• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

CL-11 Trenton

USS Trenton, a 7050-ton Omaha class light cruiser built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in April 1924. Beginning in late May of that year, she cruised the Mediterranean and Red Seas and entered the Persian Gulf. After her return to the U.S. in September, Trenton operated out of Norfolk, Virginia. In mid-October she suffered a gun turret explosion that took the lives of several of her crewmen, two of whom were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic attempts to avert the tragedy.

Trenton went to the Pacific for fleet maneuvers in February 1925, remaining there to take part in the Battle Fleet's mid-year cruise across the Pacific to visit Australia and New Zealand. From then into 1928, the ship served mainly with the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic and Caribbean. She had two missions to Nicaragua during this time as part of efforts to bring peace to that troubled country. Returning to the Pacific in March 1928, she took part in Battle Fleet exercises and then steamed west to serve a year with the Asiatic Fleet. Trenton was assigned to the Scouting Fleet and the Special Service Squadron from 1929 until 1933, was in the Pacific in 1933-34 and had another tour in Latin American waters with the Special Service Squadron in 1934-35. She was back in the Pacific for Battle Force duty in 1936-39 and made a second visit to Australia in 1938.

In June 1939, Trenton became part of Squadron 40-T, serving in the Mediterranean area during and after the outbreak of World War II. She came back to the United States in mid-1940 and late in the year went to the Pacific, where she remained for the rest of her active career. In 1941-44, she was part of the Southeast Pacific Force, operating along the west coast of South America and among the Southern Pacific island groups. Trenton went to the much chillier environment of the Aleutians in mid-1944. For the next year she patrolled in the North Pacific, participated in anti-shipping sweeps and several times bombarded Japanese bases in the Kuril Islands area. Two months after the Second World War's end, the now-elderly light cruiser was sent through the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, where she was placed out of commission shortly before the end of 1945. USS Trenton was sold for scrapping in December 1946.