The 1940s

These are the earliest photographs we have. Bon Homme Richard was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 26 November 1944, the fourteenth Essex-class carrier and the last completed in time to serve in the war. Much of what survives from these years is what the first crew photographed themselves: the flight deck, the arresting gear crew, faces on a ship that was only a few months old.

Redesignated CV(N)-31, she embarked Night Air Group CVG(N)-91 and joined Task Force 38 on 4 June 1945, flying strikes against Hokkaido, Honshu, and Shikoku through the summer. She anchored in Tokyo Bay on 16 September, seventy-eight consecutive days after leaving port, then made two Magic Carpet runs carrying 7,817 troops home before going into reserve in January 1947.