Following shakedown off
the United States west coast, she served at Pearl Harbor from 12
December 1945 to 20 March 1946. Sailing via the Panama Canal, she
operated at Norfolk, Va., from 16 April to 22 April, before
returning via the Panama Canal to the west coast. Departing San
Diego on 6 May, Saidor arrived at Bikini on the 24th to serve as a
photographic laboratory for the atomic bomb testing program,
Operation Crossroads. She processed film, documenting the
destructive power of atomic weapons on selected targets at various
ranges, during the nuclear explosions of 1 July and 25 July. She
departed Bikini on 4 August and returned to San Diego where she
remained into 1947, when she began inactivation.
Saidor was decommissioned on 12 September 1947 and berthed with the
Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego. Reclassified CVHE-117 on 12 June
1955, and AKV-17 on 7 May 1959, she remained in the Reserve Fleet
until 1 December 1970 when she was struck from the Navy list. She
was sold to American Ship Dismantlers, Portland, Oreg., for
scrapping on 22 October 1971. |