USS Badoeng Strait, a 10,300-ton Commencement Bay class escort aircraft carrier, was built at Tacoma, Washington. Commissioned in November 1945, she served in the Pacific over the next dozen years, except for eight months out of commission from April 1946 to January 1947. Mainly occupied during the later '40s with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) functions, Badoeng Strait's mission changed with the start of the Korean War in late June 1950. Early in the following month, she embarked Marine Corps aircraft for transportation to the war zone. She operated some of these Marine planes for combat operations through a tour that lasted until January 1951, including participation in the September 1950 Inchon Landing and the Hungnam Evacuation in December.
Badoeng Strait strait made two more Korean War deployments, in October 1951 - February 1952 and October 1952 - February 1953, providing a base for both Marine Corps fighter-bombers and Navy anti-submarine planes, depending on the operational needs most critical at the time. Modernized after her last combat cruise, Badoeng Strait subsequently was employed in both ASW and vertical assault roles, including active participation in evaluating helicopters for these functions. She made one more Far Eastern tour during the mid-1950s and took part in the 1956 Operation "Redwing" nuclear tests in the Central Pacific.
USS Badoeng Strait was decommissioned in May 1957 and was laid up for the next decade and a half. Reclassified as an aircraft transport in May 1959, she received the new hull number AKV-16. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in December 1970 and sold for scrapping in May 1972.
This page features selected views of USS Badoeng Strait.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
10 October 2000