USS Los Angeles (CA-135)

The third USS Los Angeles (CA-135) was a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser, laid down by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, on 28 July 1943 and launched on 20 August 1944. She was sponsored by Mrs. Fletcher Bowron and commissioned on 22 July 1945, with Captain John A. Snackenberg in command.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Los Angeles.

USS Los Angeles (CA-135) in the Far East, 13 October 1952
History
United States
Name: Los Angeles
Namesake: City of Los Angeles, California
Builder: Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia
Laid down: 28 July 1943
Launched: 20 August 1944
Commissioned: 22 July 1945
Decommissioned: 9 April 1948
Recommissioned: 27 January 1951
Decommissioned: 15 November 1963
Stricken: 1 January 1974
Identification: Hull symbol: CA-135
Motto:
  • Non Sibi Sed Patriae
  • ("Not for self, but for country")
Honors and
awards:		 5 battle stars (Korea)
Fate: Sold for scrap to Terminal Island's National Metal and Steel Corp. on 16 MAY 1975 for $1,036,089
General characteristics
Class and type: Baltimore-class heavy cruiser
Displacement: 13,600 long tons (13,818 t)
Length: 674 ft 11 in (205.71 m)
Beam: 70 ft 10 in (21.59 m)
Draft: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement: 1,142 officers and enlisted
Armament:
Aircraft carried: Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk floatplane
Official nameUSS Los Angeles Naval Monument (John S. Gibson Jr. Park)
Designated3 May 1978
Reference no.188

Service history

1944–1948

After shakedown out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Los Angeles sailed on 15 October for the Far East via the west coast and arrived at Shanghai, China, on 3 January 1946. During the next year she operated with the 7th Fleet along the coast of China and in the western Pacific to the Marianas. She returned to San Francisco, California, on 21 January 1947, and was decommissioned at Hunters Point on 9 April 1948, and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

1951–1953

Los Angeles was recommissioned on 27 January 1951, Capt. Robert N. McFarlane in command. In response to the American efforts in the Korean War, she sailed for the Far East 14 May and joined naval operations off the eastern coast of Korea on 31 May as flagship for Rear Admiral Arleigh A. Burke's CRUDIV 5. During the next six months she ranged the coastal waters of the Korean Peninsula from Hungnam in the east to Haeju in the west while her guns pounded enemy coastal positions. After returning to the United States on 17 December for overhaul and training, she made her second deployment to Korean waters on 9 October 1952 and participated on 11 October in a concentrated shelling of enemy bunkers and observation points at Koji-ni. During the next few months, she continued to provide off-shore gunfire support for American ground operations, and cruised the Sea of Japan with fast carriers of the 7th Fleet. While participating in the bombardment of Wonsan late in March and early in April 1953, she received minor damage from enemy shore batteries, but continued operations until sailing for the west coast in mid-April. She arrived at Long Beach on 15 May.

1953–1963

Between November 1953 and June 1963 Los Angeles made eight more deployments to the Far East where she served as a cruiser division flagship with the 7th Fleet in support of "keeping the peace" operations in that troubled part of the world. Her operations sent her from the coast of Japan to the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, and the East and South China Seas; and with units of the 7th Fleet she steamed to American bases in the Philippines and Okinawa, as well as to Allied bases in South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, and Taiwan. During the Quemoy-Matsu crisis in 1956, she patrolled the Taiwan Strait to help protect ROC Army units from possible landing offenses from Communist China. When not deployed in the western Pacific, Los Angeles operated out of Long Beach along the west coast and in the Pacific to the Hawaiian Islands. She returned to Long Beach from her final Far East deployment on 20 June 1963.

Decommissioning and sale

While some consideration was made to convert Los Angeles into a single-end Talos missile cruiser, with flagship facilities (in essence a heavy cruiser version of the Oklahoma City) funds were not appropriated for this, (or for a general overhaul to enable her continued fleet service), so she was decommissioned at Long Beach on 15 November 1963 and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego. Stricken on 1 January 1974, and sold on 16 May 1975 (sale #16-5049) to the National Steel Corporation for $1,864,380.21, and scrapped in San Pedro, California.

The flying bridge and a small portion of the bow section of the Los Angeles is on display at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro, CA.

  • USS Los Angeles was featured in The Adventures of Tintin comic The Red Sea Sharks by Hergé. She is shown patrolling in the Red Sea and is involved in the rescue of Tintin and his friends from a post-war Type II U-boat operated by slave traders.
  • In a scene (approximately 47:40–53:00) from the 1977 film MacArthur depicting a Pearl Harbor shipboard strategy meeting between President Roosevelt, Nimitz, and MacArthur, a painting of the USS Los Angeles is clearly seen on the bulkhead.

Awards
  • Occupation Germany/Japan
  • Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
  • World War II Victory Medal
  • China Service Medal *2 Jan - 30 Aug 46

31 May-14 Jun 51 K5

27 Jun-8 Jul 51 K5

9-29 Jul 51 K6

8 Aug-5 Sep 51 K6

19 Sep-18 Oct 51 K6

31 Oct-27 Nov 51 K6

28-29 Nov 51 K7

11 Oct-4 Nov 52 K8

21-30 Nov 52 K8

1-17 Dcc 52 K9

31 Dec 52-27 Jan 53 K9

10 Feb-5 Mar 53 K9

20 Mar-23 Apr 53 K8

Only one star is authorized for participation in one or more engagements with the same code.

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References
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