Pinned post for Q&A :)

Oh yes, the classic "Let's antagonise combat weathered veterans in a bar" rookie mistake...

For those that don’t know, Chicago’s International Airport is named in honor of Butch O’Hare.

The fact that she was scrapped at war's end and not made into a museum ship is a tragedy.

I wonder how many people aged 83 or less directly owe their existence to Big E’s 1943 refit period.

My dad was aboard the Lexington when she went down on the Coral Sea. When the destroyer that fished him out of the water got back to Pearl. Dad headed straight to town to a bar that did not honor regulations on number of drinks served. While there he met a couple of Bull Halsey's staff and he told them about the air search screw ups and friendly anti aircraft fire. They set dad up with a interview with Halsey at the Hospital and dad was made a staff member and placed on the Enterprise for the Midway battle. and did quality control work for Halsey the rest of the war. And can be seen standing behind Halsey on the Missouri during Japans surrender.

If you consider how complicated all the wiring and plumbing of a ship is at launch, the idea that someone sits down and redesigns those to a massive extent for a refit like this is mind-boggling. Even more so that it only took months to physically complete.

Drach: "She had after all gained several thousand tons of additional weight"

Enterprise: "Does this new deck make my aft look fat?"

If anyone didn't know, the founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in the US, Jack Taylor, was an F6F driver on USS Enterprise (and USS Essex) during WW2.  He renamed the company from Executive Leasing Company in 1969.  The parent holding company, Enterprise Mobility, is the world's largest rental vehicle company.

The battles are well known, the “behind the scenes” history you present is not. Thank you for a very informative and enjoyable presentation.

This chapter feels like enterprise visiting her battered cousins in the hospital.

That's gotta be a strange feeling for the crew of Enterprise, having been fighting for so long and suddenly a bunch of Essexes show up. Kinda good but also kind of imposing as they're bigger and all.

I love you're continuing the story of this most illustrious ship, Drach. Thanks a bunch.

As an old carrier sailor I can tell you, just because she went to Pearl doesn't mean she stayed in port very long.  Naval aviators need to do carrier quals on a ship, so the Enterprise was at sea most of the time.  I'm sure ship's company was exhausted and the ship was beat all to hell.

"Oh say can you see?"
"NOT IN THIS DAMN FOG!"
"By dawns early light"
"What light? All i see IS FOG!"

Must have been surreal for the men who had held the line in late 1942 to return to Pearl less than a year later to see how much more powerful the Fleet had become in their absence.

"That belongs in a museum!" - Indy Jones

Must of been one crazy brawl.

Only USS Enterprise CV 6 is allowed that nicknamed "Big E"

I like the morale touches, ice cream and 30 day leaves.

I'm 71 years old but I still recall something a Navy Veteran of WWII in the Pacific told my Dad and I: ""As long as there is a ship named "Enterprise" on active duty there will be a U.S. Navy that can fight and win against any enemy." He was a Wildcat pilot who had transitioned to the Hellcat but this is what he told us about the Hellcat: "It was a really good fighter but by the time it had come along us Wildcat pilots had already killed off the best Japan had to offer......After that it was just target practice."

US Navy: Enterprise, you really need some rest.

Enterprise: Rest? What's that?