The Mighty Moo
The USS Cowpens and Her Epic World War II Journey from Jinx Ship to the Navy’s First Carrier into Tokyo Bay
By Nathan Canestaro
The Mighty Moo is the tale of how a scrappy little World War II aircraft carrier and its untested crew earned a distinguished combat record and beat incredible odds to earn 12 battle stars in the Pacific.
“Satisfying military history.”
— Kirkus Review
“…This is an insider look at one of the most storied ships of the U.S. Navy and is a powerful and moving story in every dimension.”
— Admiral James Stavridis (ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, and author of To Risk it All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision
“…Canestaro has crafted an epic tale that is at once both the story of a ship and an intimate portrait of the men who sailed aboard and flew from her deck.”
— Walter R. Borneman, author of The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King
About Nathan
Nathan Canestaro is a professional intelligence officer whose research on his grandfather’s service in World War II led to a decade-long effort to uncover the story of Cowpens and her crew. Currently on assignment to the National Intelligence Council, Nathan has twenty-five years of experience writing about military operations for policymakers in the US government.
He has graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee, Georgetown, and Yale, and lives outside Washington, DC, with his family. This is his first book.