USS LST-823 was an LST-542-class tank landing ship

Tank landing ship

Landing Ship, Tank was the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore....

 in 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...

. Like many of her class, she was not named and is properly referred to by her hull designation.

LST-823 was laid down on 25 September 1944 at Evansville, Indiana, by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co.; launched on 4 November 1944; sponsored by Miss Olinda M. Brune; and commissioned on 28 November 1944, Lt. Robert T. Hanson, USNR, in command.

Service history

LST-823 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater. She arrived at Pearl Harbor in February 1945 and delivered Seabee

Seabee

Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...

s and cargo 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...

 in March. At the end of May she and another LST, one towing a landing craft and the other a repair barge, sailed from Guam for Okinawa. On 4 June the small convoy rode out a typhoon that drove it some eighty miles off course. LST-823 entered Okinawa's Buckner Bay in early July, but went to sea in mid-July to evade a typhoon. She called at Saipan

Saipan

Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

 in early August, delivered ammunition to 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...

 in mid-August, and returned to Buckner Bay in early September.

Typhoon

Caught off guard inside Buckner Bay by a typhoon on 16 September 1945, LST-823 was driven onto the Kutaka Shima reef there. She was pulled off a week later by the salvage ship , but both engines were inoperative and the starboard engine and shaft were badly out of alignment. While awaiting drydocking at Buckner Bay she was caught by another typhoon on 9 October which tore her loose from her moorings, drove her into two other ships, and then deposited her on a reef parallel to and 75 yards (69 m) from the shore near the entrance to the Yonabaru Channel. Her entire bottom was badly damaged and holed and both main engines were badly misaligned. LST-823 patched up her leaks with cement and became a fueling and provisions ship for small craft. The ship was not refloated, and in early November an inspection and survey party noted that she would need two weeks in drydock before she could be towed to a rear area and recommended she be decommissioned in place. Her gear was stripped away and taken to Guam, and she was decommissioned at the beginning of December 1945 and stricken from the Navy List in early January 1946. In May 1947, the hulk

Hulk (ship)

A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Although sometimes used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, the term most often refers to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment removed, retaining only its flotational qualities...

was sold to the Oklahoma-Philippines Co.

LST-823 earned one battle star for World War II service.