RADM Ahroon, apprised of the find, directed all surface units to proceed to the area at their best speed. Summoned to the scene, the other two airborne S2Fs joined in the search, marking the debris and the first victim. PHIL SEA preceded by her helicopters, arrived at 1140 and commenced additional searches.

All ships lowered boats, and assisted by the hovering helos, carried out the grim task of recovering victims and debris from a 33 square mile area, working ceaselessly until darkness. The shoeless, life-jacketed victims bore mute testimony to the fact that a ditching had perhaps been attempted. Eventually joined by USCGC MINNETONKA (WPG-67), the effort recovered 17 bodies, numerous packets of mail and small debris. At first light the following day, the group resumed the search, recovering two more bodies before 1000. Only additional debris turned up thereafter, with no sign of the other 25 people on board the ill-fated Stratocruiser. During the two days of recovery operations PHIL SEA's Trackers swept an additional 20,000 square miles without success. Ultimately, upon RADM Ahroon's recommendation, Commander, Hawaiian Sea Frontier terminated search operations at 1800 on the 15th. The ASW carrier returned to Long Beach three days later.

PHILIPPINE SEA began her last year of commissioned service operating out of Long Beach, sailing on her final WESTPAC deployment on January 13, 1958 with VS-21 and HS-6 embarked. Proceeding via Pearl Harbor, the ship reached Subic Bay on January 31st. She operated out of Subic through late February, swinging through the waters of Okinawa's Buckner Bay and back to the Philippines before reaching Yokosuka on April 5th for a 5-day stay. Returning to Subic, PHIL SEA logged her 82,000th arrested landing on April 24th when LTJG Leo Gaffrey brought his Tracker aboard. The carrier then visited Singapore, engaging in Exercise "Oceanlink" during 1-13 May.  A multilateral SEATO operation, it included the British carriers HMS BULWARK and the Australian carrier HMAS MELBOURNE. CVS-47 conducted "cross decking" ops with both Commonwealth carriers.

Departing Yokosuka on July 2,1958, PHILIPPINE SEA arrived at San Diego on the 15th, moving to Long Beach the following day. She returned to San Diego briefly to offload her last embarked aviation units, VS-21 and HS-6, before sailing back to Long Beach on the 25th. On August 14,  1958 U.S.S. PHILIPPINE SEA was ordered to report to Commander, Pacific Reserve Fleet for phase "bravo' inactivation, which occurred on the 22nd. That same day, CAPT Tuttle turned over command to his Executive Officer, CDR James
G. Hedrick, USN.

Only 12 years old, PHILIPPINE SEA was placed out of commission, in reserve on December 22, 1958 and berthed at the Long Beach, California Naval Shipyard. Inactivated without an overhaul, she was deemed to have "no potential for operating high performance aircraft without complete modernization." By the same token, because of her size, it was thought that she could not "achieve restricted capability after modernization." She was accordingly designated as an "auxiliary aircraft carrier transport," AVTII, effective May 15, 1959 along with three of her sisters, FRANKLIN (AVT-8), BUNKER HILL (AVI-9) and LEYIE (AVr-1 0).

A decade later the Navy again looked at PHILIPPINE SEA. By that point, however, she was an "unimproved World War II axial deck aircraft carrier."  To "activate, repair and modernize the ship to fulfill the mission of an antisubmarine warfare support carrier would be an unprofitable expenditure of limited resources." Accordingly, the president of the Board of Inspection and Survey found PHILIPPINE SEA "unfit for further naval service," and recommended that she be stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. Deemed "not essential to the defense of the United States," PHILIPPINE SEA was stricken on December 1, 1969 and sold for scrap on March 23, 1971 to Zidell Explorations, Inc. of Portland, OR.

The name PHILIPPINE SEA and deeds of her men, however, have not been forgotten. On 9 June 1986, Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman, Jr. mindful of not only the significance of the 1944 battle but of the accomplishments of the PHIL SEA, assigned the name to a TICONDEROGA-class (CG-47) Guided Missile Cruiser that had been laid down at Bath Iron Works in Maine on May 8, 1986. She was launched on July 12,1987, and the new PHILIPPINE SEA (CG-58) was delivered to the Navy early in 1989. The crew of this new warship should derive consider pride from the accomplishments of her illustrious predecessor and crews who served their country so well.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: CAPT George C. Duncan, USN (Ret); LTJG Ted Korsgren, USNR (Ret); ETCM Allan G. LeBaron, USN (Ret); CDRjohn M. Rochford, USN (Ret); Roland H. Baker, Jr.; PHCM David B. Benton, USN (Ret).