Kenneth W. Baldridge, Pleasant Grove, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, April 30, 2005: Saving the Legacy tape no. 723

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K THW. B LDRID Rl 0 2 aft r the end of the war. The U. Rendova had a di plac men! of appro imal I 11,373 ton (empty) and a length of557 f eet (1 70m). Rendova wa commi ioned in October 1945, ome two months after the end of World War Il She conducted hakedown operations into the spring of 1946. During March, she conducted exerci e off the West Coast, but in April, her complement was reduced to a maintenance crew. At San Diego for a year, she remained on the active list as the administrative headquarters for Carrier Division 15 (CarDiv 15) and then served in a training role during 1947. In April-July 1948, she transported aircraft from the US. West Coast through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic and on to Turkey, returning to the US. by way of the Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Pacific Ocean. During the rest of 1948 and in 1949, in addition to conducting routine training operations, the carrier made two voyages to the Far East. Rendova was decommissioned in January 1950 and was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Recalled to active duty in response to the Korean War crisis, Rendova was re-commissioned in January 1951. She deployed to Korean waters between July and December 1951, where she mainly operated in the Yellow Sea with a Marine Corps fighter squadron flying close air support and other combat missions. Thereafter, she served as a training and anti-submarine warfare carrier. She participated in nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands in 1952 and made a final Western Pacific cruise in 1954. USS Rendova was decommissioned in June 1955. Re-rated as an aircraft transport in May 1959, she carried the new hull number AKV-14 from then on, but remained in reserve. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in Apri/1971 and sold for scrap in November 1972.] 22