USS Kwajalein (CVE-98), underway, June 1944
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History | |
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United States | |
Name |
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Namesake |
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Ordered | as a Type S4-S2-BB3 hull, MCE hull 1135[1] |
Awarded | 18 June 1942 |
Builder | Kaiser Shipyards |
Laid down | 19 February 1944 |
Launched | 4 May 1944 |
Commissioned | 7 June 1944 |
Decommissioned | 16 August 1946 |
Stricken | 1 April 1960 |
Identification | Hull symbol: CVE-98 |
Honors and awards | 2 Battle stars |
Fate | Sold for scrap, 11 January 1961 |
General characteristics [2] | |
Class and type | Casablanca-class escort carrier |
Displacement |
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Length | |
Beam |
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Draft | 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m) (max) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | |
Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Range | 10,240 nmi (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 27 |
Aviation facilities | |
Service record | |
Part of: |
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Operations: | Operation Magic Carpet |
USS Kwajalein (CVE-98) was the forty-fourth of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after the Battle of Kwajalein, in which American forces captured Kwajalein Atoll. The ship was launched in May 1944, commissioned in June, and served in support of the Philippines campaign. Later in the war, she served as a replenishment carrier, during which she was damaged by Typhoon Cobra. Postwar, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet, repatriating U.S. servicemen from throughout the Pacific. She was decommissioned in May 1946, when she was mothballed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Ultimately, she was sold for scrapping in January 1961.