USS Bennington CV-20, CVA-20, CVS-20 was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington.
home port san diego
i spent all 4 years on the benny boat when she was homeported at san diego.i found out if you left downtown san diego there was lots of places to go and things todoi was trying to write country music and found a second home in el cajon,spending lots of time with smokey rogers,an owner of valley music and the bostionia ball room. i was able to spend many weekends with him and his familyi will never forget how they treated me, a hillbilly from alabama away from home for the frist timei was like…
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Hi Harry, Sorry I have not gotten back to you sooner. I read through the story of the USS Bennington and will reread it again. I printed it and sent the link to a friend that wanted me to get orders to the ship. He joined it after the fire and the ship was in Long Beach. He was a Reservist Hospital Corpsman. I would still have liked to go aboard her as a crewmember and I would understand what my Dad went through though on a larger ship. The Myltiple Myeloma is giving me some problems. The last chemo I have gone off of. It treated me to extreme fatigue and I was sleeping for 15 hours. The end of last month I was up reading the paper and found that I did not understand the words in the paper so we rushed to the stroke center about 6 blocks away. They found that I had a non measureable thyroid and the effect was a minor TIA (Stroke) I am better now since I am taking some thyroxin.
Hope you are healthy and doing well. I have found 46 of my 'A' school members out of 62 for Hospital Corps. None of us was killed in Viet Nam and about 25 of us went with the Marines. Will try to keep up to date Shipmate, Terry
After we decommissioned the Bennington in Bremerton, I was then stationed on the USS White Plains AFS-4 for three tours to vietnam.and short trip to the Indian Ocean in Dec-Jan 1971.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-b/cv20.htm
there was also a boiler explosion in #1 fireroom in April 1953, killed whole boiler room crew.
http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2011-01/fire-down-below
Terry here is the story on the catapult explosion and fires.
Hi Harry, I am a Hospital Corpsman who tried to change orders with another Corpsman who was not happy being aboard the stateside USS Bennington. He had several Captains Masts pending and that put the cabosh on switching orders. I had orders to Viet Nam with the 3rd Marine Division where he had just come from and wanted to go back. I had another Corpsman friend that found out about him who was a reservist and he tried to make it work. I took a tour aboard the Bennington and she was in dry dock. Thy had just put in an excalator and were re-doing a lot of the ship. I think that an explosion aboard during flight operations did some real damage to the ship and killed some corpsmen who had a sick bay under the catapault. My faother was aboard a Jeep Carrier called the USS Gambier Bay during WWII. Sunk off Leyte Gulf he spent three days in the water waiting rescue. I always wanted to be a crewmember aboard a carrier with that history. I spent 3 years with the Marines instead as a Field Medical Service Tech. HM-2. Got out and became an Operating Roon Registered Nurse for 34 years. Retired disabled due to exposure to Agent Orange and resulting multiple myeloma. Like to hear about your experiences also. Terry
I was a BTFN in # 2 Fireroom, did refresher training and started loading out for westpac cruise when we got the word that we were to proceed to Puget Sound to mothball the old lady.
Was on board from 1969 when she was in dry dock in Long Beach, California, till the last light went out in 1970 in Bremerton, Washington