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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS COMMENCEMENT BAY   (CVE-105)
(later CVHE-105 and AKV-37)


Unit Awards, Campaign and Service Medals and Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: American Campaign Medal / Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal / World War II Victory Medal


Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: November - Kilo - Alfa - November

CLASS - COMMENCEMENT BAY
Displacement 21,397 Tons (full load), Dimensions, 557' 7" (oa) x 75' x 30' 8" (Max)
Armament 2 x 5"/38AA 36 x 40mm, 20 x 20mm, 33 Aircraft.
Machinery, 16,000 SHP; Allis-Chambers, Geared Turbines, 2 screw
Speed, 19 Knots, Crew 1066.

Operational and Building Data

Built by Todd Pacific, Tacoma, Wash. Initially named St. Joseph Bay. Keel laid 23 Sep 1943, launched 9 May 1944; commissioned 27 Nov 1944.

Decommissioned 30 Nov 1946. While in reserve, she was reclassified as an "Escort Helicopter Aircraft Carrier" (CVHE-105), 12 Jun 1955; again reclassified as a "Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry" (AKV-37), 7 May 1959.

Fate: Stricken from the Navy list 1 April 1971. Sold to Nicolai Joffe Corporation, Beverly Hills, CA, 25 August 1972, for $131,311. Departed Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Naval Station, San Diego, California, 22 September 1972, under tow of tug Ranger. Scrapped. (Thanks to Ron Reeves for the information.)


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Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
Name
St. Joseph Bay
NS0310506
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CVE-105 was initially named St. Joseph Bay, for a bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida, located in Gulf County between Apalichicola and Panama City (NS0310506).

Renamed Commencement Bay, 10 July 1944, for a bay of Puget Sound, near Tacoma, Wash., and near the shipyard where she was built (NS0310506a).

(Maps courtesy of Google Maps Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History, by Norman Friedman..)

NavSource
Commencement Bay
NS0310506a
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World War II
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310504
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Stern view, 135° off centerline, 20 October 1944. Todd Pacific Shipyards Inc. neg. no. 55-50. BuAer photo 180018.

David Buell
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310503
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Commissioning Program. Monday, 27 November 1944.

From the collection of Pearl Harbor Survivor Hoyt "Bud" Colburn, plankowner yeoman aboard USS Commencement Bay.

Courtesy of Carol Edgemon Hipperson, author of "Radioman: An Eyewitness Account of Pearl Harbor and World War II in the Pacific."
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310503a
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CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310503b
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CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310503c
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CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310503d
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CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310501
100k The best of the escort carriers. Note the addition of two 5"/38AA forward of the island. Their 10' wider beam also made this class much more stable in rough seas. USN
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310502
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Port broadside view of USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105) underway, her hull painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 16A, circa 1944. Commencement Bay was the lead ship of a 19-ship class of escort carriers. Commissioned on 27 November 1944, the ship spent her entire career as a training carrier, based in the Pacific Northwest.

US Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, photo # 1996.488.035.005. Robert L. Lawson Photograph Collection.

Mike Green
Robert Hurst
Ron Reeves
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310507
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USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105) enters San Francisco Bay, circa 1945.

U.S. Navy photo from the Commencement Bay 1944–1946 Cruise Book.

Robert Hurst
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310508
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A U.S. Navy General Motors FM-2 Wildcat is launched from USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105), 1 January 1945. The escort carrier was conducting carrier qualification landings and take-offs.

U.S. Navy photo from the Commencement Bay 1944–1946 Cruise Book.

Robert Hurst
CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310508a
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A U.S. Navy General Motors FM-2 Wildcat over the flight deck of USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105), 1 January 1945. The escort carrier was conducting carrier qualification landings and take-offs.

U.S. Navy photo from the Commencement Bay 1944–1946 Cruise Book.

CVE-105 Commencement Bay
NS0310505
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USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105) arrives in San Francisco, 16 December 1945. Note camouflage Ms. 21 and 40-mm AA guns alongside the flight deck.

Gerd Matthes, Germany

For more information about this ship, see:

Read the
USS COMMENCEMENT BAY (CVE-105 / CVHE-105 / AKV-37) DANFS History entry

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

Contact Name:
Address:
Phone:
E-mail: None

Additional Resources
Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages By Andrew Toppan.
Escort Carrier Sailors & Airmen Association

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Last update: 18 June 2022