USS General R . E . Callan ( AP - 139 ) USS " General R . E . Callan " ( AP - 139 ) was a for the U . S . Navy in World War II . She was named in honor of U . S . Army general Robert Emmet Callan . She was transferred to the U . S . Army as USAT " General R . E . Callan in 1946 . On 28 April 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) as USNS " General R . E . Callan " ( T - AP - 139 ) . Placed in reserve in 1958 , she was transferred to the U . S . Air Force in 1961 and renamed USAFS " General H . H . Arnold in 1963 in honor of Henry H . Arnold , the first and only General of the Air Force . She was reacquired by the Navy in 1964 as USNS " General H . H . Arnold " ( T - AGM - 9 ) . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1982 . Operational history . Transport Ship . " General R . E . Callan " ( AP - 139 ) was launched 27 April 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract ( MC # 667 ) by Kaiser Inc . , Richmond , California sponsored by Mrs . Robert E . Callan , wife of General Callan ; acquired 7 July 1944 ; and commissioned 17 August 1944 , Comdr . Robert C . Starkey in command . " General R . E . Callan " sailed from San Francisco 25 September 1944 with Army troops and debarked them at Oro Bay and Langemak Bay , New Guinea , on - loading at the latter port 2 , 700 troops and casualties which she put ashore at San Francisco 1 November on her return . She embarked over 2 , 600 fighting men at San Diego and after touching San Francisco 13 November , got underway from that port 3 days later for Kahului Harbor , Hawaii , where she debarked the troops and returned to San Francisco 2 December with over 250 homeward - bound veterans . From 20 December 1944 – 8 February 1945 the transport carried 2 , 500 troops from San Francisco to Eniwetok and Guam , returning to Los Angeles the latter date with 2 , 500 troops embarked at Pearl Harbor . " General R . E . Callan " then stood out 23 March 1945 with more than 3 , 000 fighting men bound for Melbourne , Australia ; Calcutta , India ; and Trincomalee , Ceylon ; returning via Fremantle , Australia ; Manus , Tinian , Saipan , Guam , and Pearl Harbor to moor at San Francisco 28 June . Two days later the busy ship steamed under the $ 3 bound for Norfolk , closing that port 15 July and getting underway again 25 July for France . She embarked over 3 , 000 troops at Marseille 6 August and returned to Norfolk 18 August to debark her war - weary passengers . From 20 August - 12 September the ship made another voyage to Marseille and put in at Boston 12 September with over 4 , 000 troops . On 26 September she stood out to eastward , touching Karachi , India , via the Suez and returning to New York with a full load of veterans on 21 November . After a round - the - world troop rotation cruise which brought the ship to Karachi , Singapore and Hawaii after her departure 7 December 1945 from New York , " General R . E . Callan " moored at Seattle on 30 January 1946 . Following a voyage to Leyte , she returned to San Francisco in early April , and subsequently sailed thence via Panama for Boston , where on 24 May 1946 she was placed out of commission and turned over to the Maritime Commission for peacetime operations as an Army transport . Her name was struck from the Navy List on 19 June 1946 . In September 1947 " General R . E . Callan " and sister ship " General Harry Taylor " put in at Todd Shipyard , Brooklyn for limited modifications . The changes were so the ships would be in compliance with United States Coast Guard requirements for commercial passenger carriers . In January 1948 USAT " General R . E . Callan " responded to a distress signal from Army Transport " Joseph V . Connolly " which was burning at , some east of New York . Freighters " Union Victory " and " Black Diamond " each picked up a lifeboat , while " General R . E . Callan " picked up the remaining two boats . The Army transport stayed with the burning hulk of " Joseph V . Connolly " until being relieved by Army ocean - going tug " LT - 788 " . " General R . E . Callan " was ordered to Halifax with the survivors . All 46 hands from " Joseph V . Connolly " were saved by the three ships , while the ship itself was lost . " General R . E . Callan " was reacquired from the Army on 28 April 1950 and manned by a Civil Service crew for transatlantic passenger service under the MSTS until 29 May 1958 when her name was again struck from the Navy List . Returned to the Maritime Commission , she was assigned to the Maritime Defense Reserve Fleet in the Hudson River , New York . Missile Range Instrumentation Ship . " General R . E . Callan " was transferred to the Air Force 15 July 1961 , and rebuilt at Bethlehem Shipbuilding , Brooklyn as a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship . She was renamed USAFS " General H . H . Arnold " in honor of General of the Air Force Henry H . Arnold and designated as ORV - 1908 . On 1 July 1964 she was acquired by the Navy and designated T - AGM - 9 . " General H . H . Arnold " operated in the Atlantic under MSTS as a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship . She was also seen operating in the North Pacific during the late 1970s . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1982 . The ship was operated by Military Sealift command and had a crew of 200 and supporting contractors and military personnel of approx 50 . During the late 1970s and early 1980s RCA Service Corp had the contract for supporting the electronics with a contingent of approx 50 personnel . The RCA personnel operated and maintained the radar equipment . At that time the main computer was a NASA modified 642B mainframe . Supplemental computers were a Univac 1911 . The aft dish was a 30 ft Telemetry dish , the 40 ' midship dish was an X and L band radar capable of tracking a 15 inch sphere to 1500 miles . The L band radar was 8M watts . The 30 ' forward dish was a C Band radar . There was an optical ' flexure monitoring system ' running from beneath the Ship ' s Inertial Navigation System " ( SINS ) gyros to beneath the telemetry mount . This system allowed for computer - aided steering of the three antennas to maintain ' target convergence ' in compensation for the forces inflicted upon the ship in the roll , pitch and yaw axes by the sea motion . In addition , just behind the bridge and above the ship ' s navigational gyro was a ' star tracker ' system that provided celestial navigation backup , verification and calibration for the SINS . A single - side - band ( SSB ) radio communication system , visibly represented by two large , vertically - oriented antennae located on the forward deck , permitted radio communication to operational centers in the U . S . from virtually anywhere around the globe . Much ( most ) of the technical and operational characteristics of the Arnold were replicated on her sister ship , the Gen . Hoyt S . Vandenberg ( ORV - 1907 ) . Perhaps the most significant difference was in the dual - function radar systems supported on the mid - ships antenna ; X and L band on the Arnold , X and UHF band on the Vandenberg .