Attacks on Wake Island then followed and the Japanese mainland was next. Hancock joined the American fleet to assail airfields around Tokyo during July 1945. In August of that year, the war ended with the surrender of the Empire of Japan to the Allies. The carrier was part of the "show of force" at Tokyo Bay following the surrender and her planes made their presence known over the citizens of the destroyed capital city.
Hancock then took part in Operation Magic Carpet, bringing thousands of Allied servicemen back stateside to San Diego, California. With her fighting days seemingly over, the warship was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Bremerton, Washington in April 1945.
Through modernization, she became the first USN vessel to feature steam-based catapults for launching a new generation of jet-powered fighters during the early 1950s (she did not take part in the fighting of the Korean War (1950-1953)). The changes led to the ship being reclassified as "CVA-19". What followed was a period of exercises to which point she was once again decommissioned during April 1956 - taking on an angled flight deck during the down time.
Hancock was recommissioned into service on November 15th, 1956 and undertook additional training and deterrence sorties against Communist forces in the Far East. An overhaul followed in 1961 which added improved electronics. Another modernization followed in 1964. That same year, the warship was a deterrence at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin during the growing American commitment to the Vietnam War. Her warplanes eventually took part in patrols and direct strikes against enemy positions. A night exercise involving a Vought F-8 Crusader crashing into her deck caused a massive fuel fire which damaged the flight deck considerably (no lives were lost). Repairs were hastily made.
Her commitment in the war was temporarily halted in March of 1975 when she made her way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for new aircraft. Beyond Operation Eagle Pull and Operation Frequent Wind (the evacuations of Phnom Penh and Saigon, respectively), she ended her fighting days.
USS Hancock was decommissioned for the last time on January 30th, 1976 and struck from the Naval Register on January 31st of that month. Her stripped hulk was sold off for scrapping on September 1st, 1976 and the operation took part the following year.
Beyond the aforementioned Battle Stars (4 during her time in World War 2 and 13 for her commitment in Vietnam), the vessel and her crews earned various navy commendations and medals through their ocean-going career together - making her one of the more decorated warships of American Naval history.
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