Why wasn't the Saratoga used with the Fast Carrier Task Force?

Pretty much what the title says. After late 1943, Saratoga never really served with TF-38/58 in the Truk Raid/Phillippine Sea/Leyte, etc. Why didn't she?

Was she too old, flight operations too slow (I know she only had two aircraft elevators which slowed down air operations compared to the more modern ships in the fleet)>

 

The USN must have felt that it had more than enough new and better carriers.

 

The Truk Raid was to provide cover for the invasion of Eniwetok. While the majority of the carriers were raiding Truk, the USS Saratoga, USS Princeton(CVL-23), and USS Langley(CVL-27) were providing sir support and CAP for the American forces invading Eniwetok.

When the Battle of the Philippine Sea took place, the USS Saratoga had just begun a lengthy refit at Bremerton, Washington, having just finished a few months operating with the HMS Illustrious and the British Pacific Fleet.

By the time of Leyte Gulf, the Saratoga had completed her refit and was training Night fighter squadrons and conducting carrier qualifications with USS Ranger(CV-4). She would return to combat for the carrier raids on Tokyo and the invasion of Iwo Jima. However, her last combat stay in the Pacific was a brief one. She sailed from Ulithi in company with the USS Enterprise on February 10th, as Task Group 58.5, and would be severely damaged by several bombs and kamikazes on February 21st.

With this final damage, and taking into account her age and the plentiful number of newer large carriers, it was determined that it would be best if she that her damage would be repaired, but she would be retired from combat duty and converted into a full-time training carrier.

 

mumble, mumble, must be getting slow in my old age . . .

 

Sara definitely wasn't too slow in the water. If I remember correctly, she was the fastest of the US WWII carriers, remember she had battlecruiser machinery. She & Lexington turned up nearly 35 knots on trials; the Yorktowns and Essexes were good for 33. She was busy elsewhere when the fast carriers got into the TF 38/58 business. Flight deck ops in the USN is probably good for a thread of its own but Sara had a relatively large deck and could spot a large strike and fly it off without resorting to cat shots, she flew off most of her air wing while dead in the water or under tow after the 2nd torpedoing off the Eastern Solomons. Sara was also a hard luck ship, she was torpedoed twice during the war, missing substantial periods for repairs. She also spent a good deal of time in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean with the British Fleet before going to Bremerton as Takao points out above. This period, 2/44-2/45 was the heyday of the TF 38/58 operations. By the end of 2/45, she was en route back to the States for repair, again.
Bill