USS Wheatland ( AKA - 85 ) USS " Wheatland " ( AKA - 85 ) was a of the United States Navy named after Wheatland County , Montana . She was designed to carry military cargo and landing craft , and to use the latter to land weapons , supplies , and Marines on enemy shores during amphibious operations . She served as a commissioned ship for 12 months . " Wheatland " was laid down as a Type C2 - S - AJ3 ship on 17 July 1944 at Wilmington , North Carolina , by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company under a Maritime Commission contract ( MC hull 1397 ) ; launched on 21 September 1944 ; sponsored by Miss Shirley B . Anderson ; transferred to the Navy on 6 October 1944 ; converted to an attack cargo ship in New York by the Atlantic Basin Iron Works ; and commissioned on 3 April 1945 , Comdr . Attilio A . Vischio , USNR , in command . Service history . World War II , 1945 . Commissioned two days after the beginning of the last amphibious operation of World War II , the Okinawa invasion , " Wheatland " never saw service in the role for which she had been converted . Instead of operating as an attack cargo ship during amphibious assaults , she spent her brief Navy career laboring as a conventional cargo ship and as a troop transport in support of the occupation of former Japanese possessions . Following shakedown training and amphibious exercises at Hampton Roads , Virginia , and post - shakedown availability at the Norfolk Navy Yard , the ship departed the Chesapeake Bay on 7 May with 5 , 038 tons of dry cargo . Steaming in company with , , , and , she set a course for Hawaii . Parting company with the high - speed transports at Panama , she transited the canal on 14 May and continued her voyage to Oahu independently . She arrived in Pearl Harbor on the 28th and immediately unloaded her cargo . The ship remained in the Hawaiian Islands for three weeks , during which she conducted a series of amphibious exercises at the island of Maui . On 21 June , she departed Pearl Harbor with elements of the Army ' s IX Corps embarked . After stops at Eniwetok and Ulithi , she arrived at Leyte in the Philippine Islands on 7 July . There , she disembarked the troops and unloaded much of her cargo . On 9 July , she moved to Samar Island , where she discharged the remainder of her cargo . From there , she moved to the Palau Islands , departing Samar on the 16th and arriving at Angaur on the 18th . She spent the next two days loading a Marine Corps anti - aircraft unit and , on the 21st , got underway to return to Oahu . After a brief stop at Eniwetok for fuel on 26 July , she arrived in Pearl Harbor on 1 August . She discharged her cargo and disembarked her passengers and then began an availability which lasted until 22 August . Post - war activities , 1945 – 1946 . On the 23rd , she moved to Hilo where she began embarking elements of the 5th Marine Division . She returned to Pearl Harbor on the 27th and remained there until 1 September when she got underway for Sasebo , Japan , in company with a 34 - ship convoy . She made a three - day stop at Saipan along the way and arrived at Sasebo early on the 22nd . She discharged her cargo over the next three days and departed Sasebo on the 25th . " Wheatland " entered Subic Bay in the Philippines on 30 September and , the next afternoon , moved to Lingayen Gulf where she loaded men and equipment of the Army ' s 32nd Division for transportation to Japan . On 9 October , she stood out of Lingayen Gulf on her way to Kyūshū , Japan . The attack cargo ship arrived in Sasebo early in the morning of 16 October and began disembarking the troops later in the day . Returning to the United States via Okinawa and Guam , " Wheatland " arrived in Seattle , Washington , on 13 November . Later that month , she visited San Francisco for two weeks before embarking upon a voyage to the Marianas on 13 December . She arrived at Guam on the 28th and later visited Saipan whence she departed the Marianas on 22 January 1946 . Steaming via the Panama Canal , the ship arrived in Norfolk , Virginia , on 21 February . She made one more voyage in her naval career — a round trip to New York and back to Norfolk between 28 February and 5 March — before beginning inactivation preparations at Norfolk . Decommissioning and Sale . " Wheatland " was placed out of commission at Norfolk on 25 April 1946 , and custody was transferred to the Maratime Administration the next day and berthed with many of her sister ships in the reserve fleet , James River Group , at Lee Hall , Virginia . Her name was struck from the Navy List on 8 May 1946 . Ex - USS " Wheatland " was sold on 3 April 1947 to A . H . Bull of New York , NY and renamed SS " Beatrice " . Seized by the US Marshals Service , she was sold at auction on 13 March 1964 to First Ship & Steel Corp who in turn re - sold her to Bermuda Shipping Corp on 15 April 1964 . Bermuda renamed her SS " Bangor " and leased her out for operations by the Waterman Steamship Corporation . On 8 December 1967 , she was sold again to North East Shipping Corporation and renamed SS " Grand Loyalty " ; the vessel was re - flagged Panamanian at this time as well . Sold for the final time in December 1973 , the old AKA was broken up for scrap in Kaohsiung , Taiwan .