USS Topeka (CL-67)

USS Topeka (CL-67): Kansas's Cruiser in Two Wars

Commissioned on 23 December 1944, USS Topeka was a Cleveland-class light cruiser that fought in the final months of World War II and then, after conversion to a guided missile cruiser, fought again in Vietnam, earning battle stars in two conflicts separated by two decades and a complete technological revolution in naval warfare. She is one of only a handful of American warships to earn combat awards in both World War II and Vietnam.

Topeka entered the Pacific campaign in early 1945, participating in carrier task force operations during the final drive against Japan. She earned two battle stars for operations including strikes against the Japanese home islands and support for the Okinawa campaign. She was part of the sustained naval pressure that, combined with the atomic bomb attacks in August 1945, brought Japan to the surrender table.

After World War II, Topeka was decommissioned and placed in reserve. Like Springfield, she was selected for conversion to a guided missile cruiser in the late 1950s, recommissioned as CLG-8 in 1960, armed with Talos surface-to-air missiles. As a guided missile cruiser, she served in Cold War operations that brought American naval power into a new technological era.

When the Vietnam War escalated in the mid-1960s, Topeka operated off the Vietnamese coast as part of the naval forces supporting operations ashore. She earned three battle stars for Vietnam service, conduct that placed her in the small company of American warships that fought in both the Second World War and a subsequent conflict. Three Vietnam battle stars for a ship that had already proven herself in the Pacific.

Topeka was finally decommissioned on 27 June 1969. Battle stars in two wars, four decades of naval service, and a career that spanned the gap between the battleship age and the nuclear age. Tactically Acquired's USS Topeka (CL-67) collection honors a ship that served through American naval history's most transformative era.