USS Wasp CV-18
The USS Wasp CV-18 was considered an amphibious assault ship and was the ninth Navy ship to hold the name “Wasp.” Commissioned in 1943, the vessel was originally named the USS Oriskany, but her name was altered following the sinking of the eighth USS Wasp in September of the previous year. The USS Wasp CV-18 was an Essex-class ship that not only served in the Pacific during World War II, but also participated in the Korean War. The USS Wasp CV-18 was built at Bethlehem Steel Company in Quincy, Massachusetts and sponsored by the sister of then-senator David I. Walsh. At her launch, the ship was commanded by Captain Clifton A. F. Sprague, a Massachusetts native who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and finished 43rd in his class of almost 200 and was also the first U.S. Navy Admiral to fly over the North Pole in a B-29 plane in 1950. The USS Wasp CV-18 earned an impressive eight battle stars for her service during WWII.
The USS Wasp CV-18 began her service in Boston, and, after a stop in Virginia, headed towards Trinidad for a five-day stop that began on February 22, 1944. In April of that year, the ship landed in Pearl Harbor, where she participated in various training exercises. The Wasp CV-18 joined a newly-formed group known as Task Group 58.6 and proceeded to sail to the Marshall Islands. The vessel launched planes during the strike on Saipan and Tinian, and successfully shot down a number of enemy fighters. This began the USS Wasp CV-18’s extended time in the Pacific supporting U.S. forces.
In February of 1945, several crewmembers aboard the USS Wasp CV-18 were killed during a pre-dawn air strike on the ship by Japanese forces. In April of that year the ship returned to Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington for extensive repairs. Following that maintenance, the vessel headed towards Pearl Harbor and then returned to the Pacific to resume her support role in July. The following month, the USS Wasp CV-18 found herself in the midst of a serious typhoon with winds over 100 miles per hour. Despite some damage, the ship continued her missions, which included delivering supplies to American prisoners of war at Narumi. She landed in Boston for Navy Day in October and continued to go on missions throughout the late fifties and sixties. In the early seventies, the ship traveled to Germany, crossed the Arctic Circle, traveled through Scotland, Spain, and the Norwegian Sea, and finally ended up back at the Newport News Shipyard in 1972. The USS Wasp CV-18 was scrapped in 1973.
Those who served aboard the USS Wasp CV-18 and other WWII-era ships are, without a doubt, some of the bravest and most honorable Americans. Unfortunately, this does not make them exempt from developing fatal disease such as mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that occurs as a result of previous asbestos exposure. The USS Wasp CV-18, like many other ships built in the forties, contained harmful asbestos within piping insulation and other materials, and, if inhaled, could lead to the eventual onset of mesothelioma, which has a latency period of as many as fifty years. Veterans who develop this cancer are generally in their late sixties or early seventies, and, if they are diagnosed, should begin mesothelioma treatment immediately.
Last modified: December 28, 2010.
