Section E.6: Was USS Franklin repaired after she was nearly lost in 1945?
Franklin was severely damaged by Japanese aircraft 19 March 1945. The ship was nearly lost; virtually the entire flight deck and hangar were destroyed. She was repaired at New York Navy Shipyard and was decommissioned 17 Feb 1947 upon the completion of repairs, without resuming flight operations. Many people believe that her early decommissioning means she was only “patched up”, presumably because damage was too extensive to repair fully. This is not the case. She was completely repaired; the entire flight deck and hangar (except the forward flight deck and the island), were removed down to the floor of the hangar and rebuilt. She was decommissioned only because there was a surplus of carriers at the time. If the damage has been too severe to repair, or if she had been judged to be not worth the time and money, she would have been stricken and scrapped. Instead, she was retained in reserve for many years. A survey found her to be in the best condition of any Essex class carrier; she re
