USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90/CVHA-1/LPH-6) was a 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...

. Though not the last of the class to be built, she was the last Casablanca class hull to be scrapped.

Thetis Bay was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1127) on 22 December 1943 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; launched on 16 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Ricco Botta; and commissioned on 21 April 1944, Captain Donald E. Wilcox in command.

The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy...

says Thetis Bay is "an inlet at the south end of Tebenkof Bay on the west coast of Kuiu Island

Kuiu Island

Kuiu Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. It lies between Kupreanof Island, to its east, and Baranof Island, to its west. The island is long, and 10–23 km wide. It is nearly cut in two by Affleck Canal. It has of land area, making it the 15th largest...

 in the Alexander Archipelago

Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...

 of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

."

World War II

Thetis Bay got underway for San Diego where she conducted brief shakedown training. On 2 June, she moved to San Pedro to load planes and passengers for Pacific bases. The new escort carrier stood out to sea on 5 June; called at 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...

 on the 11th; and continued on, via Makin

Makin (islands)

Makin is the name of a chain of islands located in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati, specifically in the Gilbert Islands.-Geography:...

 and Majuro

Majuro

Majuro , is a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll itself has a land area of and encloses a lagoon of...

, to Kwajalein

Kwajalein

Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...

. There, she embarked the Army's 50th Engineer Battalion which she offloaded at Pearl Harbor on 5 July. Two days later, the carrier got underway for Alameda

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...

 with 41 aircraft that needed repairs. She arrived on 13 July and, after offloading the aircraft, proceeded to 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...

 for a three-week yard period. Between 11 August and 13 September, the escort carrier delivered spare parts, replacement aircraft, and personnel to Hawaii and the Marshalls. From September 1944 through mid-April 1945, Thetis Bay made five round-trip voyages from California ports to bases in the Pacific ranging from Pearl Harbor to Finschhaven, 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 12 June 1945, Thetis Bay arrived at Pearl Harbor from San Diego with a load of aircraft. There, the aircraft were readied for combat within 72 hours; and the ship got underway for 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...

. She arrived at Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor is a deep-water port on the western side of Guam in the Mariana Islands. The harbor is formed by Orote Peninsula in the south and Cabras Island in the north. To the south, the harbor narrows and then widens again to form an inner harbor. The southern end of the harbor is the location...

 on 25 June and was assigned to Task Group 30.8 for duty as a replenishment carrier. Thetis Bay made her first rendezvous with Task Force 38 on 12 July when she transferred 40 planes to various carriers. She returned to Guam on 22 July and remained there until 24 July to load more aircraft before joining the fast carriers again on the 31st. The ship reloaded at Guam once more and resupplied the task force from 14 August to 8 September when she returned to Apra Harbor en route to the United States.

Thetis Bay arrived at Alameda on 7 September 1945 and was assigned to "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...

" duty, returning veterans from overseas bases to the United States. She served in this capacity until January 1946 when she began inactivation. The ship was placed out of commission, in reserve, at Bremerton, Washington

Bremerton, Washington

Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. The population was 38,790 at the 2011 State Estimate, making it the largest city on the Olympic Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremerton Annex of Naval Base Kitsap...

, on 7 August 1946.

Recommissioning as CVHA-1

In May 1955, Thetis Bay was towed to the San Francisco Naval Shipyard

San Francisco Naval Shipyard

The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city...

 where she began conversion to the Navy's first assault helicopter aircraft carrier. On 1 July 1955, her designation was changed from CVE-90 to CVHA-1. With that change, she became a complement to the attack transport. Her helicopters supplemented landing craft to give the Navy and Marine Corps the flexibility of a vertical assault capability. She was recommissioned on 20 July 1956, Captain Thomas W. South, II, in command, and completed conversion six weeks later on 1 September.

The carrier arrived at her new home port, Long Beach

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

, on 20 September. There, helicopter teams from Marine Corps Test Unit No. 1, Camp Pendleton, demonstrated landing and take-off techniques. Thetis Bay participated in amphibious training exercises off the California coast before deploying to the Far East on 10 July 1957. She returned to Long Beach on 11 December 1957 and resumed local operations. On 28 May 1959, her designation was changed to LPH-6, amphibious assault ship

Amphibious assault ship

An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault...

.

In August 1959, Thetis Bay was serving with the 7th Fleet when floods in Taiwan left thousands homeless. On the 12th, she was ordered to proceed from Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 to Taiwan and use HMR(L)-261's

HMM-261

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 is a United States Marine Corps tiltrotor squadron consisting of MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft. The squadron, known as the "Raging Bulls", is based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina and typically falls under the command of Marine Aircraft...

 (USMC) 21 large troop-carrying helicopters to aid the flood victims. By the end of the assistance operation, at noon of the 20th, the ship had delivered a total of 1,600,540 pounds of supplies to the Chinese. In addition, HMR(L)-261's helicopters had lifted 850 passengers to and from various sites in the flooded area.

In May 1960, Thetis Bay participated in a practice night assault landing at Camp Pendleton during which her helicopters carried 1,300 troops and 33 tons of cargo to the objective area. This was the first large-scale night landing of ground forces by carrier-based helicopters.

Thetis Bay deployed to the western Pacific in the spring of 1961. After the assault ship returned to Long Beach, she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. She arrived at Norfolk, her new home port, in early December 1961.

During the next three years, the ship operated along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. The highlight of her service with the Atlantic Fleet came during the Cuban missile crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...

 in October 1962 when she proceeded to the quarantine area with her embarked marine landing team and helicopter squadron ready for action. In September 1963 Thetis Bay proceeded to hurricane-stricken Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

. She anchored off Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

 and launched Marine helicopters carrying medical aid and food supplies to thousands of victims of Hurricane Flora

Hurricane Flora

Hurricane Flora is among the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history, with a death total of over 7,000. The seventh tropical storm and sixth hurricane of the 1963 Atlantic hurricane season, Flora developed from a disturbance in the Intertropical Convergence Zone on September 26 while...

.

Thetis Bay stood out of Norfolk on 5 January 1964 en route to Philadelphia for deactivation and arrived there the next day. She was decommissioned and struck from the Navy List on 1 March 1964. Her hulk was sold in December 1964 to Peck Iron & Metal Co., Inc., Portsmouth, Virginia

Portsmouth, Virginia

Portsmouth is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the city had a total population of 95,535.The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard, is a historic and active U.S...

, for scrap.