{"title":"USS Louisville (CA-28)","description":"\u003ch2\u003eUSS Louisville (CA-28): Thirteen Stars, Zero Quits\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCommissioned on 15 January 1931 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, USS Louisville was built for the long haul, and the Pacific War proved just how long that could be. Over four years of combat from 1941 to 1945, she earned thirteen battle stars for World War II service, tying her with USS Pensacola for most among the Northampton class. She was the ship that refused to stay damaged.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLouisville was conducting neutrality patrols in the Atlantic when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and she made the transit to the Pacific in early 1942. Her combat service began with carrier escort missions and early raids against Japanese-held islands, gradually transitioning into the brutal amphibious support operations of the Central Pacific drive. She was at Guadalcanal, in the Gilberts, in the Marshalls, and at every significant island assault from 1943 forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHer reputation for toughness was earned the hard way. During the Leyte Gulf campaign in October 1944, she took a kamikaze hit that wounded 42 men and caused significant topside damage. She kept firing. In January 1945, during the Lingayen Gulf landings on Luzon, she was hit by another kamikaze, this one killing 36 men and wounding 56 more, including her commanding officer. The strike demolished her bridge and set fires throughout her upper works. Yet Louisville's crew controlled the damage, kept the ship fighting, and she remained on station to support the landings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo kamikaze hits, torpedo threats, shore battery fire, and years of continuous Pacific operations, Louisville absorbed it all and kept delivering naval gunfire support to Marines and soldiers fighting their way up the island chains toward Japan. Her thirteen battle stars span nearly the entire Pacific War, from the opening months through the final operations against the Japanese home islands in 1945.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShe was decommissioned on 17 June 1946 at Puget Sound. The men who served aboard her, who kept her guns firing after suicide pilots tried to put her out of action, deserve a ship in their honor. Tactically Acquired's USS Louisville (CA-28) collection is that tribute.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/tacticallyacquired.com\/collections\/uss-louisville-ca-28-merchandise.oembed","provider":"Tactically Acquired","version":"1.0","type":"link"}