"Dirty Harry" Light Aircraft Carriers

[Don Martin]

I was watching the Clint Eastwood movie "Magnum Force" the other day and towards the end of the movie Dirty Harry takes on two two vigilante motorcycle cops on board two moth-balled light carriers. Just made me wonder which two they were. Anyone got a clue? Still had their wooden decks even.

[JohnB]

This was posted on the Internet Movie Database by a poster...so I make no claims to its accuracy.

"The two escort carriers were ex Rabaul (which was acquired by the navy after WWII but never commissioned and never saw service of any kind) and ex USS Badoeng Strait. (which was completed too late to serve in WWII but saw action in the Pacific - including combat in the Korean War)."

It says the two were docked at Point Molate.

[Don Martin]

Thanks John, I think I'll go digging in my books and see what I can come up with! Cheers!

[Jack Cook]

I the last scene were Briggs walks up all beat to hell just before he gets into
the car you get a quick shot of the stern and it say.....ANZIO ie USS Anzio CVE-57

[Don Martin]

Ah Jack, I shoulda known to ask you first! Always go to the source! Of course, I was on the phone at the end or I might have noticed..........or maybe not...........

[Jack Cook]

I've been wondering this for years and just happened to catch it the other day when I watched it.

[SaxMan]

I the last scene were Briggs walks up all beat to heck just before he gets into
the car you get a quick shot of the stern and it say.....ANZIO ie USS Anzio CVE-57

Navsource.org has the Anzio being stricken, sold and scapped in 1959, some 13 years before Magnum Force was filmed. Most of the Casablanca-class escorts were scrapped by the early 1960s, while the Commencement Bay-class, which the Rabaul and Badoeng Strait were part of, lasted until the early 1970s before they, too, fell too the cutters torch. Surprisingly, some of the older Bogue-class escort carriers found a new lease on life opearating as aircraft ferries through the Vietnam war. Apparently, they were more efficient to operate than the newer classes of escort carriers.

I'm inclined to agree with the IMDB poster on the identity of the carriers. Both carriers were sold for scrap in late 1971 - early 1972, putting them right about the time the movie was filmed.

It's a shame that no examples of an escort or light carrier exist. The NHC should be ashamed of themselves for letting the Cabot slip through everyone's fingers.

[Franklin]

I've been wondering this for years and just happened to catch it the other day when I watched it.

Would help if you stop worshiping CY and PB and climb out of your man cave from time to time ... Blow out the candles and take the photos off the wall Jack

[Tom Moungovan]

Location was the Red Rock Marina in Point Richmond, CA. I was living in the Point then and one of the other tenants in the apartment where I lived was working for the scrapper. He'd come home every afternoon bathed in sweat and asbestos.

[Jerry O'Neill]

BTW, many of the bridge pieces from these ships were saved and used in the film "Midway" and after the film the were donated to NASM and are on display in the Naval Gallery.
At least the Carriers still exist somewhere in small pieces.
Jerry