USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80) - Postwar

Postwar

Petrof Bay sailed for Pearl Harbor 13 August 1945. Two days later Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. The carrier arrived 20 August, took VC-20 aboard for qualifying exercises in local seas, replaced VC-20 with VC-4, and sailed for Tokyo Bay 29 August by way of Eniwetok and Saipan . Flight operations continued, consisting of scouting and antisubmarine patrols with the last flight, a TBM Avenger, landing at 1628 on 10 September off Saipan. She arrived at Saipan 11 September, did not continue to Tokyo Bay, and departed for Pearl Harbor 25 September with 104 members of VC-7 and other military personnel aboard as passengers. All aircraft were unloaded at Pearl Harbor, ending Petrof Bay's career as a warship.

The 123 men of VPB-152 and others were boarded as passengers. She departed 5 October, arrived in San Francisco 11 October, disembarking hundreds of veteran passengers including her operational squadron, VC-4. On 18 October she made a round trip to Pearl Harbor to pick up more veterans, returning 31 October. Alterations were made at Hunters Point to accommodate more passengers and she departed 17 November for Eniwetok where she loaded 1,062 veterans, followed by 153 at Kwajalein. She arrived in San Francisco 6 December, departed for Guam 12 December, embarked 944 veterans, and arrived at San Pedro 18 January 1946.

Departing San Pedro 29 January 1946, she touched at San Diego, transited the Panama Canal, and steamed up the eastern seaboard to Norfolk, arriving 15 February. From there she headed northward again, and made her final mooring under her own power at Boston, Mass. 23 February.

She was decommissioned and placed in the Boston Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet 31 July 1955, reclassified CVU–80 12 June 1955, struck from the Navy Vessel Register 27 June 1958, sold to J. Berkurt 30 July 1959, and subsequently scrapped.