In 1941, as United States participation in World War II became increasingly likely, the US Navy embarked on a construction program for escort carriers, which were converted from transport ships of various types.

These proved to be very successful ships, and the Commencement Bay class, authorized for Fiscal Year 1944, were an improved version of the Sangamon design.

[1] They proved to be the most successful of the escort carriers, and the only class to be retained in active service after the war, since they were large enough to operate newer aircraft.

Given the very large storage capacity for oil, the ships of the Commencement Bay class could steam for some 23,900 nautical miles (44,300 km; 27,500 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

Salerno Bay was launched on 26 September and three days later, was moved to the Commercial Iron Works of Portland, Oregon, to complete fitting out.

She arrived back in Hagushi on 12 October, but departed two days later as part of the fleet covering the Chinese Nationalist force that moved to Formosa to take control of the island from the defeated Japanese.

[6] In mid-December, Salerno Bay was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet; she departed for the East Coast of the United States soon thereafter, passed through the Panama Canal, and arrived in her new home port at Norfolk, Virginia, on 23 December.

In early 1947, the Navy ordered Salerno Bay to be laid up in reserve; in June, she moved from Norfolk to Boston, where the work to preserve the ship for a lengthy period out of service was done.

She joined the ships of Task Force 173 on the way, and the squadron took part in joint training maneuvers off Norway with other vessels from NATO fleets in September.

[6] By this time, the Navy had begun replacing the Commencement Bay-class ships with much larger Essex-class aircraft carriers, since the former were too small to operate newer and more effective anti-submarine patrol planes.

Proposals to radically rebuild the Commencement Bays either with an angled flight deck and various structural improvements or lengthen their hulls by 30 ft (9.1 m) and replace their propulsion machinery to increase speed came to nothing, as they were deemed to be too expensive.

She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1961 and sold to the ship breaking firm Revalorizacion de Materiales, S.A., and handed over to be scrapped on 14 December.