9,000 IHP; 2 Skinner, Uniflow engines, 2 screws
Speed, 19 Knots, Crew 860.

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For Full Size Image
Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
Name
Didrickson Bay
NS0306409
64k

CVE-64 was initially named Didrickson Bay for a bay (also known as Deep Bay) on the west coast of Chichagof Island, Alexander Archipelago, Alaska (NS0306409).

Renamed Tripoli, 3 April 1943, to commemorate a joint land-sea operation against Derna during the war between the United States and the Barbary state of Tripoli, which resulted in the capture of that fortress city on 27 April 1805 (NS0306409a). After a long and grueling march across the desert from Alexandria, William H. Eaton, the American naval agent in the Barbary states, led a polyglot force of some 300 Arabs and Bedouins, about 70 Greek mercenaries, and eight US Marines in storming the Tripolitan defensive positions. Gunfire from United States warships Hornet, Nautilus, and Argus, under Master Commandant Isaac Hull, and the valor of the Marines, commanded by Lt. Presley Neville O'Bannon, USMC, were instrumental in achieving the American victory which has been immortalized by the phrase from the Marine Corps hymn, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli."

(Maps NS0306409 and NS0306409a courtesy of Google Maps.)

NS0306409b: "Attack on Derna," painting by Colonel Charles Waterhouse, USMC.

NavSource
Derna
NS0306409a
85k
Derna
NS0306409b
141k Naval History & Heritage Command
World War II
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306411
187k

USS Tripoli (CVE-64), in a photo said to have been taken in San Francisco in 1943.

David Wright
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306406
57k

USS Tripoli (CVE-64) anchored at an unknown location circa 1944.

National Naval Aviation Museum Photo, No.1986.150.003.052.

Mike Green
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306415
150k

View of the flight deck of the U.S. Navy escort carrier USS Tripoli (CVE-64). Visible are seven General Motors TBM Avengers and nine General Motors FM-2 Wildcats of Composite Squadron (VC) 6, in 1944. VC-6 was assigned to Tripoli from May to November 1944.

U.S. Navy photo from the Tripoli 1943–1945 Cruise Book.

Robert Hurst
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306412
671k

Aerial view of USS Tripoli (CVE-64), April 1944.

Donation by Lynn McClain from the collection of Richard M. Newman during his naval service aboard Tripoli during WWII.

Naval History & Heritage Command photo, # 2016.11.01.

Bob Canchola, BT, USN (Ret.)
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306402
154k

USS Tripoli departs Hampton Roads, May 24, 1944 with Composite Squadron 6 (VC-6; 12 Avengers and 9 Wildcats) aboard. She is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 4A (although there are deviations from the original Bureau of Ships design drawing).

"Note the HF/DF mast for North Atlantic ASW and the flat hangar deck, indicated by the straight line of the outboard sponsons. The prominent hangar-deck sponsons were used primarily for refueling at sea, the CVEs carrying substantial loads of cargo oil for destroyers and escort destroyers."

Photo and text in quotes from U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History, by Norman Friedman.

Robert Hurst
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306417
280k

A U.S. Navy Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, bounces over the crash barrier during a landing aboard the escort carrier USS Tripoli (CVE-64), circa 1944. Note that the aircraft wears the mid-1943 U.S. national insignia. In June 1944, Tripoli trained pilots off Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island. From January to November 1945, Tripoli was assigned to Carrier Division 11 and trained pilots off Hilo, Hawaii.

U.S. Navy photo from the Tripoli 1943–1945 Cruise Book.

Robert Hurst
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306414
210k

A U.S. Navy Curtiss SB2C Helldiver landing aboard the escort carrier USS Tripoli (CVE-64) in 1945. Note that the aircraft is coming in too high and flies into the crash barrier. From January to November 1945, Tripoli was assigned to Carrier Division 11 and trained pilots off Hilo, Hawaii.

U.S. Navy photo from the Tripoli 1943–1945 Cruise Book.

Robert Hurst
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306416
240k

A crashed U.S. Navy General Motors FM-2 Wildcat, after flipping over when it hit the crash barrier during a landing aboard the escort carrier USS Tripoli (CVE-64), in 1945. From January to November 1945, Tripoli was assigned to Carrier Division 11 and trained pilots off Hilo, Hawaii.

U.S. Navy photo from the Tripoli 1943–1945 Cruise Book.

Robert Hurst
The 1950s
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306408
65k

Tripoli, date and location unknown.

©Corveleyn Roger, courtesy of ShipSpotting.com, via Ron Reeves
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306404
53k

USS Tripoli (CVE-64) underway circa 1953, location unknown.

Robert Hurst
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306401
67k

Tripoli, operated by the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) and with a deck load of USAF North American F-86D Sabre fighters, circa 1954.

Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl M. Brashear, USN, served aboard Palau and Tripoli. BMCM(MDV) Brashear (1931–2006) was a pioneer in the Navy as the first black deep-sea diver, the first black Master Diver and the first Navy diver to be restored to full active duty as an amputee, the result of a leg injury he sustained during a salvage operation in January 1966, off the coast of Spain. His life story was immortalized on the big screen in the movie Men of Honor (2000). USNS Carl Brashear (T-AKE 7) is named after him.

USN
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306403
41k As an aircraft transport. Ted Stone photo. Haze Gray & Underway
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306405
98k

USS Tripoli (CVE/CVU-64) underway, probably during the middle 1950s, while transporting Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighters. This image was received by the Naval Photographic Center in December 1959, but was taken several years earlier.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command (# NH 106568).

Naval History & Heritage Command, via Robert Hurst
T-CVU 64 Tripoli
NS0306413
1.91M

USNS Tripoli (T-CVU 64) ferrying aircraft in the late 1950s.

Donald Tenney,
via Bob Canchola
Memorabilia
CVE-64 Tripoli
NS0306410
62k

Matchbook cover (doesn't the ship rather look like a Commencement Bay-class CVE?).

Tommy Trampp

For more information and photos of this ship, see:

Read the
USS TRIPOLI (CVE-64 / CVU-64) DANFS History entry

Crew Contact
Contact: Mr. James G Metts
Address: 1103 N 22nd St
Nederland, TX, 77627-5731
Phone: 409-722-1468
E-mail:  
Remarks:  
Reunion Information
Web site:
Remarks:  

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Last update: 23 June 2024