These are open to debate so thus my choice of forums.
I will start with two big ones to me. The Big E CV-6 & The Original Penn Station.
The most decorated ship in US history was CV-6 The USS Enterprise, The Big E. She was the only bastion vs. the Japanese at one point during WWII. The last working carrier in the Pacific. She was in 18 of the 20 major battles of the Pacific War and I believe the Japanese celebrated sinking her 7 times but she always came back to their consternation. They had publicly announced her sinking 3 times as confirmed BTW.
If any units or ships could be credited with winning the Pacific War it was probably the Enterprise and the Yorktown. The Yorktown of course sank at Midway. The Big 'E' was listed as unable to maintain in Mothballs and the government made a deal with the group trying to preserve her to end there effort. The deal was somewhat fair in the first Nuke Carrier CVN-65 was named the Enterprise.
What the Government did sold it for scrap.
The above is pretty much from memory so I apologize for any little mistakes.
the "Big E" was sold on 1 July 1958 to the Lipsett Corporation of New York City for scrapping at Kearny, New Jersey. A promise was made to save the distinctive tripod mast for inclusion in the Naval Academy's new football stadium, but was never fulfilled; instead, a memorial plaque was installed at the base of what is still called "Enterprise Tower." Scrapping was complete as of May 1960.