USS Delta ( AR - 9 ) USS " Delta " ( AK - 29 / AR - 9 ) was the lead ship of her class of repair ship s in the United States Navy during World War II . She was originally built as the merchant ship SS " Hawaiian Packer " before her requisition by the U . S . Navy in 1941 . Before conversion to a repair ships , " Delta " briefly served as a U . S . Navy cargo ship . Career . World War II . " Delta " was built in 1941 as the " Hawaiian Packer " by Newport News Shipbuilding , Newport News , Virginia , one of four Type C3 ship s ordered by the Matson Navigation Company . Launched on 2 April , she was acquired by the Navy on 4 June 1941 ; and commissioned as USS " Delta " ( AK - 29 ) on 16 June 1941 , Commander C . D . Headee in command . From 8 July 1941 to May 1942 " Delta " carried cargo from east coast ports to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba ; Puerto Rico ; Bermuda ; Argentina ; Newfoundland , Halifax , and Nova Scotia , Canada ; and Reykjavík , Iceland . On 1 July 1942 , " Delta " was reclassified as AR - 9 , and was placed in reserve commission for conversion to a fleet repair ship by Cramp Shipyard , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . " Delta " sailed from Philadelphia on 3 March 1943 , and between March and June repaired amphibious ships and craft at Oran , Algeria . She served similarly at Bizerte , Tunisia , from June to March 1944 , then at Palermo , Italy , and on 8 July sailed for Pozzuouli , Italy , to prepare landing craft for their return to the United States . Her final Mediterranean duty , from November to April 1945 , was to tend destroyers at Oran . She returned to Norfolk Naval Shipyard for overhaul on 27 April 1945 , and on 15 June sailed for Pearl Harbor for a month of repair duty . On 26 August , she arrived at Yokosuka Naval Base for general fleet repair work , including the assignment of preparing , the former Japan ese battleship , for the atomic weapons tests of 1946 at Bikini . " Delta " served the Fleet at Shanghai from March through June 1946 , and on 17 July arrived at Philadelphia , where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 5 March 1947 . Korea . Recommissioned 1 November 1950 , " Delta " arrived at San Diego on 8 March 1951 to provide repair services to ships of the Pacific Fleet there and at Long Beach , California as well as on periodic deployments to the Far East . Her first such , during the Korean War , was from 25 June 1952 until 14 February 1953 . On her second , in 1953 and 1954 , she joined in Operation " Passage to Freedom " , the evacuation of Vietnamese to South Vietnam upon the partition of Indochina . During her last Far Eastern service , in 1955 , she served as flagship for the Blockading and Escort Force off Korea . She returned from this cruise to Tacoma , Washington , where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 1 December 1955 . Vietnam . On 31 October 1959 , " Delta " was recommissioned in a dual ceremony at Bremerton Naval Shipyard , as was decommissioned and her crew simultaneously recommissioned " Delta " . She served for another eleven years until being decommissioned on 20 June 1970 at Bremerton Naval Shipyard . " Delta " was stricken from the Naval Register on 1 October 1977 and transferred to the Maritime Administration ( MARAD ) for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet . MARAD finally sold " Delta " on 19 July 1983 , probably for scrapping . " Delta " served as a floating machine shop at Mare Island Naval Shipyard under MARAD in 1980 and was located there until detached from MARAD in 1983 . Awards . " Delta " received two battle star s for World War II service , one battle star for Korean War service and one campaign star for Vietnam War service .