[BroJoeK]

Colonel_Flagg: "You mean six fleet carriers. My late father-in-law served on an escort carrier that was sunk from underneath him off Samar."

At least two escort carriers were sunk at Samar: St. Lo and Gambier Bay.

Of nearly 40 larger CV & CVL type US carriers in WWII, six were sunk, all but one of those early in the war.
That one was the CVL Princeton -- 13,000 tons, 45 aircraft.
The typical larger Essex class weighed 27,000 tons and carried 90 aircraft -- none of those were sunk.

The US also built 122 small escort carriers, around 10,000 tons carrying 25 aircraft.
Of those, a good number (can't find exact figures) were sunk, including at least the two at Samar.

Even in WWII, escort carriers were never intended to be major "battle ships," though sometimes forced into that service.
No new US escort carriers have been built since WWII.

USS Palau CVE 122 in 1950

[Colonel_Flagg]

He was aboard Gambier Bay, the only American carrier of the war to be sunk by surface gunfire.

[cva66snipe]

Here’s an idea of what all we had aviable in WW2
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org9-4.htm#1993