USS Cowpens, an 11,000-ton Independence class small aircraft carrier built at Camden, New Jersey, was commissioned in May 1943 with the hull number CV-25. She was redesignated CVL-25 two months later and arrived in the Pacific in September to join the war against Japan. After seeing combat for the first time in the October 1943 raid on Wake Island, she participated in the Gilberts and Marshalls invasions during the last two months of 1943 and the first two months of 1944. From February until May 1944, Cowpens and other Fifth Fleet aircraft carriers attacked enemy targets in the Central Pacific and New Guinea. She took part in the Marianas campaign, including the Battle of the Philippine Sea, during June 1944, and continued her support of operations in that area into July.

In September 1944, Cowpens covered the invasions of the Palaus and Morotai. Over the next three months, she participated in raids on Okinawa, Formosa and the Philippines and in the great Battle of Leyte Gulf. Her combat activities continued into January and February 1945, with raids around the South China Sea and Philippines areas and support for the landings at Lingayen Gulf and Iwo Jima.

Following a west coast overhaul, Cowpens returned to the war zone in June 1945. During the last months of the Pacific War, her aircraft pounded Wake Island and targets in the Japanese home islands. Support for the occupation of Japan was followed by duty transporting war veterans home from the Pacific during late 1945 and early 1946. Cowpens was decommissioned in January 1947 and spent the rest of her Navy service in the Reserve Fleet. She was briefly reclassified as an aircraft transport, with the new hull number AVT-1, in May 1959 and was sold for scrapping a year later.