Originally laid down as one of six giant battle cruisers, the
Saratoga survived the 1922 Washington Disarmament Treaty's cutting
torch through her conversion to a new and seemingly benign type of
vessel-the aircraft carrier. She reported for duty off Long Beach,
CA in 1927 and for the next twelve years trained the men who would
eventually fight World War II. One of only three carriers on duty at
the outset of World War II, Saratoga, at one point, was the sole
American carrier available to Naval Aviation. She suffered two
torpedo attacks and a horrifying kamikaze attack, and was reported
sunk many times by the Japanese. Refitted as a night-attack carrier,
then relegated to the role of training carrier, Saratoga survived
the war only to be sacrificed in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini
Atoll in 1946. No carrier, or ship, played a greater role in
developing the men and tactics that became the massive force that
United States Naval Aviation.
