V-4 Tip Top Division January 1961 (Award Plaque)

Pensacola, FL (?): United States Navy, USS Antietam, 1961. Presumably one of a kind for the month of January, 1961 but periodically awarded. Hardcover. Good. Format is approximately 12.5 inches at its tallest and 10.25 inches at its widest. It is a wooden plaque shaped like a shield, with a large USS Antietam patch largely centered on the shield and above a brass approximately 4 inch by 2.5 inch plate engraved with "V-4 Tip Top Division January 1961". This was clearly an award for sustained excellence and recognized the V-4 Division's superior performance for the month of January 1961. It was during this time period that the USS Antietam's home port was shifted to Pensacola, Florida after channel improvements had been completed. This types of unit performance awards are becoming increasingly scare as they become property of military and naval museums and fewer and fewer remain in the hands of individual collectors. USS Antietam (CV/CVA/CVS-36) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the American Civil War Battle of Antietam (Maryland). Antietam was commissioned in January 1945, too late to serve actively in World War II. After serving a short time in the Far East, she was decommissioned in 1949. She was soon recommissioned for Korean War service, and in that conflict earned two battle stars. In the early 1950s, she was redesignated an attack carrier (CVA) and then an antisubmarine warfare carrier (CVS). After the Korean War she spent the rest of her career operating in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean. From 1957 until her deactivation, she was the Navy's training carrier, operating out of Florida. Antietam was fitted with a port sponson in 1952 to make her the world's first true angled-deck aircraft carrier. However, she received no major modernizations other than this, and thus throughout her career largely retained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex-class ship. She was decommissioned in 1963, and sold for scrap in 1974. In late November, 1951 USS Antietam began the only combat deployment of her career. During that tour, she made four cruises with Task Force 77 (TF 77), in the combat zone off the coast of the Korean peninsula. In between fighting assignments, she returned to Yokosuka, Japan. During each of those periods, her air group carried out a variety of missions in support of United Nations forces combating North Korean aggression. Those missions included combat air patrol, logistics interdiction, particularly against railroad and highway traffic, reconnaissance, antisubmarine patrols, and night heckler missions. From late November 1951 to mid-March 1952, Antietam's air group flew nearly 6,000 sorties of all types. She returned to Yokosuka on 21 March 1952 at the conclusion of her fourth cruise with TF 77 to begin preparations for her voyage back to the United States. In January 1959, after the deepening of the channel into Pensacola had been completed, Antietam's home port was changed from Mayport to Pensacola. For the remainder of her active career, the carrier operated out of Pensacola as an aviation training ship. The deck of the Antietam served as the launching pad for the stratospheric balloon flight of Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, both of the United States Navy, on 4 May 1961. This flight set an absolute official altitude record for manned balloons of 113,740 feet. The flight took place over the Gulf of Mexico. During recovery, Prather slipped from the rescue helicopter's lifting harness and fell into the ocean; he died from his injuries onboard Antietam. Commander Ross was successfully recovered. On two occasions, she provided humanitarian services to victims of hurricane damage. The first came in September 1961 when she rushed to the Texas coast to provide supplies and medical assistance to the victims of Hurricane Carla. The second came just over a month later when she carried medical supplies, doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel to British Honduras to help the victims of Hurricane Hattie. Otherwise, she spent the final four years of her naval career in naval aviation training duty out of Pensacola.