Following initial local
operations in Puget Sound, Vella Gulf sailed for San Diego and
arrived there on 4 May to pick up the initial increment of her
assigned Marine air group. After embarking them at the naval air
station, the escort aircraft carrier conducted shakedown off the
southern California coast and embarked the remainder of her group
during this period. At the completion of a post-shakedown
availability, she departed the west coast on 17 June, bound for
Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 25 June and conducted 11 days
of intensive training operations.
Vella Gulf departed Pearl Harbor on 9 July, stopped at Eniwetok in
the Marshalls on the 16th to refuel, and proceeded on to Guam, where
she arrived four days later. On the 23rd, she sailed for the
Marianas to conduct air strikes against Rota and Pagan Islands. The
next day, she launched 24 sorties against Pagan Island with her F4U
Corsairs, F6F Hellcat photographic aircraft, and TBM Avenger bombers.
Three days later, the escort carrier launched 21 sorties against
Rota, with a dozen Corsairs, eight Avengers and one Hellcat taking
part. Light anti-aircraft fire from Japanese guns peppered the skies
but failed to reach the American planes. Two planes returned from
the mission having conducted their attacks from such a low altitude
that shrapnel from their own bomb explosions slightly damaged their
tail surfaces.
The day after the Rota strike, the ship flew off her planes to
Saipan and then returned to Apra Harbor, Guam, on 2 August, for a
three-day breather before heading for Okinawa on the 5th. She
arrived at Buckner Bay four days later. Her one night spent in the
anchorage there was a memorable one since, during the evening, word
arrived that surrender negotiations with the Japanese were in
progress and prompted many ships and shore-based units to set off
pyrotechnics.
Vella Gulf arrived back at Guam on 15 August in time to receive the
welcome news that Japan had capitulated. Vella Gulf participated in
the initial occupation operations of the Japanese home islands. She
provided food and fuel to other Fleet units off the coast and, in
late August, alternated with Gilbert Islands in furnishing air cover
for a replenishment group. The escort carrier then sailed for Tokyo
Bay and arrived there on 10 September.
Departing Japanese waters on 21 September, Vella Gulf embarked 650
men at Okinawa for passage back to the west coast of the United
States. After a brief stop at Pearl Harbor, she arrived at San
Francisco, Calif., on 14 October. She subsequently operated in the
Puget Sound area as training ship for escort carrier personnel until
late March 1946, when she sailed for the coast of southern
California and arrived at San Diego on 27 March. However, her stay
there was brief, for she soon got underway again, touched at Port
Angeles, and pushed on to Tacoma, where she began inactivation on
the last day of the month. Moved to Seattle on 7 April, the ship was
placed out of commission on 9 August 1946.
Placed in reserve at Tacoma, the vessel remained there into the
1960s. Reclassified as a helicopter carrier (CVHE-111) on 12 June
1955, Vella Gulf was later transferred to the Military Sea
Transportation Service; and she was again reclassified — this time
to T-AKV-11. However, she never returned to active service. Struck
from the Navy list on 1 June 1960, she was reinstated on 1 November
of the same year. Struck for the second time on 1 December 1970, the
erstwhile escort carrier was sold to the American Ship Dismantlers,
Inc., of Portland, Oregon, on 22 October 1971 and scrapped. |