She was powered by four Babcock & Wilcox steam boilers and General Electric geared turbines producing 100,000 shaft horsepower (75,000 kW) for her four screws.

[1] After fitting out at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Bataan conducted preliminary shakedown training in Chesapeake Bay before sailing to the West Indies on 11 January 1944.

Two days later, while en route to Trinidad, she suffered her first loss when a Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter crashed into her number 2 stack and burst into flames, killing three crewmen.

On 13 April, she sailed with the carriers Hornet, Belleau Wood, Cowpens and the rest of Task Group (TG) 58.1 for air operations against Hollandia, New Guinea (now known as Jayapura).

One TBM Avenger was shot down during the attack, but the crew was rescued by submarine Tang, which was engaged in lifeguard duty - patrolling for such survivors during the battle.

Tasked with neutralizing Japanese airfields in the Marianas, the 15 fleet carriers of TF 58 planned to attack Saipan, Guam, and nearby island groups.

One section of four F6F Hellcats flying "rescue submarine cover patrol" near that island shot down three Mitsubishi A6M Zeke carrier fighters without American losses.

On 12 June, Bataan flew CAP and ASP over the task group while the three other carriers launched strikes at Orote air field on Guam.

On 16 June, after a morning fighter sweep over Iwo Jima, the task group received reports of a large Japanese force closing the Marianas from the Philippines.

On the morning of 20 June, Bataan launched CAP and ASP as normal and steamed west as the task force prepared for a second day of battle.

Bataan launched 17 fighters for the attack on Iwo Jima at dawn on 24 June but these, and the 34 Hellcats from Yorktown and Hornet, met a Japanese incoming strike about halfway to the target.

[1] Bataan entered the naval dry docks at Hunters Point on 30 July 1944 and, over the next two months, the yard workers repaired her elevator, painted the hull, and installed a second catapult, an air-search radar, deck lighting, rocket stowage, and a second aircraft landing barrier.

Assigned to TG 19.5, Bataan spent the next four months preparing for operations against the Bonin and Ryukyu Islands which were the targets of invasions planned by the Americans for early 1945.

The carrier entered the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 16 February, undergoing repairs to her flight deck and receiving three new 40-millimeter antiaircraft guns.

Bataan's air group lost four aircraft in these actions while the ship's company suffered one man killed and eleven injured from shell fragments.

Following a month of minor repairs to the warship and liberty for her crew, Bataan sailed in company with TG 38.3 on 1 July for the Japanese home islands.

Then her aircraft struck the naval base at Kure on 24 July, helping to sink Japanese battleship Hyūga and 15 small craft in the harbor.

Bad weather canceled most of her air strikes late in the month, limiting her aircraft to attacks on 28 and 30 July, and, because a typhoon passed through the area, raids did not resume until 9 August.

[1] After the formal surrender ceremony on 2 September, Bataan's aircraft air-dropped supplies to Allied prisoners of war at Zentzuji Camp in Shikoku.

[1] In 1949, heightened international tensions between the United States and NATO on the one hand, and the Soviet Union and communist China on the other, led to increased military spending.

Following the end of the evacuation on 24 December, her Corsairs then flew armed reconnaissance and close air support missions over the central mountains along the 38th parallel.

While on station, Bataan generally flew 40 sorties a day - eight defensive CAP flights with the remainder divided between close air support (CAS), armed reconnaissance (AR), and interdiction missions.

For CAS of ground forces, tactical air controllers usually called in Bataan's Corsairs for bomb, rocket, and napalm attacks on known enemy positions.

These flights also included air spotting missions when cruisers St. Paul and HMS Belfast fired on targets ahead of advancing UN troops.

On 8 April, after the fast carriers of TF 77 sailed south to Formosa to counter a perceived threat there, Bataan and HMS Theseus replaced them in the Sea of Japan.

Corsairs from Marine Attack Squadron VMF-312 along with British Fairey Firefly and Hawker Sea Fury fighters, bombed and strafed communist supply routes near Wonsan, Hamhung, and Songjin.

Later in the month, Bataan's Corsairs concentrated on the destruction of junks and sampans in the Taedong Gang estuary until bad weather canceled flight operations.

Following two weeks of rest and recreation for her crew, Bataan steamed to Bremerton, Washington, on 9 July for an extensive overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

In addition to the usual armed reconnaissance patrols along the coast, her Marine Corps Corsairs attacked Chinese troop concentrations south of Chinnampo and on the Ongjin peninsula.

Despite the bad flying weather associated with the spring thaw, VMA-312 continued to attack the enemy troop concentrations and supply dumps reported by friendly partisans.