USS Rabaul CVE-121 US Navy Escort Carrier. Immediately after launch.
Rabaul was laid down 29 January 1945 by Todd Pacific Shipyards, Tacoma, Washington, launched 14 June 1945 and delivered to the Navy 30 August 1946. Rabaul was named for Rabaul, a strategically significant port in the Pacific theater of World War II.
Accepted into the 19th Fleet, (the Pacific Reserve Fleet), Rabaul was berthed at Tacoma without seeing any active service. The warship was mothballed there during the early years of the Cold War and served as a mobilization reserve in case of war with the Soviet Union. Reclassified CVHE-121 in June 1955, she was transferred to the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet in June 1958 and reclassified AKV-21 in May of the following year. She remained in reserve at San Diego until 1 September 1971 when she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register and sold for scrapping.
