USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) was the second ship of that name. She is an Essex-class carrier, launched by the New York Navy Yard on 29 April 1944, sponsored by Mrs. J. S. McCain, and commissioned on 26 November 1944 with Captain Adrian O. Rule, Jr. in command. The first Bon Homme Richard was John Paul Jones's ship of the Revolution. The name was first given to the carrier now called Yorktown (CV-10), which was renamed in 1942.
She left Norfolk on 19 March 1945, reached Pearl Harbor on 5 April and trained in Hawaiian waters. She joined Task Force 38 off Okinawa on 6 June 1945 and on 7 to 10 June joined the attacks on Okino Daito Jima. From 2 July to 15 August she served with the Third Fleet in the air strikes against Japan. She stayed off Japan until 16 September, then went by Guam to San Francisco, arriving on 20 October.
She was then converted for troop-carrying and made trans-Pacific voyages from 8 November 1945 to 16 January 1946. She was decommissioned on 9 January 1947 and recommissioned in 1951 for Korea, where she took part in the strikes on North Korea. She received one battle star for the Second World War.
Her wartime commanding officers, from NavSource: Captain Adrian Ogle Rule Jr., 26 November 1944 to 23 August 1945; Captain Harold Foster Fick, 23 August 1945 to 28 February 1946.
Sources: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS), Wikipedia, NavSource Online (commanding officers) and Wikimedia Commons (photograph records).