[2][7] However, the U.S. Navy never maintained any institutional distinction between the long-hull and short-hull members of the Essex class, and applied postwar refits and upgrades to both groups equally.

[7] The ship was powered by eight 600 psi Babcock & Wilcox boilers, and Westinghouse geared steam turbines that developed 150,000 shaft horsepower that turned four propellers.

The ship remained drydocked at the yard for two weeks before sailing for Naval Air Station Quonset Point on 13 June.

However, a shortage of men following the post-World War II demobilization forced her to remain at reduced operational status until 23 September when she embarked for sea trials.

Philippine Sea departed Norfolk Naval Shipyard 12 October for Cuban waters where she conducted an abbreviated shakedown cruise and training exercises for CVG-20's Grumman F8F Bearcats and Curtiss SB2C Helldivers until 20 November.

She then headed to Norfolk where Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd boarded her and she took on six Douglas R4D-5 Skytrain transports, two Stinson OY-1 Sentinel liaison aircraft, and a Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter along with cargo, spare parts, skis and Task Force 68 personnel.

She was refitted for most of the year at New York Naval Shipyard and Bayonne, New Jersey through 15 November 1947 before conducting trials and training around Quonset and Guantánamo Bay through February 1948.

That month, she became flagship of Carrier Division Four led by Rear Admiral Ralph E. Jennings, who established his command aboard her on 4 February.

On 24 May 1950, Philippine Sea sailed from Norfolk through the Panama Canal, arriving at her new home port of San Diego to join the Pacific Fleet.

[17] She sailed for Hawaiian waters on 5 July with Carrier Air Group 11 embarked, flying four squadrons of Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bombers.

Leaving Pearl Harbor, Philippine Sea sailed at full speed for the Western Pacific, reaching Okinawa on 4 August.

[24] Following the beginning of The Great Naktong Offensive on 31 August, the two carriers launched 263 sorties to prevent the North Koreans from overrunning Pusan Perimeter.

The ship steamed to the southern tip of the Peninsula at 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) on 1 September to support the Masan area more easily during the North Korean attacks.

[26] With the other carriers of Task Force 77, Philippine Sea targeted rail and communication centers around North Korean-controlled Seoul to Wonsan in September.

The strikes were part of a deception plan to draw North Korean attention away from the UN force massing for an attack on Inchon.

[21] The day of the operation, 15 September, Philippine Sea dispatched planes far inland to destroy North Korean positions and prevent reinforcements from countering the Inchon landings.

VF-112 Ensign Edward D. Jackson Jr. was leading a section dispatched to strafe an airfield near North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.

Jackson then flew through an aerial booby trap: steel cables strung across the Han to "clothesline" low flying planes.

[31] Crow, flying just astern noticed something wrong, then saw the crushed wing tank and shattered canopy, its inner surface misted with blood.

[32] In November 1950 when China surprised the United Nations ground troops with an unexpected counterattack from the Yalu River by the People's Liberation Army, Philippine Sea planes saw heavy action.

The US Navy had sent Valley Forge and several other ships away from Korea, expecting the conflict to end, and so the unprepared forces remaining in the area were heavily engaged.

[34] Throughout the long retreat from the Yalu River, the four carriers' Panthers, Skyraiders and Corsairs provided close air support for the trapped X Corps at Chosin Reservoir.

[35] Though the increasingly cold weather proved a problem for Philippine Sea,[36] the ship continued to support the troops as they tried to evacuate from the reservoir and then cleared the path for their retreat to Hungnam.

[35] During this support, Valley Forge and Philippine Sea were tightly clustered with Leyte and Princeton and commanders worried that they would be a target for air attack by North Korean MiG-15 fighters, prompting a large screen of 32 destroyers.

[37][38] For the rest of 1950 and early 1951, she launched numerous attacks against Chinese forces around the 38th Parallel hoping to slow their advance as UN troops retreated.

She steamed back to Korea three days later, in time to lend close air support to UN forces throughout early 1951 as they faced repeated offensives by the Chinese.

With five more Corsair squadrons of Carrier Air Group 9 embarked, she began a third cruise to the Far East early in December 1952 with about 100 aircraft.

[42] While engaged in the search mission, a flight of the ship's Douglas AD Skyraiders was attacked by two Chinese fighter aircraft.

Throughout 1956 she saw little activity as crew went on leave and she was docked for maintenance, and only conducted several routine training operations off the coast of southern California.

After 10 years docked at the reserve fleet, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Registry on 1 December 1969[9] and sold for scrapping on 23 March 1971[46] to Zidell Explorations Corporation in Portland, Oregon.