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USS General W. H. Gordon (AP-117)
Encyclopedia
USS General W. H. Gordon (AP-117) was a troop transport that served with the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war, she was transferred to the US Army and served as USAT General W. H. Gordon. With the outbreak of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, she was reacquired by the Navy as a civilian-manned Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) vessel, and redesignated USNS General W. H. Gordon (T-AP-117). She served again under the same designation during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
General W. H. Gordon was launched under Maritime Commission contract by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Kearny, New Jersey
Kearny, New Jersey
Kearny is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was named after Civil War general Philip Kearny. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population was 40,684. The town is a suburb of the nearby city of Newark....
, 7 May 1944; and commissioned, after being acquired by the Navy, 29 June 1944, Captain R. E. Wood, USCG, in command.
World War II
Following her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake BayChesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
, General W. H. Gordon proceeded to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and sailed 5 September in convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. She arrived Cherbourg with troop reinforcements 15 September and returned to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
via Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
30 September 1944.
Subsequently, the transport made 12 voyages to various Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n ports in support of the accelerating Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
effort against the Axis. She carried vital supplies, troops, and returned large numbers of German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
prisoners of war to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
General W. H. Gordon sailed to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
from France 5 August 1945, bringing replacement troops for the Pacific campaigns. She stopped at Ulithi
Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...
and Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
to debark troops and steamed into San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
25 September 1945.
After hostilities
The war over, the veteran transport sailed again 13 October with over 4,000 occupation troops for JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. After one more voyage to Japan, the ship returned to San Francisco 29 January 1946 and decommissioned at Oakland 11 March. She was then stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, and transferred to the War Shipping Administration
War Shipping Administration
The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....
(WSA). Subsequently she was put to use by the Army Transport Service, as USAT General W. H. Gordon.
Army transport
General W. H. Gordon was one of two ships of her class chartered by WSA to the American President LinesAmerican President Lines
American President Lines Ltd. is the world's seventh-largest container transportation and shipping company, providing services to more than 140 countries through a network combining intermodal freight transport operations with IT and e-commerce...
(APL) in mid-1946 for postwar operation as troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
s, the other being General M. C. Meigs. A design designated P2-S2-R10 was prepared, probably for the full conversion of these two ships to passenger liners, but the project was not carried out.
While in civilian service the ship appears to have been painted in APL colors but retained the name General W. H. Gordon. She made numerous calls at Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China, and was said to be the last American ship to leave that port before the Communists took over the city in 1949. In March 1950, at Tientsin, China, she embarked the U.S. Consul General from Shanghai, who a few days earlier had hauled down his flag, the last flying over a diplomatic post on the Chinese mainland.
Korean War
In November 1951, upon expiration of APL's charter, she was taken into the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register and placed in service as a civilian-manned Navy transport. USNS General W. H. Gordon (T-AP-117) departed San Francisco in December 1951 on the first of many trans-Pacific voyages in support of Korean WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
operations.
1950s-1960s
She was modernized at Portland, Oregon, between June and December 1953, with her World War II vintage lifeboatLifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
s and davit
Davit
A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....
s being replaced and eight new empty positions for 3"/50 twin gun mounts fitted, presumably for service as a regular Navy armed transport if required. However, the need for large troop transports declined, and General W. H. Gordon was inactive between October 1954 and March 1955. Transferred to the Atlantic in late 1956, she was laid up in the Maritime Administration's Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
reserve fleet in June 1957 and a year later stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.
In May 1961 the Navy reacquired General W. H. Gordon from the Maritime Administration, reinstated her on the Naval Vessel Register and returned her to MSTS service. She spent the next several years carrying troops between New York and Bremerhaven, West Germany.
Vietnam War
In 1965 the transport went to the Pacific to support the expanding Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, making numerous voyages between the U.S. West Coast and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. On July 21, 1966 she departed from Tacoma Washington with elements of the 4th Infantry Division from Ft. Lewis Washington arriving at Qui Nhon Harbor on August 6, 1966. Following disembarkation, the unit was transported to a base camp at the foot of Dragon Mountain near Pleiku, central highlands, later renamed Camp Enari. She was also credited with participating in the Vietnamese Counteroffensive and the Tet Counteroffensive between December 1967 and March 1968.