After a west coast
shakedown, Munda, assigned to Carrier Transport Squadron, Pacific
Fleet, got underway independently on 16 August 1944 on her maiden
voyage. With 71 planes and 202 passengers crowded aboard, she
arrived at Espiritu Santo on 1 September. Proceeding next to
Finschhafen and Manus Island, she returned to Alameda, California
for brief availability, before setting out again to carry
replacement planes and personnel to forward areas. Returning from
her second supply run on 5 December, she was underway again on the
12th. She completed three more runs to various islands in the
Pacific before mid-1945, when she sailed for Eniwetok on 3 July.
There, she joined Task Group 30.8 (TG 30.8) and commenced supplying
planes, pilots, and aviation stores to the fast carriers of Task
Force 38 (TF 38).
She rendezvoused with that force on 20 July, as it attacked the
Japanese home islands, and remained in the area through the 26th,
when she returned to Guam for replenishment. At sea again by the end
of the month, she rejoined TF 38 on 3 August, resupplying the
carriers then, and again on the 7th and 11th. On 13 August, she
departed the formation and was en route back to Guam when she
received word of the Japanese surrender. Rejoining TG 30.8, she
remained off Japan through the first week of the occupation, and on
10 September steamed into Tokyo Bay.
Departing Tokyo on 2 October, she joined the ships assigned to
Operation Magic Carpet, and into the next year, ferried servicemen
back to the United States. After completion of that duty on 18
January 1946, Munda prepared for inactivation at Port Angeles,
Washington. Decommissioned on 13 September 1946, she joined the
Pacific Reserve Fleet, berthing at Tacoma, Washington. Redesignated
CVU-104 on 12 June 1955, she was shifted to Bremerton on 29 April
1958. Munda was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September
1958 and sold as scrap, 17 June 1960, to the General Ore Company,
New York. |