USNS Private Leonard C . Brostrom ( T - AK - 255 ) USNS " Private Leonard C . Brostrom " ( T - AK – 255 ) was a cargo ship for the United States Navy that was converted into a heavy lift cargo ship in the early 1950s . She was built in 1943 for the United States Maritime Commission as SS " Marine Eagle , a Type C4 - S - B1 tank carrier , by Sun Shipbuilding during World War II . In 1948 , she was transferred to the United States Army as USAT " Private Leonard C . Brostrom after Leonard C . Brostrom , a recipient of the Medal of Honor . In 1950 , the ship was transferred to the Military Sea Transport Service of the U . S . Navy as a United States Naval Ship staffed by a civilian crew . After ending her naval service , she entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet in October 1980 and was sold for scrapping in June 1982 . Career . " Marine Eagle " ( MC hull 735 ) was laid down by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Chester , Pennsylvania , under a United States Maritime Commission contract on 5 December 1942 ; launched 10 May 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . R . M . Stevenson ; and delivered to the Maritime Commission , thence to the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company for operation on 18 September 1943 . " Marine Eagle " , the only C4 completed as originally intended , as a tank carrier , operated between New York and European ports until July 1945 . During those 18 months she completed nine eastbound Atlantic crossings to the United Kingdom and , after the Normandy invasion , French and Belgian ports . Departing Antwerp on 10 July 1945 , she sailed to Panama , instead of New York , then headed out across the Pacific . For the next nine months she carried cargo to the Philippines , then , in March 1946 , returned to the west coast . In May , she steamed to Portland , Oregon , for inactivation overhaul , after which she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet ( NDRF ) at Olympia , Washington , on 29 October . The ship was reactivated on 27 March 1948 , and transferred to the Army Transportation Service and renamed " Private Leonard C . Brostrom " , a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions in the Philippines in October 1944 . After two years service , however , the ship was returned , on 3 March 1950 , to the NDRF at Olympia . " Private Leonard C . Brostrom " was reactivated again , 9 August 1950 , transferred to Navy custody and designated " T – AK – 255 " . Originally assigned to Military Sea Transport Service , Atlantic , she was converted for heavy lift in 1953 – 54 by the Bethlehem Steel Company of Brooklyn , New York . Transferred to the Pacific after conversion , the cargo ship sailed to the Far East to begin cargo operations under ComMSTSFE . " Private Leonard C . Brostrom " continued heavy lift operations through the 1960s and 1970s , carrying such diverse cargoes as chemical weapons to Okinawa for Project Red Hat in 1963 through 1964 , a turbo - electric power plant , several diesel - electric locomotive s ( 85 t . ea . ) , a turbine - generator car , and a IMODCO tanker mooring buoy from Yokohama to Taiwan . " Private Leonard C . Brostrom " was removed from service in 1980 and entered into the NDRF at Suisun Bay , California on 29 May . She was sold for scrapping on 8 June 1982