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The first official history of the legendary aircraft carrier that fought in World War II and Vietnam and continues to serve as a major air and space museum in New York City

The USS Intrepid is a warship unlike any other. Since her launching in 1943, the 27,000-ton, Essex-class aircraft carrier has sailed into harm’s way around the globe. During World War II, she fought her way across the Pacific—Kwajalein, Truk, Peleliu, Formosa, the Philippines, Okinawa—surviving kamikaze and torpedo attacks and covering herself with glory. The famous ship endured to become a Cold War attack carrier, recovery ship for America’s first astronauts, and a three-tour combatant in Vietnam.
In a riveting narrative based on archival research and interviews with surviving crewmen, authors Bill White and Robert Gandt take us inside the war in the Pacific. We join Intrepid’s airmen at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, as they gaze in awe at the apparitions beneath them: five Japanese battleships, including the dreadnoughts Yamato and Musashi, plus a fleet of heavily armored cruisers and destroyers. The sky fills with multihued bursts of anti-aircraft fire. The flak, a Helldiver pilot would write in his action report, “was so thick you could get out and walk on it.” Half a dozen Intrepid aircraft are blown from the sky, but they sink the Musashi. A few months later, off Okinawa, they again meet her sister ship, the mighty Yamato. In a two-hour tableau of hellfire and towering explosions, Intrepid’s warplanes help send the super-battleship and 3,000 Japanese crewmen to the bottom of the sea.

We’re next to nineteen-year-old Alonzo Swann in Gun Tub 10 aboard Intrepid as he peers over the breech of a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun. He’s heard of kamikazes, but until today he’s never seen one. Swann and his fellow gunners are among the few African Americans assigned to combat duty in the U.S. Navy of 1944. Blazing away at the diving Japanese Zero, Swann realizes with a dreadful certainty where it will strike: directly into Gun Tub 10.

The authors follow Intrepid’s journey to Vietnam. “MiG-21 high!” crackles the voice of Lt. Tony Nargi in his F-8 Crusader. It is 1968, and Intrepid is again at war. Launching from Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, Nargi and his wingman have intercepted a flight of Russian-built supersonic fighters. Minutes later, after a swirling dogfight over North Vietnam, Nargi—and Intrepid—have added another downed enemy airplane to their credit.

Intrepid: The Epic Story of America’s Most Legendary Warship brings a renowned ship to life in a stirring tribute complete with the personal recollections of those who served aboard her, dramatic photographs, time lines, maps, and vivid descriptions of Intrepid’s deadly conflicts. More than a numbers-and-dates narrative, Intrepid is the story of people—those who sailed in her, fought to keep her alive, perished in her defense—and powerfully captures the human element in this saga of American heroism.

Average Customer Rating:

Intrepid: The Epic Story	Customer Rating:
I discovered this book on the Don Imus Show on RFD TV. A well written history of a great ship. A must for any history buff.

Real history that reads like fiction

Customer Rating:

My husband bought this because we're friends with one of the ace pilots who flew off her. I picked it up to read the parts about that friend and was hooked. Every page is a shining example of the fact that America is "the home of the free because of the brave". The authors have woven interviews with pilots and crew members, journals, and ship logs to make a very readable book that puts it's readers in the pilot seat for some incredible battle recollections. We had visited the Intrepid in New York in 2001. I wish I had the insight of this book to help understand that visit. We plan to go back to visit her again since the restoration. When we were there, we were overwhelmed with the docents' personal stories and the emotional reaction of the young people who were visiting with us. I'm ordering another copy for a "loaner".

Great Naval History

Customer Rating:

INTREPID appears, at first glance, to be just another book about a warship. Not until I got into it did I realize this was a story about people, many of them incredibly heroic. That this ship is still with us sixty-five years since she was commissioned is a miracle. Even more of a miracle is how she survived five kamikaze strikes, a torpedoing off Truk, fought her way through some of the greatest sea battles of all time, then soldiered through the Cold War and three combat tours in Vietnam. It's all here, told from the viewpoints of gallant Americans serving aboard a gallant ship. Highly recommended. FlyBabe, Satellite Beach, Florida

Gandt & White "Ace" It....

Customer Rating:

Another naval aviation book success from the computers of Bob Gandt and Bill White, a non-fiction one this time that already has been number 518 on the best sales list of Amazon.com after only three days on the street. This book was also selected by the Military Book Club as a primary selection in the near future. Despite the more than tepid review of "Publisher's Weekly" quoted above, "INTREPID" is a well written, tautly scripted military history written by a veteran naval aviator and commercial airline captain with over 30,000 hours of air time. His dialogue of the people involved in over 60 years of the USS Intrepid's history is either taken from tapes and manuscripts and interviews of those involved or derived from Gandt's deep knowledge and research of things naval, not contrived as claimed above by the "Weekly." The authencity is real, it is there, and it makes for first class reading as noted by other military authors above. The occasion of the totally renovated USS Intepid's return to the Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City's harbor is the underlying reason for this work, but it turns out to be much more than that. The over half a century of active duty service for this nation and as a living naval history center that all can visit makes Intrepid very special. And so is this book. Gandt and White, the latter the initial curator and now president of the Intrepid's museum site, have collaborated to write a truly definitive and gripping account of this famous vesel's career -- one so impressive that the U.S. presidential aspirant and former naval aviator who flew missions from the Intrepid, John S. McCain, wrote the foreward to this volume. For him to do so gives the reader a unique perspective as to the authencity of this brand new tale of the especial and very historic aircraft carrier. For all involved in this production, from publisher Random House to the two authors, to John McCain, who recognizes good naval aviation history when he sees it, the ultimate navy accolade: "Well Done!"