USS Napa (APA-157) 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...

. The ship was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 123) on 7 June 1944 by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation

Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation

Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was a World War II emergency shipyard located in Portland, Oregon, United States, that built over 1000 Liberty and Victory ships between 1941 and 1945. It was closed after the war ended....

, of Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

; launched on August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Cranston Williams; acquired from the Maritime Commission on a loan-charter basis and commissioned on 1 October 1944, Captain Francis J. Firth in command.

Service history

Following shakedown

Shakedown

Shakedown may refer to:* Shakedown , a type of plastic deformation* Shakedown or a shakedown cruise, a period of testing undergone by a ship, airplane or other craft...

 exercises off the California coast, Napa took on 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...

 units at Port Hueneme and sailed, on 25 November, for Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 on the first leg of her westward journey to the combat area in the Western Pacific. Arriving at 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 2 December, she was assigned to Transport Division 44, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet, and for the next month trained with units of the 4th Marine Division preparing for the invasion of Iwo Jima

Battle of Iwo Jima

The Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Empire of Japan. The U.S...

. On 27 January 1945, the attack transport got underway as part of TF 51. From 11 February through the 15th, she underwent further training at Tinian

Tinian

Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....

, departing on the 16th for 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...

.

Eight miles off Iwo Jima by dawn on the 19th, Napa commenced lowering her boats at 0641, thus allowing sufficient time for the landing craft to cover the distance to the Blue Beaches on the southeastern coast of the island for H-hour, 0900. The first waves, in LVT's, went ashore on schedule, but were slowed down at the first volcanic terrace. Without protection, the marines were vulnerable to fire from Japanese pillboxes, and gun and mortar positions on higher ground to the north of the beaches. The fire from those positions, which could be knocked out only by a direct hit, soon began to take its toll and the attack transports began to move in to receive the wounded. By noon, Napa had proceeded from the line of departure to take on casualties. Retiring that night, she returned early the next morning to continue debarking troops and cargo and to take on wounded personnel. Returning again on the morning of the 21st, she was rammed by at about 0445. The resulting hole in her hull, frames 98–102, was 15 feet long and extended down to a point 10 feet beyond the turn of the bilge. Fast action on the part of the crew and the remaining Marine personnel, waiting for debarkation, precluded casualties even among the evacuees; limited flooding to No. 4 hold, and prevented any fires from breaking out in that hold which contained high octane gas.

After assuring the water-tightness of the remaining holds, the "Victory" ship resumed her duties, remaining in the 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...

 area until the 24th. She then departed for 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...

 where repairs were started. On 25 March she continued to Pearl Harbor, arriving early the next month. There, Capt. F. Kent Loomis took command of the ship on 14 April. A month later, Napa got underway for Seattle, whence she sailed, on 20 June, for Okinawa with Army units embarked. She arrived at Machinato Anchorage on 5 August, discharged her cargo and passengers, and started back across the Pacific, reaching 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...

 on 14 August to receive the word of the Japanese surrender and orders to the Philippines.

Arriving in the Philippines in mid-September, she commenced transporting occupation troops to the Japanese home islands and former territories. After lifting elements of the 8th Army to Yokohama and 6th Marine Division personnel to Tsingtao

Qingdao

' also known in the West by its postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a major city with a population of over 8.715 million in eastern Shandong province, Eastern China. Its built up area, made of 7 urban districts plus Jimo city, is home to about 4,346,000 inhabitants in 2010.It borders Yantai to the...

, she sailed to French Indochina

French Indochina

French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....

 to ferry units of the 62nd Chinese Army from Hai Phong to Takao, Formosa

Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into thirty-eight districts. The city is one of five special municipalities of the Republic of China...

. On 24 November she reported to ComPhilSeaFron for "Magic Carpet

Operation Magic Carpet (World War II)

Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II effort by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and CBI theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports began repatriating soldiers from...

" duty, departing on the 27th for California with Army personnel on board.

Anchoring in 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...

, on 16 December, she got underway again for China, on 4 January 1946, returning to the United States on 24 February. On 1 March she departed San Diego for the east coast. She arrived at Norfolk on the 16th and decommissioned at Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

 on 24 May. She was returned to the Maritime Commission on 30 May and was laid up as part of the MARAD Reserve Fleet

National Defense Reserve Fleet

The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...

 at James River

James River

The James River may refer to:Rivers in the United States and their namesakes* James River * James River , North Dakota, South Dakota* James River * James River * James River...

, Virginia, where she remained until 17 September 1983 when she was sold for scrap.

Napa (APA–157) received one battle star for her service during 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...

.