Difference between revisions 510825 and 510839 on enwiki

<table border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width=300>
<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">(add image here)</td></tr>
<tr><th style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;">'''Career'''</th><th style="background:navy;align:right;">[[image:usnjack.png|USN Jack]]  [[image:rnensign.png|Royal Navy Ensign]]</th></tr>
<tr><td>Laid down:</td><td>[[21 May]] [[1943]]</td></tr>
<tr><td>Launched:</td><td>[[8 November]] [[1943]]</td></tr>
<tr><td>Commissioned ''(RN)'':</td><td>[[5 February]] [[1944]]</td></tr>
<tr><td>Decommissioned:</td><td>[[12 March]] [[1946]]</td></tr>
<tr><td>Fate:</td><td>merchant ship</td></tr>
<tr><th colspan="2" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy  no-repeat scroll top left;">'''General Characteristics'''</th></tr>
<tr><td>Displacement:</td><td>7,800 tons</td></tr>
<tr><td>Length:</td><td>495' 8"</td></tr>
<tr><td>Beam:</td><td>69' 6"</td></tr>
<tr><td>Draft:</td><td>26'</td></tr>
<tr><td>Speed:</td><td>17.5 knots</td></tr>
<tr><td>Complement:</td><td>890 officers and men</td></tr>
<tr><td>Armament:</td><td>2 x 5-inch guns, 4 x twin 40mm Bofors, 10 x single 20mm Oerlikon</td></tr>
<tr><td>Aircraft:</td><td>28</td></tr>
</table>

The '''USS ''Willapa'' (CVE-53)''' (originally '''AVG-53''' then later '''ACV-53'''), a ''Ruler''-class [[escort aircraft carrier]] (originally an auxiliary aircraft carrier) in the [[United States Navy]], leased to the [[United Kingdom]].

''Willapa'' was laid down on [[21 May]] [[1943]] at [[Seattle, Washington]], by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Co. and reclassified '''CVE-53''' on [[10 June]] 1943.  Launched on [[8 November]] 1943, the ship was transferred under [[lend-lease]] to the [[Royal Navy]] on [[5 February]] [[1944]] to be manned by a Canadian crew.  

Renamed '''HMS ''Puncher'' (D79)''', the carrier served the [[Royal Canadian Navy]] in the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] and [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] for the duration of hostilities, mainly in a training role.

Decommissioned on [[16 February]] [[1946]] at [[Norfolk, Virginia]], and returned to American custody on that day, the escort carrier was struck from the [[Navy Registry]] on [[12 March]] 1946, having never seen active service with the [[United States Navy]].

Initially sold to William B. St. John, of [[New York City]], on [[9 January]] [[1947]], the carrier was subsequently resold to a British firm on [[4 February]] 1947 and converted for mercantile service.  She later served successively as ''Muncaster Castle'', ''Bardic'' and ''Ben Nevis'' until she was scrapped in [[Taiwan]] in [[1973]].

{{Bogue_class_escort_carrier}}

[[Category:World War II American escort aircraft carriers|Willapa]The term ''Axis of Medieval'', paraphrasing the [[Axis of Evil]], is used, half jokingly, to describe the United States, Syria, Iran and other countries blocking [[humanitarian]] moves in the United Nations. The US under the "Christian Right" leader George W Bush cut of $34M in funding for the United Nations population Fund, due to concerns that some of the money was used to fund abortions. The US also blocked moves to raise the minimum age for military enlistment from 15 to 18 for child soldiers in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it refuses to ratify. The US and other countries allow 17 year-olds to enter the military.  

=== External Links ===
* [http://www.oneworld.net/ips2/jan98/child_soldiers.html Refers to Axis of Medieval in de funding population project] 
* [http://www.stormpages.com/sammy369/THEpeopleleaders2.html US blocking action on child soldiers]