USS Attu (CVE-102) was a Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier

Escort aircraft carrier

The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the USN or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the British Royal Navy , the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and the...

 of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, named after Attu

Attu Island

Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. It was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on the incorporated territory of the United States ,...

 in the Aleutian Islands.

Originally Elbour Bay, CVE-102 was renamed Attu 6 November 1943. She was laid down on 16 March 1944 at Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...

, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1139), launched on 27 May 1944, sponsored by Mrs. George W. Steele, and commissioned on 30 June 1944, Captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 H. F. MacComsey in command.

World War II

Following shakedown along the west coast, Attu got underway from San Diego on 7 August with numerous aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 and personnel for transportation to Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

. After a two-day stop in Hawaii, Attu continued on to Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...

 and Espiritu Santo

Espiritu Santo

Espiritu Santo is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of . It belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region of Melanesia. It is in the Sanma Province of Vanuatu....

 to deliver replacement aircraft and personnel. The escort carrier then got underway on 31 August to return to the United States.

She reached San Diego on 13 September and, shortly thereafter, began post-shakedown availability at Terminal Island

Terminal Island

Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...

, California. This work was completed on 28 September, and Attu sailed for Alameda, California

Alameda, California

Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...

 to load fuel, provisions and aircraft.

The escort carrier departed the west coast on 1 October and reached Finschhafen

Finschhafen

Finschhafen is a district on the northeast coast of the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the port of the same name.The port was discovered in 1884 by the German researcher Otto Finsch. In 1885 the German colony of German New Guinea created a town on the site and named it...

, New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

, on the 18th. She later made a stop in Seeadler Harbor

Seeadler Harbor

Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II...

 at Manus Island

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

 before reversing her course and heading back, via Pearl Harbor, to Alameda. Following a two-week availability period, Attu sailed for Pearl Harbor on 23 November. She shuttled supplies and troops between Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 and Pearl Harbor before returning to San Diego on 4 January 1945.

The next day, Attu began an availability and was ready to sail once again on the 20th. The ship reached Pearl Harbor on the 27th and began gunnery exercises and flight operations off Oahu. On 1 February, the vessel sailed for Eniwetok. After pausing there briefly on the 10th, she moved on to Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

. The ship departed the atoll on 16 February to rendezvous with ships of Task Force 50 (TF 50). Attu was assigned the role of supplying replacement aircraft and pilots to the fast carrier task forces operating in the forward area. After discharging her cargo to the carriers, Attu sailed to Guam for replenishment. The escort carrier continued her logistics support role for the carrier forces through early July.

At that time, Attu returned to San Diego for repairs. On 24 July, the ship sailed back to the Pacific theater of operations

Pacific Theater of Operations

The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...

. Attu was steaming in a fueling area south of the Japanese home islands when word of Japan’s capitulation arrived.

Post-War

The carrier sailed back to the west coast on 11 November and, on the 25th, began her participation in Operation Magic Carpet

Operation Magic Carpet (World War II)

Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II effort by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and CBI theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports began repatriating soldiers from...

. In this capacity, Attu made voyages to numerous points in the Pacific. She steamed over 38,000 miles and returned over 4,000 service men to the United States.

In May 1946, Attu was slated for disposal. The escort carrier sailed to Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, via the Panama Canal and Jacksonville, Fla. Attu decommissioned at Norfolk on 8 June 1946, and her name was struck from the Navy list

Navy List

A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country....

on 3 July 1946. She was sold on 3 January 1947.