USS CARD

Background

USS Card (ACV-11) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier built by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp and launched under Maritime Commission on February 21, 1942. Card played an integral role in World War II, earning three battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation.

Highlights

• Card transported military personnel and aircraft to Casablanca, Morocco, during the North African invasion in 1942. Next, she operated largely from Norfolk, Virginia, and supported TG 21.14, carrying aircraft during operations that would sink four German subs in one of her first missions to the North Atlantic during the summer of 1943. During the next few months, her planes and a destroyer in her escort would sink five more submarines, bringing her total to nine.

• Later that year, Card would see more fire during another mission in the North Atlantic. On December 23, her escorts came into contact with German submarines and gave as good as they got, sinking a submarine and losing a destroyer, Leary (DD-158).

• After more transport voyages to Morocco, she had a brief break for overhaul and to qualify pilots at the base in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Then, in summer 1944, it was off to be the hub of another task force, 22.10, which sunk another U-boat.

Final Notes

Except for a final attack on a U-boat in fall 1944, Card’s battle days were over. She transported aircraft and personnel throughout the Atlantic, from Quonset Point to England, and from Norfolk to the Caribbean, Pearl Harbor, and Guam. She participated in Operation “Magic-Carpet,” bringing troops home to the US after the war. She was placed in reserve on May 13, 1946, and was eventually sold for scrap.

Hull classifications that Card bore:

• AVG-11

• ACV-11

• CVE-11

• CVHE-11

• CVU-11

• AKV-40