World War II Shangri-La completed fitting out at Norfolk and took her shakedown cruise to
Trinidad, between 15 September and 21 December 1944, at which time she returned to Norfolk. On 17 January 1945, she stood out of
Hampton Roads, formed up with
large cruiser and
destroyer , and sailed for
Panama. The three ships arrived at
Cristobal,
Panama Canal Zone on 23 January and transited the canal the next day.
Shangri-La departed from
Balboa on 25 January and arrived at
San Diego, California, on 4 February. There she loaded passengers, stores, and extra planes for transit to
Hawaii and got underway on 7 February. Upon her arrival at
Pearl Harbor on 15 February, she commenced two months of duty, qualifying land-based Navy pilots in carrier landings.) operational U.S. carrier with an angled flight deck. She conducted intensive fleet training for the remainder of 1955, then deployed to the Far East on 5 January 1956. Until 1960, she alternated western Pacific cruises with operations out of San Diego. On 16 March 1960, she put to sea from San Diego en route to her new home port,
Mayport, Florida. She entered Mayport after visits to
Callao, Peru;
Valparaíso, Chile;
Port of Spain, Trinidad;
Bayonne, New Jersey; and
Norfolk, Virginia. The ship itself suffered a bent hull. There were no casualties on the carrier and the hole was quickly patched at sea by the crew of the tender ship . As a result of this incident,
Shangri-La underwent an extensive overhaul during the winter of 1965 and the spring of 1966, this time at Philadelphia, then resumed operations as before. On 30 June 1969, she was redesignated an
antisubmarine warfare carrier (
CVS-38). One of
Shangri-Las four propellers is on display outside Meding's Seafood in
Milford, Delaware. On 6 September 2017, USS
Shangri-Las bell was placed on display at
Jacksonville University NROTC Building as a permanent loan. The bell was found by a farmer in his field at
Hudson, Florida, in June 2017. He notified the USS Shangri La Reunion Group, who repaired and restored the bell before loaning it to the NROTC unit. ==Awards==