USS Sitkoh Bay (CVE-86)

Constructed by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company in Vancouver, Washington, the USS Sitkoh Bay was a 7,800-ton Casablanca-class escort carrier that was first commissioned in March 1944. Ordered to operate under the command of Captain Robert G. Lockhart, the USS Sitkoh Bay ultimately was awarded three battle stars for its WWII service and one battle star for its service in the Korean War.

Service Record

After her 1944 Naval commission, the USS Sitkoh Bay spent the rest of the year performing shakedowns and ferrying crew and cargo to Pearl Harbor and throughout the south Pacific In January 1945, she was ordered to perform the same replenishment operations for the 3^rd Fleet in the central Pacific, including Guam, the Marianas, the Marshalls and the Ulithi Atoll. These replenishment missions supported ongoing combat in the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

In April 1945, the USS Sitkoh Bay would participate in her only combat-related mission when she, while delivering Marine Air Group 31, shot down enemy aircraft. Months later, in August 1945, the Japanese would surrender, and the USS Sitkoh Bay would perform replenishment missions throughout central Pacific, including Guam, the Phillipines and Okinawa. Following these operations, the USS Sitkoh Bay was decommissioned in November 1946 and ordered to berth at Bremerton, Washington.

With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the USS Sitkoh Bay was once again commissioned and put under the command of Captain C. W. Lord. For the next four years, she would work as part of the Military Sealift Service to replenish and support U.N. Forces in Korea.

Throughout 1951, the USS Sitkoh Bay performed operations around the world, making stops in French Indonesia, Manila, the U.S., Japan and Korea. In May 1952, she headed home to San Francisco, where she was decommissioned in July 1954 and ordered to remain in San Francisco as part of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Despite two subsequent reclassifications and a relocation to San Diego, the USS Sitkoh Bay was struck from the Naval Register and sold for scrap in August 1960 to a New York City scrapping company.