| A year and a half after her launching, Enterprise was commissioned on May 12, 1938, and set course for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for her shakedown cruise. She returned north to Hampton Roads that winter, then sailed south again on January 2, 1939, for fleet exercises in the Caribbean with sister ship Yorktown. Stopping briefly at Saint Thomas and Guantanamo Bay, the 2 carriers and their air groups were exercised under the steady command of United States Navy Rear Admiral William F. Halsey (October 30, 1882 – August 16, 1959), an aggressive commander whose affection for Enterprise and her men would eventually become legendary. Enterprise’s commander for her shakedown cruise was Captain Newton H. White, Jr. (August 22, 1885 – November 28, 1958), who was relieved by Captain Charles A. Pownall (October 4, 1887 – July 19, 1975) on December 21, 1938. Pownall deserves much credit for Enterprise’s high degree of prewar readiness; a preparation which even before the war earned Enterprise a reputation for efficiency. Under his command, Enterprise joined the Pacific fleet in April 1939, then based in San Diego, California. At that time, carriers were not the glamorous, news-making, head-turning ships they were to become just a few years later. Their officers were derided as “brown shoe Navy” (referring to the uniforms of naval aviation officers). Their crewmen were dismissed as “flattop sailors,” though in a few years that would become a term of respect and pride. Carriers were “barn doors on bathtubs.” Theodore Mason (July 27, 1921 – May 19, 2004), in his memoir “Battleship Sailor,” recalls sailing for the west coast with the battleship USS California (BB-44), in the company of USS Enterprise (CV-6): “As [Enterprise] pitched and rolled arthritically in the freshening seas, the flattop reminded me of a huge but decrepit old man with an entourage of bodyguards. If some seer had told me then that the Enterprise would steam to glory on one of the most brilliant combat records of any ship in the history of the navy, I would have given him the pitying smile one reserves for fools. From where I stood, it looked like she might have trouble reaching the West Coast.” In most Navy circles, strategic thinking held that carriers were to be used in support of ships-of-the-line: scouting, range-finding, and defensive air cover. The battleship, since coming of age at Jutland in 1916, was indisputably ruler of the seas. However, a few forward-thinking American officers, and many of Japan’s naval leaders, saw the carrier as an offensive weapon, its air groups as potent weapons with many times the range of the huge 14-inch (355 millimeter) and siteen-inch (406 millimeter) guns mounted by the fleet’s proud battleships. Her fame still ahead of her, Enterprise ploughed the seas between San Diego and Hawaii. Even at that time, she was a hard-working ship, as the other carriers scheduled to relieve her in rotation – Lexington, Saratoga and Yorktown – were frequently in dry-dock. For 2 years, Enterprise was almost continuously on duty, with only short breaks for barnacle removal, and for the filming of the movie “Dive Bomber.” In May 1940, Enterprise and much of the rest of the Pacific fleet were transferred to a new base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Intended to discourage Japan from aggressive moves southward, the transfer only angered and alarmed Japanese leadership. Nor was the move universally applauded on the American side of the ocean. Admiral James O. Richardson (September 18, 1878 – May 2, 1974), commander of the Pacific fleet, argued so strenuously against the move that he was eventually relieved of command. The move, however, did not greatly affect the routine on Enterprise. Under Halsey and Pownall’s command, Enterprise – along with USS Lexington (CV-2), the only other carrier based at Pearl Harbor – steamed off Hawaii, while her air group trained and her men drilled, again and again. As the darkening clouds of war cast long shadows over their lives, Enterprise’s men prepared themselves, and their ship, for a conflict that had been decades in the making. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1936.jpg |
| Image Size | 860.74 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2920 x 2024 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Navy |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 12, 1939 |
| Location | |
| City | San Diego |
| State or Province | California |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-80-G-463246 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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