USS Randall (APA-224) was a of 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...

. She was named after Randall County, Texas and was commissioned on 12 December 1944, under the command of Captain Harold Stevens.

Service history

After training, the ship left for Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 on 9 February 1945. She then sailed to the Volcano Islands

Volcano Islands

The Volcano Islands is a group of three Japanese islands south of the Bonin Islands that belong to the municipality of Ogasawara...

. She arrived at Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

 on 5 March, unloaded Army personnel and supplies, and uploaded Marines on their way to Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

. The ship returned to Pearl Harbor on 20 April. She next carried petroleum products to Kwajalein

Kwajalein

Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...

 and took on Navy and Marine personnel for return to the USA. Arriving in San Francisco on 18 June, she proceeded to 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...

, picked up Army units, and then continued to Okinawa, returning on 12 August.

Comedian Soupy Sales

Soupy Sales

Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...

 served on Randall during the war and entertained his shipmates with zany vignettes featuring White Fang, the meanest dog that ever lived.

Post-World War II Service

When 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...

 ended, she transported Army and Marine personnel from various points in the Pacific to the US mainland. From 1952 until her decommissioning, the ship sailed from Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

 and Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek

Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek

The Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek is the major operating base for the Amphibious Forces in the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet. The base comprises four locations in three states, including almost 12,000 acres of real estate. Its Little Creek location in Virginia Beach, Virginia totals...

 often berthing at NOB Pier 2. Between 1952 and 1955, she made numerous trips to the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 for training purposes and a six month training cruise to the Mediterranean. She had a total of three Captains - Nicholas Frank, Henry Sturr and Christopher Brackstone, all Naval Academy graduates. In 1954 she received the "E" award for her class.

In 1956 USS Randall was used in the filming of Away All Boats

Away All Boats

Away All Boats is a 1956 American war film produced by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Joseph Pevney and produced by Howard Christie from a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman based on the 1953 novel by Kenneth M. Dodson....

, mainly around St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and Vieques Island, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

.