USS Flint (CL-97)

USS Flint (CL-97): Michigan's Anti-Aircraft Warrior

Commissioned on 31 August 1944, USS Flint was an Atlanta-class anti-aircraft cruiser that earned four battle stars in the final year of the Pacific War. Named for Michigan's industrial city, a center of American manufacturing that was turning out tanks, vehicles, and war materiel at a rate the Japanese could not match, Flint brought that industrial spirit to the Pacific in the form of 5-inch anti-aircraft guns that defended American carriers through the war's most intense kamikaze campaign.

Flint entered the Pacific campaign in late 1944 at the precise moment that Japanese strategy shifted toward kamikaze tactics, organized suicide attacks that represented Japan's last significant capability to threaten American naval forces. The anti-aircraft batteries of Atlanta-class cruisers became the primary defense against this threat, and Flint's crew spent the final year of the war in constant readiness for aircraft that flew directly at them with no intention of returning.

She participated in carrier task force operations through the Philippines campaign and the final drives against Japan's home islands in 1945. Four battle stars across less than a year of service represent sustained engagement in the Pacific War's most technically challenging final phase, where radar, fire control computers, and the skill of gun crews made the difference between hitting the kamikazes before they hit the ships.

Flint was decommissioned on 6 June 1947. Four battle stars for a ship that arrived for the war's hardest work, the kamikaze campaign, and performed it with the professionalism that won the Pacific War. Tactically Acquired's USS Flint (CL-97) collection honors Michigan's contribution to the Pacific campaign and every sailor who served aboard her.