laststandonzombieisland

80 years ago today.

The war diary for the Bogue-class escort carrier USS Altamaha (CVE-18), 1 March 1944:

I even found this great color film of the event in the NARA and uploaded it: 

USS Altamaha (CVE-18) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 235) on 19 December 1941 at Tacoma, Wash., by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp and commissioned on 15 September 1942, Capt. J. R. Tate in command.

Following brief sea trials, she spent the last two months of 1942 and all of 1943 shuttling aircraft around to various bases in the Pacific, including Marine units, replacement aircraft for the flattops of the Pacific Fleet, and USAAF squadrons, carrying the latter as far as Karachi, Pakistan.

Then, from 21 December 1943 through the above video, she was based in San Diego and used for experiments and carrier quals.

Finally, her time as a flattop taxi and school boat was done, at the end of March she embarked VC-66, and made her way West once again, this time with her teeth in.

Altamaha won one battle star for her World War II service, was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 27 September 1946, and spent the next 15 years in mothballs. Ironically, she was scrapped in Japan, her Bethlehem steel no doubt recycled into Toyotas and Datsuns.