This U.S. Aircraft Carrier Fought Battleships, Picked up Astronauts and Fought MiGs

My first ship in a 23 year career. I served on was USS Kearsarge, CVS-33 from 1968-1970 and her home port at that time was Long Beach, California. She was sister ship to the Oriskany and of the Essex class. She took me to Vietnam in 1969 and we served o Yankee station in North Vietnam. Her keel was laid in 1944 and commissioned in 1945. she served in the Korean War, for which she earned two battle stars. In the late 1950s she was further modified to become an anti-submarine carrier (CVS). Kearsarge was the recovery ship for the last two manned Project Mercury space missions in 1962–1963. She completed her career serving in the Vietnam War, earning five battle stars. She was decommissioned in 1970 and sold fro scrap in 1974. I reported to her as an ETN-2 (E-5).

The USS Intrepid CV-11 was one of the many Essex class carriers. I was aboard the USS Oriskany CV-34 the last in the Essex class carriers. I arrived as an MMFN and left as a MM2 over three years later.

I visited the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point South Carolina in Charleston Harbor. I went there with my wife and my first child just before I deployed to Afghanistan. Is this the same aircraft carrier type? Thanks for the story!