USS Copahee and the strategic value of aircraft ferrying

Convoy work and aircraft ferrying remained important after escort carriers acquired more glamorous combat roles. USS Copahee spent her wartime career moving aircraft among Pacific bases. Her voyages carried replacements outward and brought captured Japanese aircraft back to the United States for examination. That movement supported operational readiness and the intelligence value of enemy equipment. Assigning the task to an escort carrier freed Essex- and Independence-class ships for operations that required their speed and larger air groups. Transport work was a source of combat power in its own right.