Santee II
(CVE-29: dp. 6,534, 1. 559'; b. 75', dr. 33'9", s. 18 k.; cpl. 860; a 2 5"; cl. Cimarron; T3-S2-A1)

The second Santee was launched on 4 March 1939 as Esso Seakay under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 3) by the Sun Shipbuilding and DryDock Co., at Chester, Pa., sponsored by Mrs. Charles Kurz acquired by the Navy on 18 October 1940; and commissioned on 30 October 1940 as AO-29, Comdr. William G. B. Hatch in command.

Prior to her acquisition by the Navy, Esso Seakay had been operated by Standard Oil of New Jersey on the west coast. During her commercial service, she set several records for fast oil hauling.

After commissioning, Santee served in the Atlantic. When American neutrality ended on 7 December 1941, Santee was carrying oil for a secret airdrome at Argentia, Newfoundland. In the spring of 1942, Santee's conversion to an aircraft carrier was begun at the Norfolk Navy Yard.

On 24 August 1942, Santee was commissioned as an escort carrier, Comdr. William D. Sample in command. The ACV was fitted with such haste that workmen from Norfolk were still on board during her shakedown training and her decks were piled high with stores. After conversion, nominally completed on 8 September, Santee reported to Task Force 22 and the first plane landed on her flightdeck on the 24th.

After shakedown, Santee departed Bermuda on 25 October and headed for the coast of Africa. While the escort carrier u as en route on the 30th, an SBD-3 scout bomber being launched from a catapult dropped a 325-pound depth bomb onto the flight deck. It rolled off the deck and detonated close to the port bow shaking the entire ship, carrying away the range finder and a searchlight base, and damaging radar antennas.

Nevertheless, Santee continued steaming with Task Group 34.2. On 7 November, the escort carrier, with destroyers, Rodman and Emmons, and minelayer, Monadnock, left the formation and, the following morning, took positions off Safi, French Morocco. Santee launched planes and fueled ships until Friday, 13 November, when she rejoined TG 34.2 and returned to Bermuda. The group departed that island on the 22d and anchored in Hampton Roads two days later.

After voyage repairs and drydock, Santee got underway with destroyer, Eberle, on 26 December. On 1 January 1943, Santee anchored at Port of Spain, Trinidad. Two days later, with destroyers Eberle and Livermore, she headed for the coast of Brazil. After disembarking passengers at Recife, she sailed to join Task Unit 23.1.6 at sea in tightening the noose on enemy merchant shipping and naval activity in the south Atlantic.

For a month, her planes flew antisubmarine missions and regular patrols. On 15 February, the escort carrier put in at Recife, remaining until the 21st. Back conducting routine sorties in the same manner, Santee operated from 21 February through 2 March when she again put in to Recife.

Her next period at sea, which began on 4 March brought action. On 10 March, light cruiser, Savannah and Eberle were investigating a cargo liner which had been spotted by Santee's aircraft and which had been tentatively identified as the Karin, a Dutch merchantman It turned out to be the German blockade runner Rota Nopan (ex-Dutch Kota Pinang). As the Eberle boarding party drew alongside, explosives placed by the abandoning crew detonated, killing eight boarders. On 15 March, Santee set out for Norfolk and anchored at Hampton Roads on the 28th.

Underway again on 13 June, with four-stacked destroyers, Bainbridge, Overton, and MacLeish, Santee reached Casablanca on 3 July. Four days later, the escort carrier departed the harbor with a convoy of

homeward-bound empties. No submarines were sighted, but one of her Avengers made a forced landing in Spain, and its crew was interned. Santee's small task group left the convoy on 12 July with orders to operate independently against Nazi submarine concentrations south of the Azores. She remained at this antisubmarine work until 25 July and managed to attack seven surfaced U-boats, at the price of two Dauntless dive bombers

On the 25th, she joined a west-bound convoy, which reached the Virginia coast on 6 August. On 26 August Santee, with destroyers, Bainbridge and Greer, again headed into the Atlantic; and two days steaming brought them to Bermuda.

Santee made another convoy run from Bermuda to Casablanca and back to Hampton Roads from 29 August to 13 October. On 25 October, the escort carrier departed the east coast for Casablanca, reaching Basin Delpit on 13 November. Standing out of Casablanca the next day, she rendezvoused on the 17th with Iowa, carrying President Roosevelt. After providing air cover for the battleship and her escorts for several days, Santee was ordered to the Bay of Biscay, where she engaged in antisubmarine work until the end of November.

As TG 21.11, Santee and a trio of four-stackers patrolled the North Atlantic from 1 to 9 December. The group was dissolved upon arrival at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 10 December, and Santee, minus her aircraft stood out of Norfolk on 21 December, and headed for New York in company with battleship, Texas, and several destroyers. From 22 to 28 December, the escort carrier packed her hangar and flight decks with P-38 fighter planes at Staten Island. Getting underway in convoy on the 29th, she steamed unchallenged across the North Atlantic, reaching Glasgow on 9 January 1944.

Emptied of her P-38 cargo, Santee departed Glasgow in convoy on 13 January and returned to Norfolk on the 24th. She stood out of Norfolk on 13 February with destroyer escort, Tatum, transited the Panama Canal on 18 and 19 February and moored at San Diego on the 28th. There, Santee embarked 300 Navy and Marine Corps personnel and 31 aircraft for delivery to Pearl Harbor. She also took on 24 Wildcat fighters and Avenger dive bombers as her own instruments of war.

Standing out of San Diego Bay on 2 March, the CVE unloaded her ferried aircraft and personnel at Pearl Harbor upon her arrival on the 9th.

Escort carriers, Sangamon, Suwanee, Chenango, and Santee, all former oilers, swarmed out of Pearl Harbor with a flock of destroyers on 15 March, heading southwest. Designated Carrier Division (CarDiv) 22, they joined the fast carriers of the 5th Fleet on 27 March and sped west to the Palaus. There, their planes of CarDiv 22 flew patrols over vulnerable tankers before setting course for Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides on 4 April.

In this, the closing phase of the New Guinea campaign, Santee fueled and provisioned near Espiritu Santo from 7 to 10 April, then sailed to Purvis Bay Solomons, on the 13th. CarDiv 22 joined CarDiv 24 and a destroyer squadron on 16 April and set course for New Guinea.

Santee's air group aided in destroying 100 enemy aircraft and ripping up enemy airfields before the landings, prior to departing for Manus Island, Admiralties, on 24 April. Arriving at Seeadler Harbor the next day, Santee and her sister ships took on fuel and food; then sailed again on the 26th for Hollandia. From 12 May through 1 June, Santee traded in her own air arm for 66 Corsairs and 15 Hellcats and personnel of Marine Air Group 21. On 2 June Carrier Division 22 started north for Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls. On 4 August, the CVE reached newly-won Guam. The 81 aircraft of Air Group 21 became the first planes to operate from the reconquered island.

After training exercises and the re-embarkment of her own planes at Manus, Santee got underway on 10 September and rendezvoused with Task Force 77 near Mapia Island. At Morotai in the Moluccas, Santee Avengers bombed ground installations. One plane was lost to the enemy, but Santee herself had no contact with the Japanese. By 1 October, the CVE was back in Seeadler Harbor.

Sailing from Manus on 12 October Santee and accompanying combatants reached Philippine waters on the 20th. The escort carrier's gunners shot down an enemy plane during an air attack that morning, and her aircraft splashed two more.

At 0736 on 25 October, Santee launched five Avenger and eight Wildcat aircraft for an attack against Japanese surface units some 120 miles to the north. At 0740, a Japanese plane made a suicide dive on the Santee with an estimated 63 kilogram bomb, crashing through the flight deck and stopping on the hangar deck. At 0756, a torpedo struck the ship, causing flooding of several compartments and a six degree list. Emergency repairs were completed by 0935.

Between 18 and 27 October, Santee planes shot down 31 Japanese planes and sank one 5,000 ton ammunition ship, in addition to damage inflicted by strafing during their 377 sorties. On 31 October, the CVE anchored in Seeadler Harbor for temporary repairs to battle damage.

Underway again on 9 November, she moored at Pearl Harbor on the 19th. Following more repairs, the escort carrier embarked 98 marines for transportation to the United States and entered Los Angeles Harbor on 5 December. Santee completed the year undergoing repairs to battle damage and general overhaul.

After post repair trials at San Diego, the escort carrier headed toward Hawaii on 31 January 1945, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 February. On 7 March, she got underway for Ulithi in the Western Carolines, altering her course en route to assist in the search for the B-24 which had disappeared while carrying Army Lt. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, before anchoring on 19 March. Two days later Santee steamed toward Leyte Gulf. '

()n 27 March, Santee departed the Philippines to provide air coverage for southern transport groups Dog and Easy en route to the objective area at Okinawa Gunto for the invasion of Okinawa Jima, the largest combined operation of the Pacific war.

On Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, Santee provided direct support to the American ground forces landing on Okinawa and she continued this duty until 8 April, when she turned to aid British carriers in denying the use of Sakishima Gunto airfields to the enemy. For 42 consecutive dawns, Santee's aircraft winged over target sectors in the East China Sea, with daily returns to Okinawa itself for routine ground support. On 16 June, Santee launched a fighter bomber mission against specified targets on Kyushu, Japan.

Pulling out of the Okinawa area that day, Santee reached Leyte Gulf on the 19th, where minor repairs were made. Out again on 1 July, she operated west of Okinawa from the 5th to the 14th, covering minesweeping operations. On 7 July; a tail hook broke on a landing aircraft, allowing it to clear all barriers, crash among parked planes, and cause a fire. Four fighters and two torpedo bombers were jettisoned, six torpedo bombers were rendered non flyable duds, and one of the pilots of the parked aircraft was killed.

Santee was detached from the task unit on 15 July and proceeded to Guam, arriving at Apra Harbor four days later. Following flight deck repairs and general upkeep, the escort carrier got underway on 5 August for Saipan, engaging in carrier aircraft training for squadrons flown from that island en route. Anchoring in Saipan Harbor on the 9th, the CVE got underway for the Philippines on 13 August. Santee received word of the cessation of the hostilities against Japan on the 15th and anchored in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, two days later.

On 4 September, while en route to Korea to support occupation forces there, Santee was ordered to northern Formosa to evacuate ex-prisoners of war. On 5 September, the escort carrier received, from destroyer escort, Kretchmer, 155 officers and men of the British and Indian Armies. These soldiers had been captured by the Japanese in Malaya in 1942. They were given medical aid and berthed on the hangar deck. The next day, Santee picked up additional men from destroyer escorts, Finch and Brister, making a total of 322 officers and men. They included 30 American Army and Naval officers and men who had been taken on Bataan and Corregidor, and 10 officers and men from the Dutch Army and Merchant Marine, captured in Java. On 9 September, Santee disembarked the 477 evacuees at Manila Bay.

Five days later, Santee stood out of Manila Bay and steamed for Okinawa, anchoring at Buckner Bay on the 19th. Underway again the next day, Santee reached Wakanoura Wan, Honshu, Japan, on the 22d. From 24 to 26 September, Santee steamed along the coast, providing air coverage for occupation forces landing at Wakayama.

Santee departed Wakanoura Wan on 3 October, left her formation on the 6th to search for a missing PBM aircraft which had carried Rear Admiral William D. Sample, the ship's first commanding officer after her conversion to an escort carrier.

On 20 October, Santee got underway for Okinawa, arriving two days later at Buckner Bay. On 23 October, Santee got underway for Pearl Harbor, disembarking 375 passengers there on 4 November. The next day, Santee continued her role in operation "Magic Carpet" by embarking 18 marines bound for the west coast.

Anchoring at San Diego on 11 November, Santee remained there until the 26th, when she got underway for Guam on additional "Magic Carpet" duty.

On 27 February 1946, Santee departed San Diego and arrived at Boston Harbor on 25 March, via the Panama Canal. The CVE was placed in reserve on 21 October. Santee was reclassified on 12 June 1965 as an escort helicopter aircraft carrier, CVHE-29, and struck from the Navy list on 1 March 1959. On 5 December 1959, she was sold to the Master Metals Co. for scrapping.

Santee received nine battle stars for World War II service.