USS Chicago (CA-136/CG-11) was a heavy cruiser laid down on 28 July 1943 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, by the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Launched on 20 August 1944, she was sponsored by Mrs. Edward J. Kelly, wife of the Mayor of Chicago, Illinois, and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 10 January 1945, Captain Richard R. Hartung, USN, in command. She served in some of the last battles around the Japan home islands in WWII, and as part of the post war occupation fleet. Decommissioned after the war, she was refitted as a missile cruiser beginning in the late 1950s and recommissioned in 1964, serving during the Vietnam War. She served until 1980.
World War II Chicago spent her first six weeks preparing for sea duty before departing on 26 February 1945 for Norfolk. After conducting training exercises, and calibrating her compasses in Chesapeake Bay, the cruiser got underway on 12 March for the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad. Arriving on 18 March, the cruiser conducted shakedown training and shore bombardment exercises off Culebra, Puerto Rico, before returning to Norfolk on 11 April. Following inspections and battle problem training, the cruiser sailed to Philadelphia for post-shakedown repair availability on 16 April.
In company with the destroyer , the cruiser departed for the Caribbean on 7 May, en route to the Pacific Ocean. Designed to operate offensively with strike and amphibious forces, Chicago spent her transit time conducting various anti-air drills, gunnery exercises, and radar tracking training. After refueling at San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 11 May, the ships spent three days conducting gunnery practice before departing for Colon, Canal Zone, on 15 May. With transit complete the next day, the ships arrived at Pearl Harbor on 31 May.
Following another period of gunnery, day battle, anti-aircraft, and shore bombardment exercises off Kahoolawe Island, the cruiser departed for Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, on 28 June. In company with the battleship , Chicago arrived at the atoll on 5 July and immediately refueled from . Underway that same day, with the destroyer , added for anti-submarine screen, the ships joined Rear Admiral Radford's Task Group 38.4 north of the Mariana Islands on 8 July.
Added to the anti-aircraft screen, Chicago guarded the Task Group's carriers as they conducted air strikes against the Tokyo Plains area, Honshū, Japan, on 10 July. After refueling on 12 July, the Task Group returned to the Japanese coast and launched air strikes against airfields, shipping, and railways in the northern Honshū and Hokkaidō areas the next day.
On 14 July, in company with the battleships , , , cruiser , and nine destroyers of Rear Admiral Shafroth's bombardment unit, Chicago closed northern Honshū to bombard the Kamaishi industrial area. At 1212, the cruiser joined the battleships in firing on the iron works and warehouses. Although heavy smoke obscured the target from the cruiser's spotting planes, the combination of pre-plotting the target through photo reconnaissance and radar positioning data allowed Chicagos guns to start fires in numerous buildings, several large warehouses, and among nearby oil tanks. At 1251, the cruiser's secondary battery guns began firing on a Japanese destroyer-escort type vessel. The escort was straddled and hit by 5 in shell fire, began smoking, and retired into the harbor. The Task Force retired at 1426, leaving the port under a pall of black smoke.
The following day, Chicago operated as "a temporary seaplane carrier" when the battleship transferred her SC Seahawk floatplanes to the cruiser. By hanging one plane over the side with the crane the crew was still able to launch a Seahawk from the catapult for spotting services. After replenishment operations on 16 July, the cruiser resumed screening the carriers as they launched air strikes over the Tokyo Plains, northern Honshū and Hokkaidō, and the Kure-Kobe area over the next two weeks.
On 29 July, in company with and several American battleships, Chicago participated in a night shore bombardment mission against the port of Hamamatsu. Using radar, and assisted by spotting planes dropping flares and rockets, the ships fired at bridges, factories and the rail yard for about an hour. Rejoining the Task Group five hours later Chicago once again screened the carriers as they launched air strikes against the Tokyo-Nagoya area.
Operations with the carriers, including a diversion to the south to avoid a typhoon, continued until 9 August when Rear Admiral Shafroth's bombardment unit returned to Kamaishi. The battleships, joined by Chicago, three more heavy cruisers and a Royal Navy light cruiser detachment, delivered another two-hour bombardment of the town before returning to the carrier task forces.
For the next six days, the cruiser screened the carriers as they launched continuous strikes against the Japanese Home Islands, until 15 August and the Japanese armistice. Chicago remained with the carriers until 23 August, when she departed for Japan. Anchoring in Sagami Wan on 27 August, and then moving to Tokyo Bay on 3 September, the cruiser supported the unloading of supplies and equipment for Third Fleet occupation forces.
Post-War After transferring 47 men and the Marine Detachment for duty at Yokosuka Naval Base, the cruiser remained in port until 23 October when she got underway for the demilitarization of the Izu Islands. Over the next twelve days, inspection teams helped the Japanese garrison on O Shima and Nii Shima demolish gun emplacements, artillery, ammunition and other military equipment on the islands. Three days later, on 7 November, the cruiser got underway for San Pedro, California.
After arrival on 23 November Chicago received an overhaul at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, before returning to the Far East. Underway on 24 January 1946, the cruiser arrived in Shanghai on 18 February for occupation duty. She remained there until 28 March as flagship of the Yangtze Patrol, and then sailed to Sasebo, Japan, where she became flagship of Naval Support Force, Japanese Empire Waters. The cruiser visited several other ports in Japan before clearing for the west coast on 14 January 1947. Moved to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the heavy cruiser was placed out of commission in reserve on 6 June 1947.
Rebuilt as missile cruiser
On 1 November 1958, Chicago was reclassified CG-11 and towed to San Francisco Naval Shipyard to begin a five-year conversion into a Guided Missile Cruiser. The ship was planned to be one of what became the Albany-class, named for the planned first ship of the class, . A total of three ships underwent the major conversion to the new configuration, although Chicago′s conversion took the longest, lasting 13 months longer than Albany and 20 months more than . Beginning on 1 July 1959, the entire superstructure was removed and replaced with new aluminum compartments, modernized electronic systems, and an improved Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) equipped combat information center. Representative of the new technological focus on guided missiles, Chicago was refitted with Tartar and Talos SAM stowage, loading, launching, and guidance systems. Two triple torpedo tubes, an ASROC launcher, two 5 in/38 cal guns, and two antisubmarine helicopters rounded out the cruisers' modifications.
Designed to provide long-range air, surface, and sub-surface defense for task forces, Chicago was recommissioned at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard on 2 May 1964, and was assigned to Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Nine of the US Pacific Fleet. Preliminary acceptance trials were conducted throughout the summer until 2 September, when Chicago officially joined the 1st Fleet as an active unit. Following sonar calibration and deperming in Puget Sound the cruiser arrived at her home port of San Diego, California, to begin weapons systems qualifications. Examination and evaluation of the new missile systems were completed by 2 December, following successful trials at the Pacific Missile Range off southern California.
On 4 January 1965, the cruiser shifted to Long Beach, California, to begin a series of shock tests off San Clemente Island. Equipment tests, as well as damage control exercises, were completed by mid-January. Chicago then departed the area for San Francisco for alterations, receiving upgraded Tartar missile systems and improved electronics. The warship returned to San Diego on 17 April.
For the next two months, Chicago continued shakedown training, engineering, navigation, and seamanship drills as well as missile and electronic exercises. In mid-June, the cruiser began Talos fire control developmental testing with the Naval Electronics Laboratory. This, and later tests, examined guidance improvements and experimented with missile replenishment at sea.
During fleet exercise "Hot Stove" in August–September, Chicago practiced anti-air and ASW operations, including firing ASROC and tube-launched torpedoes against submerged "enemy" submarines. Following an ECM exercise Chicago participated in a competitive missile firing exercise and won a gold Missilery "E" for her Tartar battery. During the first week of October the warship participated in another anti-air exercise, this time shooting down two high-speed, high-altitude drones with Talos and Tartar missiles.
After a cruise to Hawaii from 19 October to 3 November, during which the cruiser practiced tactical data sharing training with the aircraft carrier and destroyer , the ship finished out the year conducting tests and exercises in the San Diego area. Local operations continued in the spring, including more missile evaluation tests through February 1966. Returning to San Diego on 4 March the ship underwent operational readiness, technical proficiency, boiler, electronics, and nuclear warfare acceptance inspections. In April, the warship participated in Exercise "Gray Ghost," where the cruiser operated as tactical flagship for the anti-air warfare commander, Rear Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.
1st Vietnam deployment On 12 May 1966, Chicago got underway for her first Vietnam deployment. After stopping at Pearl Harbor and Yokosuka, where a new radar antenna was installed, the ship arrived at U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay on 12 June. Picking up her helicopter detachment the cruiser departed the next day for duty with Task Force 77 on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf.
From 15 June to 13 July, Chicago, call-sign Red Crown, began evaluating the concept of radar surveillance of all U.S. Navy air operations over designated areas of the Gulf and North Vietnam. Known as PIRAZ, for "positive identification and radar advisory zone", the initial duties of tracking friendly aircraft was expanded to include Air Force planes, controlling barrier combat air patrols, advising support aircraft, and coordinating strike information with the Air Force reporting center at Da Nang, South Vietnam. On 5 July a Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King search and rescue helicopter operating from Chicago rescued an A-4E Skyhawk pilot from who had ejected off the coast of North Vietnam on 4 July. After a port visit to Hong Kong, where the ship had to avoid a typhoon on 17 July.
On her second PIRAZ tour, from 29 July to 11 August, Chicago assumed the duties of anti-air warfare commander for short periods of time and demonstrated the ability of a CG to track complex air operations. After a practice Talos missile shot off Okinawa on 27 August, and a short visit to Keelung, Taiwan, the ship returned to PIRAZ station on from 7 September to 29 September. The cruiser, expanding air duties once again, soon became the primary source for MIG warning information, and assumed surveillance responsibility for the North Vietnamese-Chinese border. On her fourth PIRAZ tour, from 25 October to 12 November, the cruiser helped improve these procedures, particularly in the area of joint Air Force-Navy cooperation.