Project by: Spencer Rosenblum (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Thomas Murphy
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Kara Luce

Description of the Project:

My final project was a poster detailing the general history of the ship as well as the history of different veterans from different jobs and times.

Final Reflection on Learning:

Reflecting on how much I learned this honors project is a little hard. In terms of the details I learned a lot of battle details and small details about the ship (such as damage it has taken in battles and ships it did damage to. However, I think there was a bigger thing I learned about the ship which is a greater appreciation of the ship. It’s easy to forget when visiting that the massive piece of steel you are standing on was the only home for 3000+ sailors for months at a time. The interviews I read also really emphasized to me just how much the ship means to each of those sailors. Even though some of them sailed on the ship over 75 years ago they still visit as often as possible and can still find the way back to their staterooms.

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

As I started my honors project a little late, my honors project was really only beginning when this progress update came out, however, I will use this progress report just to capture what I was thinking about coming into this honors project. Being a big fan of military history means that I have always loved visiting the intrepid. Some of my earliest memories include a birthday party I had onboard when I was just 3 years old. However, as much as I have always loved visiting the intrepid, I realized that I really don’t know that much about the history of the ship itself, and even more then that, the stories of the people who served onboard. During this project I hope to learn more about both of these groups, so that the next time I visit the ship, I will have a little bit more of an appreciation for the men who served on board.

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

Halfway through this honors project, I have just finished up studying the history of the ship! To do this, I invested time in researching the history of the ship in segments. For example: The WWII Segment, which was the history of the ship during its years fighting in the pacific theater of WWII. During this time, the ship assisted in many major “island hopping” landings, scored multiple ship sinking, and was even hit by multiple Kamikaze attacks as the war ended. The history of the ship is truly incredible hopefully the next time I visit the ship I will be able to appreciate what a key role in history the “Fighting I” has served.

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

As the project came to a close. I reached out to the Intrepid to try and interview some veterans, however, sadly do to the extraordinary time, the museum was unable to connect me to any veterans. However, the head of history at the Intrepid pointed me to their digital archive collections where (during the 75th anniversary of the ships creation) staff at the museum did in depth interviews with a number of different veterans from different years. Each interview was about 44 pages long and took about 4 hours to read so I decided to focus on 4 different veterans from 4 different times and jobs. This gave me a lot of perspective on both the history of the ship and what it actually meant to serve on board.