USS Wright, a 14,500-ton Saipan class small aircraft carrier, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Commissioned in February 1947, she spent most of her time through 1950 serving as a training carrier out of Pensacola, Florida, with occasional diversions to anti-submarine warfare operations and other duties. In January-March 1951, the ship made the first of four overseas deployments, this one with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Following more than a year of anti-submarine exercises and other training activities off the U.S. east coast, Wright crossed the Atlantic again in August 1952 to take part in NATO Operation "Mainbrace" in northern European waters. She made a final Mediterranean deployment in February-May 1953.

In April 1954, Wright passed through the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet. She operated in the Far East with the Seventh Fleet, carrying a Marine Corps attack squadron, during May-October 1954. The next year she participated in the nuclear weapons test Operation "Wigwam", then began inactivation preparations. USS Wright decommissioned at Bremerton, Washington, in March 1956. While in reserve, she was redesignated an aircraft transport (AVT-7) in May 1959. In March 1962, she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to begin conversion to a command ship. Reclassified CC-2 in September of that year and recommissioned in May 1963, her remaining active service took place as USS Wright (CC-2).