Following shakedown off
San Diego, Roi was assigned to the Carrier Transport Squadron which
carried planes, equipment, and men to forward bases. On 13 August
1944, she steamed for Espiritu Santo and Manus Island, loaded with
287 passengers and 71 planes, returning to San Diego on 27
September. Underway again for Manus on 21 October, she returned to
San Diego before departing on 2 December on a third voyage which
took her to Eniwetok and Guam.
Following overhaul at Alameda, California, Roi made two round-trip
voyages to bases in the Marshall and Mariana Islands before
returning to Pearl Harbor to begin carrier refresher operations in
preparation for her new duty as a replenishment carrier for the fast
carrier task force of the 3rd Fleet.
Loading 61 replacement aircraft in a 30-day combat ready state, Roi
sailed to Guam, where she reported to Task Group 30.8 (TG 30.8). Her
duties were now to furnish pilots, crewmen, planes, and aviation
supplies to the carriers of Task Force 38 (TF 38) on rendezvous days
following their attacks on the Japanese home islands. Roi got
underway on 4 July with Admiralty Islands, Hollandia and Thetis Bay,
and met TF 38 at sea on 12 July, 16 July, and 20 July, retiring to
Guam on the 21st to reload. She got underway on the 27th with 61
more planes, and joined the fast carriers on the 31st. Returning to
Guam, the ship reloaded and met the task force again on 14 August,
just prior to the cessation of hostilities, then remained with the
3rd Fleet off Japan in preparation for the occupation.
Following the end of the war, Roi was used in "Magic-Carpet"
operations, returning veterans to the United States for discharge.
Roi was decommissioned at Bremerton on 9 May 1946, struck from the
Naval Vessel Register on 21 May, and sold on 31 December 1946 to
Zidell Machinery & Supply of Portland, Oregon. |