A short history of the Ninth U.S.S. Wasp:

The keel of Aircraft Carrier, CV-18, was laid on March 18, 1942 at Quincy, Massachusetts. Although originally intended to be the USS Oriskany, the ship was renamed USS Wasp and launched on 17 August 1943. She was commissioned U.S.S. Wasp on 24 November 1943. Click on this small photo to see an Official Navy Photo of the Wasp's Commissioning (I found this on the US Navy Page). CV-18 was the ninth Navy ship to bear the Wasp name. Soon after commissioning, Wasp was mixing it up with the Japanese, far away in the Pacific, at Wake, Tinian, Guam, Iwo Jima, Mindanoa, Luzon, Palmas, Formosa, Hong Kong, Okinawa, and finally Yokosuka and Tokyo, Japan.

In March 1945, while heading for strikes directly on airfields and naval bases in Japan, Wasp suffered her only serious injury of the war. A bomb pierced the flight and hanger decks and exploded in the compartment below where men were lined up for chow. We lost more than a 100 shipmates that day. The crew if the Mighty Stinger recovered fast and had her aircraft in the air with full striking load within one hour.

On 15 November 1945, work was completed on Wasp to accommodate temporary assignment as a troop transport in Operation "Magic Carpet." She could carry 5,500 enlisted men and 400 officers as passengers. On 17 February 1947, after the carpet ride, Wasp was given a rest. She was decommissioned and attached to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

Wasp was later removed from the reserve fleet and ordered to the New York Naval Shipyard for alteration so she could join the awakening "Jet Age." She was refitted to accommodate larger, heavier, and faster aircraft. When the refitting was complete, Wasp was recommissioned on 10 September 1951 and she joined the Atlantic Fleet in November of 1951.

Wasp was designated an attack carrier in October 1952, as CVA-18. Conversion from the old straight flight deck to the more useful angle deck was completed in December 1955. On 1 November 1956, Wasp started her third and final designation as an anti-submarine carrier, CVS-18. On 31 January 1957, Wasp steamed out of her home port of San Diego, California, for the last time. She headed south on the Pacific, rounded Cape Horn, then practiced operations in the South Atlantic and Caribbean before arriving at her new home port, Boston, Massachusetts, on 21 March 1957.

In 1965 and 1966, Wasp regained fame as an agent for peace by recovering five pairs of Gemini astronauts (Gemini IV, VI, VII, IX, and XII). The Mighty Stinger was decommissioned 1 July 1972, and sold for scrap on 23 May 1973.