Spokes of a Wheel: USS Enterprise Memorial

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

USS Enterprise Memorial

There's a bunch of stuff that happened earlier this year I need to catch up on, and now's as good a time as any.

Right as the COVID-19 story was just starting to break on the east coast, I had plans to attend a bicycle trade show, CABDA East, in New Jersey on March 11th and 12th. I figured it was a good opportunity to touch base with some of my vendors and see what might be happening in the industry as a whole, since the big Interbike show had ceased a few years back.

I also thought this might be a good opportunity to check out a memorial that I'd wanted to see for a number of years - a memorial to the USS Enterprise, CV-6, the famous aircraft carrier that served in WWII. Aside from the historical significance of the ship, there's a personal connection as well. At the end of the war, the Enterprise was pressed into service for Operation Magic Carpet, where various warships were used to carry servicemen home from various theaters of war. My father, who served as part of the ground forces of the 8th Air Force in the UK and Ukraine, caught his ride home on the "Big E."

US Navy photo of bunks in hangar deck of USS Enterprise, just as my dad had described.

I discovered another connection to the Enterprise quite by accident. I grew up in Bowie, Maryland, and not far from there was a road called Enterprise Road, on which there was an Enterprise golf course, and a place call the Newton White Mansion. The golf course had a graphic on their sign that represented the 1960s nuclear powered Enterprise, so I assumed that was the connection to the name. That is, until one day when I helped a friend who was a DJ at a wedding at the Newton White Mansion and I saw the very large portrait of the WWII Enterprise over the fireplace. Suddenly, my memory clicked and I realized... Newton White was the very first captain of CV-6, the WWII Enterprise.

River Vale, NJ

Because of those connections, the Enterprise was a big part of my early interest in WWII history. I read Edward Stafford's classic The Big E in my early teens, and over the years have read and watched pretty much everything I could about the ship. She served in the Pacific theatre from beginning to end, taking part in almost every major carrier battle of the war. She only missed the Battle of the Coral Sea due to her mission to escort USS Hornet when the latter ship launched the Doolittle Raid bombers against Tokyo, and later missed the final air attacks on the Japanese home islands due to having been severely damaged by a Kamikaze off Okinawa. There was a time when she was literally the only US fleet carrier in the Pacific. Earning 20 battle stars and the only American ship ever awarded an Admiralty pennant by the Royal Navy, and with a war record second to none, you would think she would have been a shoe in to be preserved as a museum ship. Sadly, due to bad timing and a lack of funding, attempts to preserve her failed, and she was cut up for scrap in New Jersey, and only a few artifacts of this great ship remain.

River Vale, NJ

Thanks to the foresight of one man, Henry Hoffman, who supervised the scrapping, the stern plate of Enterprise was saved and spent many years at a little league ball park in River Vale, NJ. Apparently there was a tradition where a player who hit a ball into the outfield and hit the stern plate got a free hot dog at the concession stand. Not really a dignified position for such an important artifact. Fortunately, in the late 90s, the town decided to restore the stern plate and move it to a small memorial park adjacent to the library, which also houses a small display of Enterprise artifacts in a display case.

River Vale Library, NJ

While my plans to go to the trade show fell apart due to the COVID-19 outbreak, I still managed to carve out a few hours to drive up to River Vale to check out the park and library. I have to admit, as simple as it was, I found it very moving. I guess just the thought of all the men that served, all the conflict the ship saw... and the thought of my dad on that massive hangar deck, with thousands of other GIs, finally heading home after the war. Standing there and running my fingers along those letters on the stern plate really made a strong impression on me, and I'm so glad I finally got the chance to see it. I only wish the whole ship had been preserved.