USS BAIROKO

USS Bairoko was commissioned in July of 1945, and was built as an escort aircraft carrier of the Commencement Bay class. Weighing in at over 10,000 tons, the vessel served in the Pacific for her entire career. She first went to the Far East, taking part in atomic bomb testing at Bikini, and then made another trip to the Western Pacific in 1947. In April of 1950, the USS Bairoko was decommissioned, but was reactivated the following September due to the outbreak of the Korean War.

In the last two months of 1950, Bairoko was used to transport aircraft from the U.S. to Korean seas, and remained there until August of 1951. She was responsible for operating Marine Corps aircraft and anti-submarine planes, guarding against potential Soviet intervention. There was an accidental explosion and fire that damaged the ship in May of 1951, but she remained in action.

The vessel made two more tours to Korea during the war, and became a supporting member of the nuclear weapons testing force in the Pacific in 1954. She was reclassified and redesignated in 1959 and then sold for scrapping in August of 1960 with no return to combat.