By 1945, the United States had become, in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s celebrated phrase, “the great arsenal of democracy.” One of the most potent weapons in this arsenal was the Essex-class aircraft carrier, 20 of which were launched in the course of World War II. These 27,100-ton flattops, each stretching the length of nearly three football fields and carrying 90 t0 100 warplanes, were built, on average, in just a little over 18 months, a remarkable accomplishment. Not a single carrier in this class was lost.
But for Princetonians, it was the decision to name one member of the Essex class Princeton that affirmed the resilience of American naval power.
All told, six U.S. warships have commemorated the Revolutionary Battle of Princeton; the fourth, an Independence-class aircraft carrier, was destroyed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, two years after being christened by Margaret Dodds, wife of Princeton’s 15th president. In the wake of this loss, the Essex-class Valley Forge, then under construction, was renamed Princeton, and on July 8, 1945, it, too, was christened by Mrs. Dodds.
In a further mark of continuity, its first captain was John M. Hoskins, who had lost his foot in the attack on the fourth USS Princeton as he was preparing to assume command. Both he and Mrs. Dodds addressed a crowd of about 60,000 people at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the future vice admiral promising that Princeton’s crew would do “all in their power to avenge that marvelous fighting ship of the same name.”
But what was hailed by The Princeton Bulletin, the wartime successor to The Daily Princetonian, as the “first step on its long journey to the land of the rising sun” was one voyage it would not complete. A month later, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by atomic bombs, heralding the end of World War II. With the Princeton commissioned Nov. 18, 1945, its future would instead be shaped in the waters of Korea and Vietnam.
John S. Weeren is founding director of Princeton Writes and a former assistant University archivist.
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6 Responses
Stanley Goldfarb ’65
7 Years AgoUnderestimating Students
In reading the July 12 issue of PAW back to front, I first encountered a truly emotional and inspiring image of the aircraft carrier Princeton launching into action (That Was Then). It perhaps carried some of the brave Princetonians who helped win the titanic struggle of World War II.
Then I found Provost Deborah Prentice’s interview (On the Campus), wherein she discusses eliminating the University policy to stop grade inflation. I understand that having such a policy while every other college in America has a pro-grade inflation policy put Princeton students at a disadvantage when applying for graduate-school positions. However, to attribute the recision of the policy to reducing stress is to conflate hard work and the satisfaction of demonstrating true mastery of a subject with real stress like those young men faced when heading into the Pacific theater in 1945.
This indulgence of avoiding stress may be the worst legacy that we are transmitting to the next generation. It underlies all of the tumult that has occurred on campuses around the country and may play a role in the uneasiness about the future that is commonly heard.
I think we are greatly underestimating the capacity of our students and indulging our own need to be liked by making stress reduction a new goal of an education.
Stewart A. Levin ’75
7 Years AgoWhat A’s Should Represent
An A, in my opinion, should represent mastery of the coursework. If every student masters the material, they should all get an A. Those that go above and beyond would receive A+. Quotas make no sense under this grade interpretation.
Henry F. Merritt ’48
6 Years AgoThe Value of Stress
Published online Jan. 4, 2018
Stanley Goldfarb ’65’s letter (Inbox, Oct. 4), discussing student stress, rang my bell. Stress is part of life. Some is unavoidable — tragedy, pain, etc. — but most types involve matters that a person is capable of addressing and handling with degrees of success.
Throughout my life, when contemplating my education, I think first of the challenge of Princeton’s requirement of a senior thesis for an A.B. degree. In junior year, the thought overwhelmed me. I suffered the stress of deep despair that I would be unable to complete a task that I believed to be unachievable. But when I realized that all of my classmates in the liberal-arts program were faced with the same challenge, and that, indeed, so many earlier classes had achieved this level of scholarship, my stress was greatly alleviated and converted to the effort to complete the task. It was simply my realization that, as we said in those days, I had to “pull up my socks and get on with it!”
In these times of various types of “stress” — social and otherwise — permeating the college-age group, I think it is a grave mistake for the University to seek to minimize “stress” in the student body. Experiencing some forms of stress is critical to educating those who must engage in the present complex matters of domestic and global dynamics.
As to stopping grade inflation: First off, I have always thought that the ’60s theme “Everybody’s Beautiful” (and should win a prize for just showing up) was damaging to recent generations. We humans like honest, deserved, stratified recognition levels of achievement. There should be “winners” and “losers.” The concept is ingrained in human society — certainly in American culture.
And as to the practical problems of honest grades penalizing Princeton undergraduates’ acceptance in the so-called “best” institutions of advanced degree, we should realize that in the recent past (perhaps since the end of World War II and the coming of the G.I. Bill to support advanced education for all veterans), the expansion of educated American youth has produced many excellent institutions of advanced learning and accreditation — in law, medicine, business, education, engineering, etc. — which will welcome students with less than a 4.0 college average.
So, Princeton, by all means seek to foster honest, respectful student debate and personal relationships among the student body. In such an environment, they will inter alia to a great degree educate themselves. They will be better able to contend with the world as they find it.
Norman Ravitch *62
6 Years AgoIt is the unwillingness of...
It is the unwillingness of Americans to accept stress and work through it, and to find it also a potentially positive thing, which is responsible for the widespread use of drugs and for the opioid crisis. Life has never been easy or stressless, and the sooner one recognizes this, the better. Unfortunately, Americans are raised in the belief that life can and should be beautiful, at least those raised in bourgeois households with helicopter parents. Bourgeois values used to recommend hard work, self-reliance, struggle and self-control, but as a friend recently deceased once told me, the trouble with bourgeois values is that the bourgeoisie doesn't practice them any more.
Tammy Glass
5 Years AgoTime for More Research
“It is the unwillingness of Americans to accept stress & work through it, and to find it also a potentially positive thing, which is responsible for the widespread use of drugs and for the opioid crisis.”
If this is truly your explanation for the "opioid crisis," then you’re simply showing your ignorance regarding this subject. I suggest you do proper research and better educate yourself before making such comments.
Vince Lee ’60 *66
7 Years AgoServing on the Princeton
Thanks for “The Promise of the Princeton” (That Was Then, July 12). With a regular commission in the Marine Corps from Princeton NROTC in 1960 (congratulations on its return), I found myself standing at parade rest with my rifle platoon on the Princeton’s flight deck one evening in about 1962. The entire battalion had been formed up to hear President John F. Kennedy’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly about Cambodia, piped over the 1MC (squawk box). Prince Sihanouk was our man there trying to keep it from going Communist, but not to worry, said JFK: “We have Marines ready to land at a moment’s notice if there’s any trouble.” The ship was then converted to helicopters, so the threat was technically feasible. Behind me, I heard several of my men ask, with some urgency, “Lieutenant, is he talking about us!?” He was, but Cambodia held out and the battalion went ashore some months later in Vietnam instead.