USS Alaska was ordered for construction on September 9, 1940. She was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden on December 17, 1941, launched on August 15, 1943 and commissioned on June 17, 1944. She served in the Pacific, escorting aircraft carriers and performing commerce raiding against Japanese merchant fleets in the East China Sea. One of her most notable periods of service was during the landings at Okinawa, were she provided shore bombardment ahead of the US Marine Corps landing elements. She was decommissioned on February 17, 1947 after less than three years of service and was finally scrapped at Newark in 1961.