Origins: The Stopgap Sisters -- The Moo's veteran officers: McConnell and Price -- The Cowpens' Crew -- Air Group -- Cowpens Takes Her First Steps Towards the War -- Hawaii -- A Dress Rehearsal at Wake Island -- Cowpens' Baptism by Fire at Wake -- Back to Pearl: Cowpens' Jinx Strikes Again -- GALVANIC and FLINTLOCK: The Marshall and Gilbert Islands Campaigns -- Passing the Hours -- Strikes in the Marshall Islands -- Truk: Operation Hailstone -- We'll fight our way in! -- Palau, Hollandia, and Truk -- Operation FORAGER: The Invasion of the Marianas -- Left Behind -- The Recapture of the Philippines -- Lackluster Strikes in Palau: Captain Taylor's Decision -- Operation KING II: The Build-Up for Leyte Gulf -- Raid on Formosa: The 'Moo Rides Herd on Houston and Canberra -- The Battle of Leyte Gulf -- Black November -- The Mighty Moo Faces Typhoon Cobra -- Luzon and the South China Sea: A Deplorable Situation -- Operation GRATITUDE: Into the South China Sea -- Air Group 46 and the Iwo Jima Campaign -- Operation DETACHMENT: Iwo Jima -- A Gallant Lady, Homebound at Last -- The Fleet that Came to Stay -- The Final Act -- A Post-War 'Moo -- The 'Moo Wraps Up Her Affairs -- Cowpens is Put Out to Pasture -- Lives and Careers After the War

"The USS Cowpens and her crew weren't your typical heroes. She was a flattop that the US Navy initially didn't want, with a captain nearly scapegoated for the loss of his last command, pilots who self-trained on the planes they would fly into combat, and sailors that had been in uniform barely longer than the ship had been afloat. Despite their humble origins, Cowpens and her band of second-string reservists and citizen sailors served with distinction, fighting in nearly every major carrier operation from 1943 to 1945, including the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Together they faced a deadly typhoon that brought the ship to the verge of capsizing, and at war's end there was only one US aircraft carrier in Tokyo Bay to witness the Japanese surrender-THE MIGHTY MOO. In the years to follow, Cowpens' service has become the wellspring for a remarkable modern tradition, both within the US Navy and the small Southern town that still celebrates her legacy with a festival every year. THE MIGHTY MOO is a biography of a World War II aircraft carrier as told through the voices of its heroic crew-a "Band of Brothers at sea.""--