This Day In Naval History: May 5
1943 - USS Permit (SS 178), USS Snook (SS 279) and USS Sawfish (SS 276) damage two Japanese ships and sink two freighters and a gunboat.
1944 - The hospital ship, USS Comfort (AH-6), is commissioned at San Pedro, Calif., and is the first ship to be manned jointly by U.S. Army and U.S. Navy personnel.
1948 - Fighter Squadron Seventeen A (VF-17A), with 16 FH-1 Phantoms, becomes the first carrier-qualified jet squadron in the U.S. Navy.
1961 - Cmdr. Alan Shepard Jr. makes the first U.S. manned space flight. USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) recovers the capsule after the 15 minute flight.
1979 - USS Robert E. Peary (FF 1073) rescues 440 Vietnamese refugees from their disabled craft 400 miles south of Thailand.
2007 - USS Hawaii (SSN 776) is commissioned at Groton, Conn. The Virginia-class submarine, the first to be named after the Aloha State, arrives at its homeport of Pearl Harbor July 23, 2009 following her maiden underway period.
2012 - USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE 14) is launched at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, Calif. The Military Sea Lift Commands dry cargo ammunition ship honors the prominent civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who served in the Navy during World War II and later founded the National Farm Works Association, which becomes the United Farm Workers union.
(Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division)