Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "USS Sangamon - Guide 279" video.

You have to understand that in late 1942, the Allies had two carriers, Enterprise and Long Island (the later with unreliable engines and reduced to being an aircraft ferry) between the east coast of Africa and west coast of the Americas. That's the reason the Sangamons were pressed into service as ersatz fleet carriers. BTW, the Sangamons were bigger than the ship my dad served on, the San Jacinto - a light (fleet) carrier. The USN rated them as the most battle-worthy of all the CVE's until the Commencement Bay class entered service. These were based on the Sangamons, but built as carriers from the start. A comparison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangamon-class_escort_carrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commencement_Bay-class_escort_carrier#:~:text=List%20of%20Commencement%20Bay-class%20escort%20carriers%20%20,5%20February%201951%20%2013%20more%20rows%20
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Matt Hadley The USN tradition is to name oilers (AO), replenishment tankers (AOR) and gasoline tankers (AOG) after rivers, preferably with American Indian names
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Lend-Lease aircraft on RN carriers were tossed. The Lend=Lease specified that surviving materiel was either to be returned or purchased after the war was over. The British were bankrupt and couldn't buy them if they wanted them - and they didn't as no new war was on the horizon (how soon that would change). The USN said "No thanks" when the British offered to return them as it was demobilizing and had no need for them. So over the side they went.
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@muznick Well, what would you have dome with them? They were obsolescent - the future obviously belonged to jets and improved piston engined birds such as the Skyraider. Plus you have huge stocks back in the States for the transition period.
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Michael Godbee - The Invincible Class were designed to fight Battle of the Atlantic Round Three with the Harriers holding off the Bears and Bisons and Sea Kings killing Red SSN's. Prior to that, the USN converted a bunch of the Essex Class into CVS's with a detachment of four A-4's to serve as "fighters" from the Atlantic and Pacific VFS squadrons, a squadron of S-2 ASW aircraft, a squadron of SH-3 ASW copters and a detachment of EA-1E early warning birds. The last of these went right after Vietnam.
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The plan for Operation Olympic was to convert the light carriers of the Independence and Saipan classes to fighter carriers with entire air groups of F8F's/F2M's to hold off the kamikazes. As the largest of the CVE's, some of the Sangamon and Commencement Bay classes may have also served as fighter carriers. Note: the Bearcat was about the same size as the Wildcat, which formed the fighter element of the composite (FM fighters and TBM bombers) squadrons on most CVE's, so operations would have been quite feasible.
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