War in the Pacific
Commissioned on 16 August 1943, Intrepid joined the war in the Pacific. On 24 October 1944 her aircraft spotted the Japanese battleship Yamato and helped to sink the Musashi in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea. Kamikaze attacks on 25 November 1944 and 16 April 1945 cost the lives of 77 of her crew.
Recovering astronauts
In the early years of human spaceflight, Intrepid served as a recovery ship for NASA. She picked up Scott Carpenter after his Aurora 7 splashdown on 24 May 1962, and John Young and Gus Grissom after Gemini 3 on 23 March 1965.
A new life in Manhattan
After service in the Vietnam War, Intrepid was decommissioned on 15 March 1974. She opened as a museum at Pier 86 on 3 August 1982, and returned there in October 2008 after two years of restoration work in New Jersey.


