USS TAKANIS BAY

CVE-89 USS TAKANIS BAY

USS Takanis Bay was named for a small bay off of Yakobi Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Alaska, near Sitka. She was built at Vancouver, Washington, and commissioned on April 15, 1944. She served out of San Diego Fleet Air, West Coast, through the end of World War II. She was used for testing and qualifying new pilots before deployment to the Pacific theater. In just over one year, from May 1944 to August 1945, she qualified over 2,500 pilots. When the war ended, the ship reported for transport duty in Hawaii.

Takanis Bay reported to duty at Hawaii and was assigned to the Carrier Transport Squadron. On two trips, she brought back over 1,000 personnel to San Diego. In late September 1945, the ship was made part of the “Magic Carpet” operation. She was outfitted with 800 bunks for returning troops. She made three voyages for this purpose. Two of them were from Pearl Harbor and another one from Tokyo. She sailed her last voyage in January 1946 returning to San Pedro, California.

The ship was decommissioned on May 1, 1946 and placed in reserve. She was struck off of the Navy lists in 1959.