Content area
Full Text
The Essex class carrier USS Intrepid was launched in 1943 and served in the defense of the United States for 31 years. During World War II, the "Fighting I" played a major role in the campaign to liberate the Philippines and saw action in the largest naval engagement in history: the battle for Leyte Gulf.
Despite suffering seven bomb attacks, five kamikaze strikes and one torpedo hit, Intrepid returned to haunt the Japanese in battle after battle. Among the enemy, her reputation for miraculous escapes earned her another nickname: The Ghost Ship.
After WW II, Intrepid was modernized with an angled flight deck to accommodate jet aircraft. During the 1960s, she served as a primary recovery ship for NASA, picking up both Mercury and Gemini space capsules. After three tours of duty in Vietnam, she finished her career by serving as an antisubmarine warfare ship tracking Soviet submarines during the Cold War. Intrepid was the oldest front-line carrier in service, and following her decommissioning in 1974, she was designated by Congress as the official U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Bicentennial Exposition Vessel at Philadelphia. In 1976 she celebrated the nation's and the Navy's 200th birthday.
As the Bicentennial drew to a close, it seemed as though the stroke of a pen would accomplish what vigorous enemy attacks never could. Intrepid's fate appeared to be the scrap heap. Could she possibly make one more miraculous escape?
Her salvation came at the hands of a man who was turned down by the Marine Corps for service in WW II. Zachary Fisher, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native, began working in construction at the age of 16 and sustained a leg injury which prevented him from active service. From those earliest days, Fisher was a strong supporter of the U.S. Armed Forces, drawing on his building skills to assist in the construction of coastal defenses for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Fisher Brothers, the building company founded by Zachary and his brothers,...