USS COPAHEE

CVE-12 USS COPAHEE

USS Copahee was named for a sound off the South Carolina coast. She was commissioned on June 15, 1942. Her first voyage after shakedown was a cargo run to Noumea with an aircraft launch for Henderson Field at Guadalcanal. She began making cargo runs to forward bases in the Fijis, New Caledonia and New Hebrides until June 1943.

In late 1943 through early 1944, the ship delivered aircraft to two different bases in Australia. Later that year she helped move aircraft from San Diego to Majuro via Pearl Harbor. In June, she provided support to the Marianas invasion with replacement planes and crews. In late July, she returned captured Japanese aircraft and engines to San Diego for intelligence purposes.

After that, Copahee was used mainly for transport duty in and around the Pacific Theater. She made six different voyages with cargo going to Guam, Saipan, Majuro, Manus and Pearl Harbor. When the war ended, she participated in operation “Magic Carpet”. She helped repatriate servicemen from Saipan, Guam, the Philippines and Eniwetok. After her final voyage in December, she returned to Alameda, California. She was decommissioned July 5, 1946. She was later removed from Navy lists in 1959.