Shangri La (CVA 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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CAPTAIN HOPE STRONG, JR. commrmmue OFFICER The Commanding Officer is no stranger to SHANGRI-LA. As a pilot of VBF-5, flying F8's, he was aboard for her 1947 cruise to Australia. Captain Hope Strong, Jr., began his Naval career with the class of 1943 at the Naval Academy, graduating in 1942 in the first of the World War ll three year classes. He was a destroyer sailor for the first two years after graduation, serving in USS Shaw IDD-3732, seeing action during the fighting at Guadalcanal and in the Battle of the Santo Cruz Islands. A plank owner of USS NORMAN SCOTT iDD-6903 Captain Strong again returned to the Pacific Theater and fought in the Marshall, Gilbert, and Mariannas campaigns Aboard NORH MAN SCOTT, Captain Strong served as Gunnr-ry Officer, Exec' utive Officer, and for a short time as Commanding Officer when the Captain was killed. Captain Strong became a Naval Aviator in 1945. He rr-port' ed to Flight Training at the and of 1944, serving as a student Naval Aviator in Ottumwa. Iowa, Corpus Christi, Tomas. Son- ford, Miami, Jacksonville, Floridag and Los Alamitos, California Completing his tour with VBF-5 in June 19A8, he returned to Corpus Christi as flight instructor in the Naval Air Advanced Training Command KATU-21. Ordered to USS MONTEREY i'CVl.-263, he was Flight Deck Officer and then Navigator. In 1951 he become Executive Officer of VA-35. In this capacity he made his first deployment to the Mediterranean aboard USS LEYTE ICVA-322. From 1953 to 1956 he was assigned to the Armed Forces Special Weapons Protect, Washington, D. C. Captain Strong is proud of the insignia on the right shoulder of his flight iacketg it is the patch of VA-216. For two and one half years he was Commanding Officer of the Black Dia- monds, making two successive deployments to WestPac aboard the carriers HORNET fCVA-T22 and BENNINGTON ICVA-202. His next tour of duty was in the Personnel Plans Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations fOp-011. In 1961 he became Executive Officer of USS INTREPID ICVA-Ill, serv- ing in that billet until 1962. Returning to Washington, Captain Strong was ordered to the .Ioint Staff. He then attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, 1964-65. He was next ordered to USS CANIS- TEO TAO-992, as her skipper, deploying this time to the North Atlantic. On September 23, 1966 Captain Strong assumed command ol SHANGRI-LA. Five days later SHANGRI-LA was ordered to join the U. S. SIXTH Fleet in the Mediterranean. The Commanding Officer wears the Asiatic Pacific Theater Mr-dal with three stars, the American Theater Medal, the Amer- ican Defense Medal, the World War Il Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Medal, the Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with one star, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Bronze Star with Combat He was born in Brunswick, Georgia and is married to the former Miss Margaret Sloan Caldwell of Winter Park, Florida. They have three children: Hope III tPensacola-boundl, David fat Vvftderbilt Uftiversityt. and Susan lSweetheart of Woodson, virginia I-tight. Captain Strong's father served in the Navy in World War I. His brother, Dan, of Midland, Texas, did the same, World War II. His younger brother, Lieutenant Commander Willard Lee Strong, is currently on duty in the NATO command, Naples, Italy.

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