The
USS Oriskany digital Cruise Book
Project

• My goal of having the entire collection of Cruise Books from the USS Oriskany available is now completed. Whether you are a former crewmember, have a friend or family member that was stationed on the Mighty "O" or are just interested in this ships history, you will enjoy these books.
   

•  If you have looked into getting one of these books in the past, you know how expensive that can be, either by finding an original book or getting a photocopy of it. That's where this project comes in. The USS Oriskany Cruise Book CD's I've created are in PDF file format and are being offered here at a very reasonable price. Each digital book is the same price regardless of it's size or rarity.
   

• These cd's are packaged in a dvd style case using the Cruise Book cover as the case cover label. You can see a few sample pages of each book by clicking on its cover below.
   

• If you are concerned about copyright issues, these Cruise Books are document reproductions that are not protected by copyright, privacy act or security classification, and that are held by the branches of the Naval Historical Center located at the Washington Navy Yard. The books that I have purchased for conversion were scanned by the Naval Historical Foundation, from copies at the Navy Department Library. To be as gentle with them as possible, the pages where not fully open when scanned to prevent damage to the spine of the book. In some cases, there are pages where a letter or two is cut off at the margin because of this.
   

• Below is a note from the Executive Director of the Naval Historical Foundation, Todd Creekman. The Foundation has been kind enough to add this web page to their "naval history links" section of their website. You can contact the Foundation by clicking on the link above.
   

• Several Cruise Books found here have been donated by former crewmembers for this project.

• Each Cruise Book cd will automatically start when it is inserted in your computers cd drive. A menu* will open that will let you view a readme first file, open the Cruise Book and even play some background music.
  
  *Please Note: This menu program works with Windows only. If you own a Mac, or have a Linux OS, you can  open the pdf files directly from the CD by exploring the disk.
                                                                                       

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
These Cruise Book pages are meant to be viewed side by side as you would with an open book. There are many pages where a photograph spans two adjacent pages. It's not necessary, but to enjoy these digital Cruise Books as they were originally laid out, you should make a change to your pdf viewer. This will be different depending on the version you have of Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

Ver. 7:
When the pdf file opens, click on "view" at the taskbar on top then scroll down to "Page layout". When another drop menu opens, select "facing". Now there will be two pages seen side by side as they should.

Ver. 8:
When the pdf file opens, click on "view" at the taskbar on top then scroll down to "Page Display". When another drop menu opens, select "Two-up" and "Show Cover Page During Two-up". Now there will be two pages seen side by side as they should.
(Thanks to Dale Howe for this info)

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

$24.95 + S&H

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

Extremely rare 1952/53 Cruise Book

Following carrier qualifications for Air Group 102, Oriskany departed San Diego 15 September 1952 to aid UN forces in Korea. She arrived Yokosuka 17 October and joined Fast Carrier Task Force 77 off the Korean Coast 31 October. Her aircraft struck hard with bombing and strafing attacks against enemy supply lines and coordinated bombing missions with surface gunstrikes along the coast. Her pilots downed two Soviet-built MIG-15 jets and damaged a third, 18 November.

Strikes continued through 11 February, heaping destruction upon enemy artillery positions, troop emplacements, and supply dumps along the main battlefront. Following a brief upkeep period in Japan, Oriskany returned to combat 1 March 1953. She continued in action until 29 March, called at Hong Kong, then resumed air strikes 8 April. She departed the Korean Coast 22 April, touched at Yokosuka, and then departed for San Diego 2 May, arriving there 18 May.

 

This book is 270 pages long. Following readiness training along the California coast, Oriskany departed San Francisco 14 September 1953 to aid the 7th Fleet watching over the uneasy truce in Korea, arriving Yokosuka 15 October. Thereafter she cruised the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, and the area of the Philippines. After providing air support for Marine amphibious assault exercises at Iwo Jima, the carrier returned to San Diego 22 April 1954.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

This book is 366 pages long. On this cruise, USS Oriskany arrived at Yokosuka from San Francisco 2 April 1955, and operated with the Fast Carrier Task Force ranging from Japan and Okinawa to the Philippines. This deployment ended 7 September and the carrier arrived Alameda, Calif. 21 September.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

This book is 152 pages long. This cruise took place prior to the addition of the angled deck You will see many familiar Ports of Call made during this cruise to WestPac.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

After 30 months of major modifications including the addition of an angled flight deck and steam catapults, USS Oriskany makes her first WestPac Cruise since 1956. This Cruise Book also celebrates the 100 year anniversary of Commodore Perry's arrival in Japan and the international treaty between Japan and the US.

 This Cruise had two books. One book was for ships operations and the second book was for crew photos. Both books are offered here as a single purchase.

View sample pages by clicking on the covers.

This book is 312 pages long. Oriskany deployed to the Far East with Carrier Air Group 16 embarked. She returned to San Diego 17 December 1962 for operational readiness training off the west coast.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

This book is 307 pages long. Oriskany deployed out of San Diego 1 August 1963 for Far Eastern waters, with Carrier Air Group 16 embarked. She arrived Subic Bay 31 August 1963; thence to Japan. She stood out of Iwakuni, Japan, the morning of 31 October enroute the coast of South Vietnam. There, she stood by for any eventuality as word was received of the coup d'etat taking place in Saigon. Prior to this cruise, President John F. Kennedy was aboard to witness an operational readiness demonstration on June 6, 1963. This book was donated by a former crewmember, Claire Veech.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

This book is 260 pages long. This cruise found the Oriskany at war for the first time since Korea. This is the cruise that Adm. (then Cmdr) James Stockdale, the C.O. of Carrier Air Wing 16, was shot down and captured. The Oriskany also had a Marine squadron aboard, VMF 212 Lancers.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

$24.95 +  S&H

This book is 260 pages long. This was Oriskany's 2nd combat tour of the Viet Nam war and it was during this cruise that the USS Oriskany suffered the fire that killed 44 men. This was the cruise I was aboard for and this is the Cruise Book I have donated.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

$24.95 +  S&H

This book is 259 pages long. This was Oriskany's 3rd combat tour of the Viet Nam war. This is the Cruise where Senator, then LCDR, John McCain was shot down and captured. This book was donated by Jim Phillips from USSOriskanyonline

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

$24.95 +  S&H

This book is 270 pages long. 1969 found the USS Oriskany making it's 4th combat tour of the Far East and Viet Nam.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

$24.95 + S&H

This book is 263 pages long. Heritage 70, won the Navy Wide CHINFO award in 1970, with a letter of congratulations from none other than President Richard M. Nixon. The annual CHINFO Merit Awards Program recognizes outstanding achievements in internal media products produced by Navy commands and individuals. The editor responsible for this was; LTJG Nicholas A. Basbanes. This was Oriskany's 12th Far East Cruise, and 5th combat tour. WESPAC 70 was the first cruise for Ron Thomas, the donator of this book.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

$24.95 +  S&H

"I remember taking off on the 71 Cruise, the forward starboard side bomb lift got torn off , due to one of the tugs loosing power, and we shot back into the pier. We thought we would be delayed and a huge cheer went up, but the captain came on the IMC, and said that we would have it fixed in Pearl. ...We Did."  -Ron Thomas

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

This book is 256 pages long. This is the cruise where the Oriskany lost her propeller...twice and spent time at Yokosuka, Japan shipyard drydock. This book has been donated by one of the crewmembers during this cruise, BT3 Dale Howe.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.

This book is 260 pages long. This cruise saw the Oriskany make a trip to Mombasa, Africa via the Indian Ocean. The crew had the rare experience of crossing the equator and to go through all the ceremonies involved in that ritual. This was also the first cruise since 1964 that USS Oriskany made during peacetime. This book was donated by former crewmember Dale Howe.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

This book is 195 pages long and was the "Silver Anniversary Cruise" for the USS Oriskany. This was also the last cruise prior to her decommissioning. This book was donated by one of the crewmembers during this cruise, HM3 Scott Zirger.

View sample pages by clicking on the cover.
 

$24.95 +  S&H