USS Butte ( APA - 68 ) USS " Butte " ( APA - 68 ) was a serving in the United States Navy during World War II . She was launched on 20 July 1944 by Consolidated Steel Corporation , Wilmington , California , under a Maritime Commission contract ; sponsored by Mrs . Thomas W . Mearns ; acquired on 21 November 1944 ; and commissioned the next day , Commander J . A . Gillis , USNR , in command . " Butte " was named for counties in California , Idaho , and South Dakota . Service history . Following shakedown training along the California coast , " Butte " embarked troops at San Diego , California , and , on 5 January 1945 , got underway for the western Pacific . En route to the Philippines , " Butte " made stops of varying duration at Pearl Harbor , Eniwetok , Saipan , Ulithi , and in the Palau Islands . She arrived at Leyte on 21 February and began five weeks of training in preparation for the amphibious assault on Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands . On 27 March , " Butte " set sail for Okinawa as a unit of Task Group ( TG ) 55 . 1 of the Southern Attack Force ( Task Force ( TF ) 55 ) with elements of the Army ' s 7th Infantry Division embarked . She arrived off the objective early in the morning of 1 April — the day the assault was launched . During the next two weeks , " Butte " disembarked her troops and helped to repel air attacks , both conventional and kamikaze . On one occasion , two of her crewmen suffered wounds , but the ship escaped damage . On 14 April , " Butte " departed the Ryukyus with Okinawa wounded embarked . The ship made brief stops at Saipan , Ulithi , and in the Palaus before arriving at Leyte on 24 April . Five days later , she returned to sea to begin making the passenger circuit among the various islands of the western Pacific . Her last port of call in the western Pacific was Eniwetok from which she took departure on 5 June . " Butte " made an overnight stop at Pearl Harbor on 11 June and then resumed her voyage to the west coast . She reached San Francisco on 18 June . On 21 June , the " Butte " shaped a course for Seattle , Washington . She stayed at Seattle from 23 June to 8 July . On 8 July , " Butte " stood out of Seattle to return to the western Pacific . She made a short visit at Eniwetok on 21 and 22 July then continued on to Ulithi where she remained from 25 July to 8 August . From Ulithi , " Butte " moved on to her true destination , Okinawa , and arrived there on 12 August . Three days later , hostilities ceased ; and the Japanese surrendered formally on 2 September . On 5 September , " Butte " put to sea from Okinawa carrying occupation troops to Korea . She arrived at Jinsen , Korea , on 8 September and remained there until 13 September . The ship returned to Okinawa on 18 September towing another transport crippled by a floating mine in the East China Sea . After 11 days at Okinawa , " Butte " shaped a course for northern China on 26 September carrying another complement of occupation troops . She arrived at Taku , China , on 30 September and remained there until 5 October . From Taku , the ship headed for Manila in the Philippines and an eight - day liberty call . On 23 October , she laid in a course back to China . Arriving at Kowloon , near Hong Kong , on 25 October , she embarked Chinese Nationalist troops for passage to northern China where the Chinese communists were on the advance . " Butte " disembarked her first contingent of Chinese soldiers at Chinwangtao between 31 October and 2 November . She returned to Kowloon on 8 November and took additional Nationalist troops on board . The ship departed Kowloon on 10 November and arrived in Tsingtao on 15 November . Later that month , she embarked homeward - bound American servicemen and shaped a course for the west coast of the United States . " Butte " arrived in the United States on 18 December 1945 and , after repairs , was ordered to Pearl Harbor on 23 February 1946 for assignment to JTF 1 . She served as a unit of the target group for " Operation Crossroads " . She survived the atomic bomb tests and was retained for structural and radiation study at Kwajalein until 12 May 1948 when she was disposed of by sinking . Her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 May 1948 . USS " Butte " ( APA - 68 ) earned one battle star during World War II .