USS Saipan (CVL-48)
_underway_c1955.jpg)
USS Saipan underway, c. 1956
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Saipan |
| Builder: | New York Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down: | 10 July 1944 |
| Launched: | 8 July 1945 |
| Commissioned: | 14 July 1946 |
| Decommissioned: | 14 January 1970 |
| Renamed: | Arlington, 1965 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap 1976 |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Saipan-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 14,500 tons |
| Length: | 684 ft (208 m) |
| Beam: |
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| Draft: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,721 officers and men |
| Armament: | 40 × Bofors 40 mm guns |
| Aircraft carried: | 50+ aircraft |
The first USS Saipan (CVL-48) was a light aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class of carrier. She was later selected for conversion into a command ship in 1963–1964, but instead of becoming a command ship she was converted to the Major Communications Relay Ship Arlington (AGMR-2) in 1965.
Saipan was laid down on 10 July 1944 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, launched on 8 July 1945, sponsored by Mrs. John W. McCormack, and commissioned on 14 July 1946, Capt. John G. Crommelin in command.
Commissioned eleven months after the close of World War II, Saipan trained student pilots out of Pensacola, Florida from September 1946 to April 1947 when, reassigned to Norfolk, Virginia as homeport, she departed the Gulf of Mexico; participated in exercises in the Caribbean; then proceeded to Philadelphia for overhaul. In November, she returned to Pensacola; but, in late December, after training midshipmen, steamed back to the east coast to serve with the Operational Development Force.
In February 1948, however, her work in jet operational techniques, carrier support tactics, and electronic instrument evaluation was interrupted briefly. From the 7th to the 24th, she was engaged in transporting the United States delegation to the Venezuelan Presidential inauguration and back. On her return, she conducted local operations off the Virginia Capes, and in April, after a visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she resumed work for the Operational Development Force. On 18 April, she also relieved Mindoro as flagship of Carrier Division 17 (CarDiv 17).
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