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USS Leyte (CV-32)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Leyte (CV-32)

Crown Point (CV-32) was laid down on 21 February 1944, at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; renamed Leyte on 8 May 1945; launched on 23 August 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Alice M. [Dillon] Mead, wife of U.S. Senator James M. Mead, New York (D); and commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Va., on 11 April 1946, Capt. Henry F. MacComsey in command.

USS Leyte (CV-32) arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 16 September 1946, for shakedown training and then transited the Panama Canal on 20 October, to join the battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) on a good will cruise down the western seaboard of South America. She again transited the Panama Canal on 18 November 1946, to resume shakedown operations that took USS Leyte (CV-32) to the waters of Cuba and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She stood into Yorktown, Va., on 12 December. 

Shortly afterward, again as a result of ongoing Soviet pressure, this time against Turkey, and the British withdrawal from the eastern Mediterranean, U.S. ships including USS Leyte (CV-32) made a show of support for the Turkish government during a week-long visit to Istanbul beginning on 2 May. During February–March 1950, USS Leyte (CV-32) participated in Operation Portrex off Puerto Rico and then returned to Norfolk for an accelerated three-week overhaul. USS Leyte (CV-32) made a fourth deployment in her short career to the Mediterranean from 2 May–24 August 1950.

USS Leyte (CV-32) arrived at Sasebo, Japan, on 8 October 1950 and after reporting to Commander, Seventh Fleet, was engaged in combat operations the next day. From 9 October 1950 through 19 January 1951, the ship and her aircraft spent 92 days at sea and flew 3,933 sorties against North Korean targets. USS Leyte (CV-32), having provided close air support for operations around the Chosin Reservoir, also assisted with retrograde and evacuation operations around Hungnam, North Korea. She was at Sasebo (26 December 1950–7 January 1951) and then returned to Korean waters to help U.S. Army units hold the strategic town of Wonju in central Korea. On 8 July 1953, however, the designation Anti-Submarine Support Aircraft Carrier (CVS) was established for attack carriers assigned to hunt submarines. The decision became effective on 8 August, and from this date, the five assigned carriers, not all operational, were redesignated USS Leyte (CV-32), USS Enterprise (CVS-6), USS Franklin (CVS-13), USS Bunker Hill (CVS-17), and USS Antietam (CVS-36). USS Leyte (CV-32)’s conversion was completed on 4 January 1954, and she thus became the initial operational antisubmarine warfare carrier.

USS Leyte (CV-32) departed Quonset Point in January 1959 for the New York Naval Shipyard, where she commenced pre-inactivation overhaul. She was decommissioned at New York on 15 May 1959 and placed in reserve. Consequently, USS Leyte (CV-32) was stricken from the NVR on 1 June 1969.

For a complete history of USS Leyte (CV-32) please see its DANFS page.