The USS Kearsarge (CV/CVA/CVS-33) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the third US Navy ship to bear the name, shared with peak that rises in the White Mountains in Merrimack County, N.H.. Kearsarge was commissioned in March 1946, and arriver at her homeport of Norfolk, VA, on 21 April 1946. On 16 June 1950, Kearsarge was decommissioned there for an SCB-27A modernization overhaul that would enable her to handle jet aircraft. After being modernized as an attack carrier (CVA), she served in the Korean War, for which she earned two battle stars. In the late 1950s she was further modified to become an anti-submarine carrier (CVS). Kearsarge was the recovery ship for the last two manned Project Mercury space missions in 1962–1963. She completed her career serving in the Vietnam War, earning five battle stars. She was decommissioned in 1970, and sold for scrap in 1974.