USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)
Commissioned on 3 June 1945, Lake Champlain did not participate in World War II, but did serve as a transport, bringing troops home from Europe as part of Operation Magic Carpet.She set a speed record, averaging 32.048 kn, for crossing the Atlantic on 26 November 1945 when she arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, having completed a run from Gibraltar, a distance of 3360.3 nautical miles, in 4 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes.Bidding farewell to the Pacific Ocean on 27 October, she steamed toward home, touching at Colombo, Port Said, Cannes, and Lisbon before arriving Mayport, Florida, on 4 December 1953.The carrier operated off Florida and in the Caribbean until 15 June 1958, when she sailed on another Mediterranean cruise returning to her newly assigned home port, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, on 4 September.She sailed for the recovery area on 1 May 1961, and was on station on 5 May when Commander Alan Shepard was recovered, along with his spacecraft Freedom 7, after splashdown some 300 miles (480 km) down range from Cape Canaveral.The midshipmen acted as tour guides for visitors aboard and provided an honor guard ashore for then-VP Lyndon Johnson's speech in a local park.On 24 October, Lake Champlain joined in a classic exercise of sea power – the quarantine of Cuba, where the Soviet Union was constructing bases for offensive missiles.To block this grave threat, U.S. warships deployed throughout the western Atlantic, choking off the flow of military supplies to Cuba and enforcing American demands for the withdrawal of the Russian offensive missiles.After the American demands were substantially complied with, Lake Champlain sailed for home on 23 November via St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and arrived Quonset Point on 4 December 1962.The first half of 1965 found Lake Champlain performing training duties and conducting exercises up and down the East Coast, and on 19 January 1965, was the recovery ship for the uncrewed Gemini 2 mission.[citation needed] Lake Champlain completed her last major duty on 29 August 1965 when she served as the primary recovery ship for Gemini 5.
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