Princeton, CVL-23, was an Independence-class light carrier, the fourth ship of the name. She was ordered as the Cleveland-class light cruiser Tallahassee (CL-61), reclassified as a carrier on 16 February 1942, and renamed Princeton on 31 March 1942. New York Shipbuilding laid her down at Camden on 2 June 1941, launched her on 18 October 1942, Mrs. Harold Dodds sponsoring, and commissioned her at Philadelphia on 25 February 1943, Captain George R. Henderson in command. She became CVL-23 on 15 July 1943.
She reached Pearl Harbor on 9 August 1943. She covered the occupation of Baker Island in September and struck Makin and Tarawa. In November her planes hit Buka and Bonis for the Empress Augusta Bay landings and raided Rabaul on 5 and 11 November. After a refit at Bremerton she rejoined the fast carriers and sailed on 19 January 1944 with Task Group 58.4. From 29 to 31 January her planes struck Wotje and Taroa to support the Kwajalein and Majuro landings. On 2 February they photographed Eniwetok and on 3 February began bombing Engebi, and she returned over Eniwetok from 10 to 13 February and from 16 to 28 February.
She went on to the Carolines, Hollandia, Truk on 29 and 30 April, and Ponape. In the Battle of the Philippine Sea DANFS credits her planes with 30 kills and her guns with 3 more. She supported Guam and Tinian, struck the Palaus, Mindanao and Luzon, and bombed the Nansei Shoto and Formosa in October 1944.
On 24 October 1944, with Task Group 38.3 off Luzon, a single dive-bomber came out of the clouds shortly before ten in the morning and put one bomb through her flight deck between the elevators. It burst in the hangar, and the fires spread. In the afternoon a much heavier explosion, possibly the bomb magazine, blew off her stern, and the cruiser Birmingham, alongside to fight the fires, suffered heavy casualties. The fires won, the remaining crew were taken off, and Irwin and then Reno torpedoed the burning hulk, which exploded a last time in the evening. NavSource says a number of her crew were lost and remain on duty. She was decommissioned on 13 November 1944.