ENS Tadeusz (n) Lepianka, USNR A-V(N), 0-351659 of Fighting Squadron Eleven (VF-11) "Sundowners" lands aboard the USS Hornet (CV-12) on October 14, 1944 at 1749 without landing gear. F6F BuNo. 58596 F-35 was jettisoned at Lat 22-55N, Long 123-44.10E. ENS Lepianka received shell fragment wounds to his face and left forearm on a combat mission against enemy aircraft.
This video was produced by a USS Hornet Volunteer @GeorgeRetelas.
When you visit the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum you are literally “stepping into/onto history”. This ship was there at the forefront of WWII in the Pacific where her record of combat accomplishments is legendary. The USS Hornet finished her long career in the news again as she retrieved the Apollo 11 capsule and the astronauts who were the first humans to walk on the surface of the moon.
Today the USS Hornet Museum serves as a “living history” destination at Pier 3 in Alameda, where thousands of visitors walk through her “hatches” reliving history through the sights, sounds and even smells that are uniquely Hornet.
Since the adoption of our charter in 1998, The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum has become the preeminent Naval history museum on the West Coast. The USS Hornet is the only aircraft carrier in the United States that is recognized as a National and State Historical Monument as well a repository of over 240 years of American naval military and cultural history and achievements, offering extensive resources for national and international visitors alike.
The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum carries on a rich legacy of “Hornets”, as the first Hornet would become one of the most distinguished names in American naval history with her performance in the Revolutionary War. The first two ships in the new Continental Navy were "Hornet" & "Wasp".
