USS Vincennes (CL-64)

USS Vincennes (CL-64): A Name Carried Forward

Commissioned on 21 January 1944, USS Vincennes was a Cleveland-class light cruiser, and the second ship to carry that name during World War II, commissioned while her predecessor CA-44 was still fresh in memory, lost at Savo Island in 1942. Naming her successor carried a message: the name would not die with a single ship. The Navy would carry it forward into new battles.

Vincennes CL-64 was originally laid down under the name Flint before being renamed to honor the sunken heavy cruiser. She entered the Pacific campaign in mid-1944, joining the fast carrier task force operations that were driving the Central Pacific offensive toward Japan. By the time she arrived, the character of the Pacific War had shifted, American naval and air superiority was firmly established, and the task was pressing that superiority home against an enemy that refused to surrender.

Vincennes participated in the operations around the Philippines in 1944, contributing to the naval operations that supported MacArthur's return to Luzon. She was part of the task force screening operations during the Philippine campaign and contributed to the carrier strikes against Japan's ability to defend its remaining Pacific positions.

In 1945, Vincennes participated in strikes against the Japanese home islands themselves, operations against Kyushu, Honshu, and the naval facilities at Kure that brought the war home to Japanese territory. She was part of the final naval campaign that preceded the dropping of the atomic bombs and Japan's surrender. Six battle stars for a ship that carried a lost name back to the fight and honored it.

Vincennes was decommissioned on 10 September 1946. Tactically Acquired's USS Vincennes (CL-64) collection honors both the name and the crew of the ship that carried it forward when others might have let it rest.