USS Casa Grande ( LSD - 13 ) USS " Casa Grande " ( LSD - 13 ) was a " Casa Grande " - class dock landing ship of the United States Navy , named in honor of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument near Coolidge , Arizona . The ship was originally authorized under the Lend - Lease Act as BAPM - 5 , the fifth of seven British Mechanized Artillery Transports , to be named HMS " Portway " ( F144 ) . Reclassified a Landing Ship Dock , LSD - 13 , on 1 July 1942 , the contract for LSD - 13 was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co . , Newport News , Virginia , on 10 September 1942 . Renamed HMS " Spear " , LSD - 13 ' s keel was laid down , on 11 November 1943 . While under construction , LSD - 13 , - 14 , and - 15 were reassigned back to the United States . The ship was renamed " Casa Grande " , and , as the first of her class in the U . S . Navy , gave her name to the class . " Casa Grande " was launched 11 April 1944 , sponsored by Mrs . G . Delapalme ; and commissioned 5 June 1944 , Lieutenant Commander F . E . Strumm , USNR , in command . World War II . Sailing from Hampton Roads 19 July 1944 , " Casa Grande " was delayed at Balboa , Panama Canal Zone for repairs en route to Pearl Harbor , where she arrived 21 August . Here she offloaded landing craft brought from the east coast , and loaded men and equipment for the invasion of Yap . However , upon her arrival at Eniwetok on 25 September , she was ordered to Manus Island to prepare for the Leyte operation . Assigned to the Southern Attack Force , she entered Leyte Gulf uneventfully , and took part in the initial assault on 20 October . Her men worked at fever pace under enemy air attack as they launched their landing craft and serviced other small craft engaged in this triumphant return to the Philippines , and on 22 October , she withdrew for Hollandia . During the next month , she made two voyages from New Guinea to Leyte , ferrying reinforcements , and evacuating casualties . December 1944 found " Casa Grande " preparing for the second of the massive operations in the Philippines , and on 31 December she sailed in Attack Group " Baker " of Task Force 79 ( TF 79 ) for Lingayen Gulf . First enemy contact came at sunset on 8 January 1945 , as a small but determined group of kamikaze s attacked . One of these broke through to damage " Kitkun Bay " ( CVE - 71 ) severely , but " Casa Grande " came through unscathed , and joined in driving away the scattered individual enemy aircraft which pushed the attack onward . Although sporadic attacks by Japanese aircraft and small ships tried to disrupt the landings , the long months of detailed planning bore fruit as " Casa Grande " and the others of her group carried out their landing assignments smoothly on 9 January 1945 . She continued to operate in support of the invasion , plying between Lingayen , Leyte , and Morotai until 30 January . " Casa Grande " next cruised among the Solomons to load Marines , landing craft , and tank s for the invasion of Okinawa . She took departure from Ulithi on 26 March , and arrived off Okinawa at dawn of 1 April . Landing equipment and troops under the first of the kamikaze attacks which were to bathe the Okinawa operation in blood , she moved to Kerama Retto on 4 April to operate a small boat repair shop there until 3 June , when she sailed for a minor overhaul at Leyte . Through July 1945 , " Casa Grande " sailed between ports of the South Pacific and Philippines transporting men and landing craft , and on 23 July she sailed for dry - docking at San Francisco . Between 12 September 1945 , when she returned to Honolulu , and 20 April 1946 , when she docked at San Francisco , " Casa Grande " supported occupation and redeployment operations in the western Pacific . She ferried landing craft and motor torpedo boat squadrons , calling at ports in the South Pacific , China , Japan , Korea , Okinawa , the Philippines , and Alaska . On 14 May 1946 , she left San Francisco for Norfolk , Va . , where she was decommissioned and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet , Norfolk Group 23 October 1946 . 1950 – 1969 . With the outbreak of the Korean War , " Casa Grande " was recommissioned 1 November 1950 and based at Norfolk . Exercises off the east coast , and supply missions to Newfoundland and Greenland , as well as amphibious training in the Caribbean , formed the pattern of her operations through 1960 . She voyaged to the Mediterranean for service in the 6th Fleet on three occasions . She sailed for the first such deployment 20 April 1953 , and on 13 August , was dispatched to the Ionian Islands to aid victims of earthquakes . At Cephalonia she established a beach center for medical supplies and provisions , and sent parties into the mountains to deliver supplies and bury the dead . When " Casa Grande " sailed from Cephalonia a week later , she left behind a hospital corpsman , as well as details of Marines who began rebuilding homes and roads . She returned to Norfolk from this cruise 28 October 1953 . Her next deployment to the Mediterranean took place between 29 July 1959 and 9 February 1960 . On her return to the States she cruised off the east coast in amphibious exercises and participated briefly in " Project Mercury " ( man in space ) operations . " Casa Grande " sailed for 6th Fleet duty in November and finished 1962 in the Mediterranean as the command ship of Task Force 61 Amphibious Squadron Six . " Casa Grande " was decommissioned on 6 October 1969 , and transferred to the National Defense Reserve Force . The ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register , on 11 October 1976 , and sold , 6 April 1992 , for $ 270 , 000 to Baxter Shipping Inc . , Burbank , California . " Casa Grande " received three battle stars for World War II service .