USS LST-519 was an built for the U.S. 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...

. She was later renamed USS Calhoun County (LST-519 after counties in eleven states

Calhoun County

Calhoun County is the name of several counties in the United States of America, mostly named after Senator John C. Calhoun:* Calhoun County, Alabama* Calhoun County, Arkansas* Calhoun County, Florida* Calhoun County, Georgia* Calhoun County, Illinois...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

LST-519 was built by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Seneca, Illinois

Seneca, Illinois

Seneca is a village in LaSalle and Grundy counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 2,371 at the 2010 census.The LaSalle County portion of Seneca is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area, while the small portion that lies in Grundy County is part of the...

. Her keel was laid on 17 September 1943. She was launched on 25 January 1944. Placed in partial commission status at Seneca on 8 February, LST-519 proceeded down the Illinois River

Illinois River

The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...

 into the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 and down to the Naval base at Algiers, Louisiana

Algiers, Louisiana

Algiers is a neighborhood within the city of New Orleans. It is the portion of Orleans Parish on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.Algiers is also known as the 15th Ward, one of the 17 Wards of New Orleans.-History:...

, directly across from New Orleans where she was fully commissioned on 17 February 1944. A Coast Guard crew trained the LST's Navy crew on this river cruise from Seneca while the ship was en route to Algiers.

World War II

Following shakedown training on the way to Camp Bradford in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, additional personnel reported aboard for more shakedown training on the Chesapeake Bay. With Lieutenant Frank L. Brimmer, USN, in command, LST-519 departed the United States as part of Convoy UGS-36 for North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

.

On 1 April 1944, while off Cape Cher-chel, Algeria, the convoy was attacked by thirty Ju 88

Junkers Ju 88

The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...

 and Do 214

Dornier Do 214

-See also:-References:*D. Herwig & H. Rode Luftwaffe Secret Projects - Strategic Bombers 1935-45. ISBN 1-85780-092-3...

 bombers flying out of Southern France. Although all of the LST-519 guns fired at the enemy, the ship was not credited with downing any of the attacking German aircraft.

At Oran, Algeria, was secured to the main deck for transport to England. She arrived at Plymouth on 11 May 1944.

LST-519 received two battle stars in World War II - one each for Convoy UGS-36 and the D-Day landing at Juno Beach

Juno Beach

Juno or Juno Beach was one of five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. The sector spanned from Saint-Aubin, a village just east of the British Gold sector, to Courseulles, just west of the British Sword sector...

 on 6 June 1944. She was employed in shuttling tanks, other vehicles, supplies and troops to 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...

. After delivering tanks, trucks, ambulances, railroad cars, ammunition and other supplies to the beaches of Normandy and Seine River ports and to the other ports of France, LST-519 would return to England with wounded soldiers, damaged equipment or prisoners. Following the collapse of Germany LST-519 was attached to the British 226th Section of the 25th Bomb Disposal Company, Corps of Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

. Her primary mission in May 1945 was to dispose of condemned ammunition

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

 from Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 and Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 in deep water.

LST-519 made fifty-three round trips across the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

, second only to one other American LST. After hostilities ceased, LST-519 departed Plymouth, England, on 9 July 1945, arriving Norfolk, VA, on 25 July 1945.

Post World War II

On 5 December 1945, the operational command of LST-519 was transferred from the Amphibious Force to the Service Force. Mid-January, 1946, found her in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the first postwar Atlantic Fleet maneuvers. On the trip from Norfolk, LST-519 transported on her main deck four LCM landing craft

Landing Craft Mechanized

The Landing Craft Mechanized or Landing Craft Mechanical was a landing craft designed for carrying vehicles. They came to prominence during the Second World War when they were used to land troops or tanks during Allied amphibious assaults....

, each of which carried an LCVP

LCVP

The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States, based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes...

 inside. Present for the occasion were the , , cruisers, destroyers and fleet auxiliaries. LST-519 was one of several LSTs that served as mother-ships to small boat crews who operated LCMs and LCVPs as liberty boats for the fleet anchored in the harbor.

Leaving Cuba in mid-February for Searsport, Maine

Searsport, Maine

Searsport is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,641 at the 2000 census. Searsport includes the village of North Searsport. The town is known as "the home of the famous sea captains" and the "Antique Capital of Maine." -History:...

, on the Penobscot Bay

Penobscot Bay

Penobscot Bay originates from the mouth of Maine's Penobscot River. There are many islands in this bay, and on them, some of the country's most well-known summer colonies. The bay served as portal for the one time "lumber capital of the world," namely; the city of Bangor...

, LST-519 had to put in at Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard to repair storm damage suffered in a gale off Cape Hatteras

Cape Hatteras

Cape Hatteras is a cape on the coast of North Carolina. It is the point that protrudes the farthest to the southeast along the northeast-to-southwest line of the Atlantic coast of North America...

. She then proceeded to Searsport, for her next assignment.

At Searsport, a Liberty ship

Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

 transloaded over 350 tons of obsolete 1,000- and 500-pound aerial bombs into a newly constructed temporary wooden bin on the main deck. Out past the continental shelf — about one hundred fifty miles offshore with a minimum depth of 1,000 fathoms — these bombs were dumped along with 5,280 bazooka

Bazooka

Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the U.S. Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat...

 anti-tank rounds. At least four such bomb-dumping missions were made before the LST-519 was relieved by three other LSTs.

Davisville, Rhode Island

Davisville, Rhode Island

Davisville, Rhode Island was the former home of the U.S. Navy SeaBees. It was located at Quonset Point on Narragansett Bay, an area now included in the town of North Kingstown. The Navy acquired the property in 1939 and built Naval Air Station Quonset Point...

, was the next port of call. A tank deck full of steel pontoon cubes were transported to Norfolk Navy Yard where they were promptly assembled into large pontoon barges as soon as they were unloaded.

On 15 July 1946, the LST-519 was transferred to the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier for duty as a disposal vessel of defective and obsolete munitions. To facilitate dumping of ordnance, toxic and nuclear waste at sea, special equipment and bins were installed. After this, LST-519 operated off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, disposing of ammunition from Naval ammunition depots at Indianhead, MD; Hingham, MA

Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot Annex

The Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot Annex, sometimes called the “Cohasset Annex” or "Hingham Annex" by local residents, covered sections of the towns of Hingham, Cohasset,Norwell, and Scituate Massachusetts.-Beginnings:...

; Yorktown, VA

Naval Weapons Station Yorktown

Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is a United States Navy base in York County, James City County, and Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia...

; Charleston, SC; Earle, NJ

Naval Weapons Station Earle

Naval Weapons Station Earle is a United States Navy base in New Jersey. Its distinguishing feature is a 2.9-mile pier in Sandy Hook Bay where ammunition can be loaded and unloaded from warships at a safe distance from land....

; Fort Mifflin

Fort Mifflin

Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island on the Delaware River below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia International Airport...

, PA; New Orleans, LA and Newport, RI

Naval Station Newport

The Naval Station Newport is a United States Navy base located in the towns of Newport and Middletown, Rhode Island. Naval Station Newport is home to the Naval War College and the Naval Justice School...

.

In accordance with a Secretary of the Navy directive dated 12 May 1955, LST-519 was renamed USS Calhoun County (LST-519) effective 1 July 1955. The 519 is the first ship with this name. The name honors a Calhoun County located in each of eleven states - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

On the morning of 20 June 1956, while dumping condemned ammunition from NAD Charleston, the Calhoun County experienced underwater explosions, caused by the detonation of several torpex

Torpex

Torpex is a secondary explosive 50% more powerful than TNT by mass. Torpex is composed of 42% RDX, 40% TNT and 18% powdered aluminium. It was used in the Second World War from late 1942. The name is short for Torpedo Explosive', having been originally developed for use in torpedoes...

-loaded torpedo warheads. Minor hull damage resulted, but there were no personnel casualties. Repairs were made at Savannah, GA.

From 24 August to 23 October 1956, Calhoun County underwent its regular shipyard overhaul at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard, Staten Island, NY. Major improvements effected during this period were the installation of a new radar and the renewal of most of the ammunition bin on the main deck. Following her overhaul, the Calhoun County reported to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for refresher training from 6 to 24 November 1956. She received an overall mark of GOOD on her battle problem.

Calhoun County was struck by the on 27 June 1959 in the vicinity of Sandy Hook, New Jersey

Sandy Hook, New Jersey

Sandy Hook is a barrier spit, approximately 6.0 miles in length and varying between 0.10 and 1 miles wide in Middletown Township in Monmouth County, along the Atlantic Ocean coast of eastern New Jersey in the United States. The barrier spit encloses the southern entrance of Lower New York Bay...

. As the result, the 40 mm gun tub on the port side had to be removed and the degaussing system was placed out of commission. There were no personnel casualties. During April, 1960, Calhoun County operated with TG 7.3 on a scientific mission in the vicinity of Roosevelt Roads, PR. A shipyard overhaul was completed in September, 1960, after which she participated in underway training in the Norfolk, VA, area. In October, she was deployed to US Naval Station, Argentia, Newfoundland, for ammunition disposal. After four disposal trips, this command undertook an amphibious disembarking of an experimental team off the beach of LaPoille, Newfoundland. This was followed by a five day "good will" trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

.

November, 1960, through June, 1961, the Calhoun County was engaged in routine dumping operations from Boston to Charleston. She was decommissioned 1 November 1962 after eighteen-and-a-half years of Naval service. Only one other LST of World War II class was in continuous commission longer than the LST-519. Her final duty was as a gunnery target for several warships. However, gunfire failed to sink her, so demolition charges were used to carry out the coup de grâce

Coup de grâce

The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...

.