MSC75 Blast from the Past – USNS Windham Bay (T-CVE/CVU 92)

Photo By Hendrick Dickson | This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Military Sealift Command. In our MSC75 Blast from the Past series, we honor MSC’s significant impact on the maritime environment and 75 years of maritime excellence by looking back at some of the vessels that laid the framework for the MSC fleet as we know it today. USS Windham Bay (CVE-92) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early World War II losses. After being transferred to Military Sealift Command, it became the first large ship since 1925 to transit the Long Tam River during the Korean War. (Graphic Illustration by Hendrick Dickson).  

NORFOLK, VA, UNITED STATES

04.17.2024

Story by Hendrick Dickson 

USN Military Sealift Command

This year marks the 75th Anniversary of Military Sealift Command. In our MSC75 Blast from the Past series, we honor MSC’s significant impact on the maritime environment and 75 years of maritime excellence by looking back at some of the vessels that laid the framework for the MSC fleet as we know it today.

Named after Windham Bay, within Tongass National Forest of the Territory of Alaska, USS Windham Bay (CVE-92) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early World War II losses. It was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract Jan. 5, 1944 at Vancouver, Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Co. It was launched March 29, 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Henry M. Cooper, and it was commissioned May, 3, 1944.

Following its commissioning, Windham Bay served as a replenishment and transport carrier for the U.S. Navy during the war. It participated in the Invasion of Iwo Jima and Battle of Okinawa and earned three World War II battle stars. However, the ship was moved for duty with the Pacific Reserve Fleet Jan. 25, 1945 and designated “in commission, in reserve,” as the temporary flag ship of the Commander, Tacoma Group, 18th, until Aug. 23, 1946, when she was placed out of commission.

The carrier stayed with the Reserve Fleet until hostilities erupted in Korea during the summer of 1950. Windham Bay was designated for reactivation Aug. 7, 1950 for assignment to the Military Sealift Command (then known as Military Sea Transportation Service), and recommissioned Windham Bay (T-CVE-92) at Bremerton, Washington, Oct. 28, 1950. The vessel headed for Yokohama, Japan, that January 1951 to unload a cargo of aircraft.

In February 1951, during a voyage to Saigon in French Indochina, Windham Bay became the first large ship to navigate the Long Tam River since 1925. While the ship was docked at Saigon, 17 hand grenades were tossed at the ship by terrorists. Before setting course back to the U.S., it unloaded a cargo of Grumman F8F Bearcats for the French and at Sangley Point, Philippine Islands.

Over the next 20 months, Windham Bay would make nine resupply voyages from the West Coast to Yokosuka, Japan. She continued ferrying voyages between the U.S. and Japan during 1953 until the Korean War wound down. On June 12, 1955, Windham Bay was reclassified as a utility carrier, with the hull symbol CVU-92. During this period through 1957, her missions consisted solely of resupplying aircraft from the West Coast to Japan, in support of the fast carriers assigned to cover the western Pacific.

Windham Bay's career lasted until the end of 1958. In January 1959, she was decommissioned and berthed with the San Francisco Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. Her name was stricken from the Navy list on Feb. 1, 1959, and she was ultimately sold to the Hugo Neu Steel Products Corp., of New York City. The ship was scrapped in Japan in February, 1961.

• Date Taken: 04.17.2024
• Date Posted: 04.17.2024 11:35
• Story ID: 468720
• Location: NORFOLK, VA, US