USS Santa Fe (CL-60)

USS Santa Fe (CL-60): She Pulled the Franklin Out of the Fire

Commissioned on 24 November 1942, USS Santa Fe was a Cleveland-class light cruiser that earned thirteen battle stars across the Pacific War, but her most heroic action wasn't a gun battle. It was a rescue, conducted under fire, that saved the lives of hundreds of men from one of the most catastrophically damaged American carriers to survive World War II.

Santa Fe fought through the standard Pacific campaign progression: the Solomons, the Central Pacific drive, the Marianas, Leyte Gulf. She was part of the fast carrier task force that defined American Pacific power in 1944 and 1945, her 6-inch guns ready for surface action and her anti-aircraft battery tracking Japanese aircraft attempting to reach the carriers she screened.

On 19 March 1945, off the coast of Japan, a Japanese aircraft dropped two bombs on the carrier USS Franklin, the most heavily damaged American carrier to survive the war. The bombs hit Franklin while her aircraft were being armed and fueled on deck, triggering massive secondary explosions that tore through the ship, killing over 700 men and leaving the ship dead in the water, listing, on fire, and seemingly doomed.

Santa Fe came alongside the burning, exploding Franklin at close range, closer than any prudent seamanship would dictate, and began rescuing survivors. Her crew rigged lines to the stricken carrier, pulled men from the water, and transferred some aboard while Franklin's crew fought the fires. The proximity to a ship that was intermittently exploding made the rescue operation genuinely dangerous. Santa Fe took some of the Franklin's crew aboard and provided assistance as Franklin slowly began to recover, eventually making it back to port under her own power.

Captain Harold Fitz of Santa Fe and his crew were credited with saving hundreds of Franklin's men. It was one of the most courageous ship-rescue operations of the entire Pacific War. Thirteen battle stars, and a rescue that defined what a warship's crew owes to those at sea beside them. Tactically Acquired's USS Santa Fe (CL-60) collection honors that extraordinary service.