After the Armistice, "Caserta" was employed to return troops to the United States. In February 1919, she carried home 1,500 American troops, including the entire 63rd Artillery, Coastal Artillery Corps. John Brown, a private in the 63rd Artillery kept a diary in which he described his journey home aboard "Caserta" in February 1919. Departing from Marseille in the evening of 6 February, the transport arrived at Gibraltar three days later, where she anchored to wait for a load of coal for the journey home. After four days, the ship was underway, but again delayed near the Azores by storms in the Atlantic. Meals on board "Caserta" during the trip were not necessarily to the liking of the troops. Twice-a-day servings of "spaghetti, macaroni, or noodles" were interrupted only occasionally by non-pasta meals, such as chicken in honor of Washington's Birthday, on 22 February. The liner, nicknamed the "Macaroni Barge" by the American troops, eventually reached New York on 27 February. Also on board "Caserta" was 60-year-old Private Robert W. Louden of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Louden, a veteran of the Spanish–American War and the Mexican Expedition, was wounded twice in fighting in France. Contemporary news accounts called him the "oldest American to go through the war". Another passenger on board was Sultan, a former German messenger dog adopted by two U.S. Army captains when they found him in an abandoned German trench near Verdun. "Caserta" sailed for Gibraltar and Italy on 6 March.