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The St. Mihiel ferried many troops to Kodiak during the war. The USS St. Mihiel, AP-32, 8213 tons, named for a French town involved in World War I, was one of the ships used to evacuate wounded from the battle of Attu. This is from page 78 of The Forgotten War Volume Four. According to an article by Charles Gum in Alaska Geographic, World War II in Alaska, Vol 22, No 4 page 48, the St. Mihiel was a World War I liberty ship converted into a troop carrier. Mr. Gum arrived in Kodiak on the ship September 16, 1941. Prior to WWII she was an Army ship. John R. Fahey was a radioman aboard her and said she was liberated from the Germans in WWI.
The U.S. Army Transport ship St. Mihiel (AP-32), was launched in October 1920 for the United States Shipping Board by the American International Shipbuilding Corp. Hog Island, Pa. She was operated by the United States Army Transportation Corps until mid-1940. Then transferred to the Navy, she was commissioned as St. Mihiel (AP-32) on 22 July 1941, Comdr. Edward B. Rodgers in command. Having operated as a transport between the west coast and Alaska, with occasional runs to Hawaii prior to her transfer to the Navy, St. Mihiel performed the same duty after commissioning. Into 1943, she called regularly at ports on mainland Alaska and in the eastern Aleutians. In May 1943, she participated in the occupation of Attu; then resumed more routine transport duties. On 9 September 1943, two days later, she headed south to San Francisco. On the 23d, she steamed west to Hawaii and from there began her last voyage for the United States. Transiting the Panama Canal in mid-October, she steamed on to Boston, where she was decommissioned on 16 November 1943 and returned to the Army which used her as a hospital ship for the remainder of World War II. St. Mihiel received one battle star for her World War II service.
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St Mihiel 1940 |
This page updated 2008 February 27
