The ship, the ninth US Navy ship to bear the name, was originally named Oriskany , but was renamed while under construction in honor of the previous Wasp CV-7 , which was sunk 15 September Wasp was commissioned in November , and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations , earning eight battle stars. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early s as an attack carrier CVA , and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier CVS.
In her second career, she operated mainly in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean. She was retired in , and sold for scrap in The ship was laid down as Oriskany on 18 March at Quincy, Massachusetts , by the Bethlehem Steel Company , and renamed Wasp on 13 November , shortly after the sinking of the previous Wasp.
She was launched on 17 August , sponsored by Miss Julia M. Walsh , the sister of Senator David I. Sprague in command. Following a shakedown cruise which lasted through the end of , Wasp returned to Boston for a brief yard period to correct minor flaws which had been discovered during her time at sea.
On 10 January , the new aircraft carrier departed Boston, steamed to Hampton Roads, Virginia , and remained there until the last day of the month, when she sailed for Trinidad , her base of operations through 22 February.
She returned to Boston five days later and prepared for service in the Pacific. Montgomery 's newly formed Task Group On 14 May, she and her sister carriers of TG As the force neared Marcus, it split, sending San Jacinto north to search for Japanese picket boats while Wasp and Essex launched strikes on 19 and 20 May, aimed at installations on the island. American planes encountered heavy antiaircraft fire but still managed to do enough damage to prevent Japanese forces on the island from interfering with the impending assault on Saipan.
