Namesake

The USS Vella Gulf (CG 72) is the second named for the Battle of Vella Gulf. The first was an escort carrier commissioned on April 9, 1945 with Capt. Robert W. Morse in command. A commencement Bay-class carrier, she displaced 11,373 long tons (11,556 t), carried 34 aircraft, and held a complement of 1,066 men. Vella Gulf won a battle star for air strikes against Rots and the Pagan Islands in the Marianas in July 1945 and then participated with occupying forces after the surrender of Japan. Vella Gulf was deactivated and decommissioned on Aug. 9, 1946.