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The Independence-class light fleet aircraft carrier Langley (CV-27, later CVL-27) was originally authorized as a Cleveland-class light cruiser, the Fargo (CL-85). Reconfigured with a hangar and flight deck above the cruiser hull, the ship was initially renamed the Crown Point, but with the loss of the Navy's first carrier, the Langley (CV-I), the name was changed in her honor. Commissioned on 31 August 1943, the 622-foot, 14,220-ton Langley and her crew of 1,400 played a major role in pioneering the techniques of fleet air defense by employing shipboard...