Scientists have confirmed that wreckage found on the seafloor off the Philippines are the remains of the USS Ommaney Bay, an aircraft carrier that was destroyed in World War II less than a year after it sailed out of San Diego Bay on its second deployment.
A Japanese kamikaze plane struck the Casablanca-class carrier on Jan. 4, 1945, in the Sulu Sea, igniting massive fires and setting off munitions, killing nearly 95 crew members. The damage was so bad the Navy scuttled the ship.
The possible remains of Ommaney Bay were reported to the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C., in 2019 by Vulcan, an underwater research and conservation company.
The command said on Tuesday that its underwater archaeology branch confirmed that the wreckage is that of Ommaney Bay, a 512-foot, steam engine powered ship that was less than half the size of today's nuclear powered aircraft carriers.
" Ommaney Bay is the final resting place of American Sailors who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country," the command's director, Samuel J. Cox, said in a statement.
"This discovery allows the families of those lost some amount of closure and gives us all another chance to remember and honor their service to our nation."
Ommaney Bay, a so-called escort carrier, was built by Kaiser Shipbuilding in Vancouver, Wash., and went into service in spring 1944, transporting troops and aircraft from Oakland to Brisbane, Australia.
The ship then traveled to San Diego where it underwent training drills and repairs. On June 10, Ommaney Bay headed for the western Pacific, where it carried out air cover and strikes during the invasion of the Palau Islands. The ship also participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which crippled much of the Japanese fleet, helping the U.S. win the war.
Ommaney Bay's service came to a tragic end the following January when it was hit by the kamikaze plane not far from Mindanao, historians say.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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