USS Munda (CVE-104)

USS Munda (CVE-104)

USS Munda (CVE-104) was a United States Navy Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier. She was the last of the series to be built.

More Casablanca-class carriers were built than any other single class of aircraft carrier in history, and the last to be built on the Liberty Ship platform; the Commencement Bay class escort carrier which followed was designed from the keel up as a carrier.

She was laid down on 29 March 1944 under Maritime Commission contract as MC hull 1141 by the Kaiser Shipyards, Vancouver, Washington, originally designated ACV-104, and redesignated CVE-104 on 15 July 1944. Originally named Tonowek Bay on 23 September 1944, the carrier was renamed Munda on 6 November 1944, in honor of the battle to take Munda Bay in the Solomon Islands. It was during this fight that Rodger Wilton Young was killed. Some commemorative photographs of the ship gave the name as Munda Bay.

Munda was launched on 27 May 1944 (sponsored by Mrs. James E. Dyer), to be accepted and commissioned on 8 July 1944, under the command of Captain L. A. Pope (a Naval aviator who had, in the 1920s, literally "written the book" on aerial photography for the Navy).