Valley Forge came home from Korea 70 years ago
On Dec. 1, 1950, for the first time since the outbreak of the Korean War, the aircraft carrier Valley Forge returned home to a tumultuous San Diego welcome. The respite for the ship and its crew was brief. The Valley Forge received new orders and sailed again for Korea on Dec. 6.
From The San Diego Union, Saturday, Dec. 2, 1950:
HAPPY S.D. THRONG HAILS VALLEY FORGE TUMULTOUS WELCOME AWAITS 3000 HOME FROM KOREA COMBAT
The carrier Valley Forge steamed home from Korean combat yesterday, bringing nearly 3,000 officers and men to a tumultuous dockside welcome at North Island.
The big gray flattop glided up the channel past Point Loma soon after 1 p.m., escorted by a swirling umbrella of more than 100 shore-based naval aircraft.
BACK AFTER 7 MONTHS
It was 7 months to the day since the “Happy Valley” had sailed from San Diego on what was to have been a routine peacetime tour in the Western Pacific.
A family throng estimated by the Navy at 4,000 persons waited on the Naval Air Station quay wall — waving, laughing, shouting greetings and weeping happily — as tugs nosed the 27,000-ton warship into her mooring at Berth O.
Bands blared, majorettes pranced, a party of Waves unfurled a mobile “Welcome Home” banner — and so many bluejackets jammed rails and portholes for a look that the Valley assumed a noticeable starboard list.
SPRAGUE WELCOMES
Speaking over a public address system from a stand banked with United Nations banners, Vice Adm. Thomas L. Sprague, commander of the Pacific Fleet Air Force, voiced the official “welcome home” and “well done” as lines were being made fast.
“Welcome to a great admiral, Adm. John Hoskins of Carrier Division 3,” he said. “Welcome to a great ship, the Valley Forge, and welcome to a great air group, Air Group 5.
“Your record in action has been an inspiration to all of us, but we grieve with you in memory of those who have not returned — those seven heroes who were called up by the Almighty to make the supreme sacrifice in the cause of liberty.
TRADITIONS KEPT BRIGHT
“It was fortunate for all of us that the Valley Forge was in Western Pacific waters when this latest threat to our principles broke into flaming war. You have led the attack against the enemy since the first days of this war. You have kept bright the best traditions of the naval service.
“Well done, and again, welcome home to this safe harbor of liberty, the United States of America.”
Other speakers including Graydon Hoffman, chamber of commerce president, who expressed “the welcome that is in the hearts of all the people of San Diego County.”
As soon as gangways were in place the Navy dropped any barriers to a free-for-all reunion, permitting hundreds of wives to go aboard on the cavernous hangar deck to greet their husbands.
REUNIONS ON DOCK
At the same time, officers and men poured down the fore and aft gangways for reunions on the dock. Some saw for the first time babies born while they were at sea.