Welcome

to

The Mystery Ship

    Christmas 1944   

These pages are dedicated to the Ladyship, Shangri-la, her plankowners and all following crews.

I dont have the patches, I dont have the "official" pictures.  What I do have is love and respect for this Lady and her crews everywhere.  

Oh yes, I have a trunk full of memories to share with you.

My father, Ralph P. Wilcox, was a plankowner on this fast carrier.  He served proudly aboard her during WWII from her Christening until March 1946.  Everything he did from that day forward was measured against that privilege, for truely,

a privilege is what he considered it.

Ralph Wilcox  1918-1977

Post card, send from Great Lakes Naval Training Center,

June, 1944

May you always have fair winds and following seas.

"On The Horizon"

September, 1944
The new aircraft carrier, Shangri-La, is the first United States Ship to bear this name.
The name, Shangri-La, was assigned to her in an announcement, from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, on Aug 16, 1943. It originated from the historic bombing raid on Tokyo, April 18, 1942, when Major General James H. Doolittle, then a Lieutenant Colonel, led 16 Army B-25 medium bombers against the Japanese in their home land.
The Planes took off from an aircraft carrier 800 miles from Tokyo, the first time that Army bombers ever took off in numbers from an aircraft carrier of the Navy. The fact that the planes flew from a carrier was withheld when the story of the raid was released. When President Roosevelt was questioned at a press conference, about this mission, he replied that the Tokyo bombers took off from a new secret base in "Shangri-La." Shangri-La is the fictional land created by James Hilton in his book "Lost Horizon."
Money to build this ship was raised through nation-wide purchase of War Bonds and Stamps in a special "Shangri-La" drive by persons who desired to see the mystery ship become a reality.

From the Ship's Paper ,"The Horizon" the USS Shangri-La, Commissioning Edition, September, 1944
J. D. Barner, Captain, USN, Commanding
J. F. Quilter, Comdr., USN, Executive Officer
Editor...............................P. L. Mitchell, Chaplain, USNR
Asst. Editor......................P. Martineau, Chaplain, USNR
Sports Editor....................S. W. Peffls, Lieut., USNR
Art Editor.........................V. E. Swinford, MM1c
Photographer....................B. A. McLawhorn, Photo.
Printer..............................A. Juskis, Prtr1c

"On The Horizon"

Greetings from James Hilton
Captain J. D. Barner, USN
Commanding Officer
U. S. S. Shangri-La
Eleven years ago walking late at night near St. Paul's Cathedral, London, I tried to think of a suitable name for a place in a novel I was then writing. It was to be a place of beauty and peace and presently the name came to me: SHANGRI-LA. As I walked on that night knowing that I had made the right choice I thought of Shangri-La a great deal but one I never did imagine, even in my wildest dreams, was an aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and yet today the name in this connection seems doubly right for the Shangri-La as I saw for myself at the launching is a ship of great beauty and I know that the Shangri-La will help to bring peace to the world.
May that peace come soon and may the Shangri-La sail the seas happily, gloriously, and in victory.
James Hilton (Author: "Lost Horizon") from the Commissioning edition, "The Horizon" Sept 1944

Navy Day, October 27, 1945

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