USS General LeRoy Eltinge ( AP - 154 ) USS " General LeRoy Eltinge " ( AP - 154 ) was a for the US Navy in World War II . She was named in honor of US Army general LeRoy Eltinge . She was transferred to the US Army as USAT " General LeRoy Eltinge in 1946 . On 20 July 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) as USNS " General LeRoy Eltinge " ( T - AP - 154 ) . She was later sold for commercial use and operated under the names SS " Robert E . Lee and SS " Robert Toombs " , before being scrapped in 1980 . Operational history . " General LeRoy Eltinge " ( AP - 154 ) was launched 20 September 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding Co . , Inc . , Yard 3 , Richmond , California ; sponsored by Mrs . James McCloud ; acquired by the Navy and commissioned 21 February 1945 , Capt . W . Wakefield in command . After shakedown out of San Diego , " General LeRoy Eltinge " departed San Pedro 23 March with 3 , 100 troops for Calcutta , India , arriving 27 April via Melbourne , Australia . Underway 7 May with more troops , she debarked some at Tinian and others at Guam , before arriving San Francisco 27 June with 1 , 161 troops embarked at Pearl Harbor . She sailed 20 June for Magic - Carpet duty in the Atlantic , arriving Norfolk 14 July . Between 30 July and 14 September she made two round trips from Norfolk to Marseille , France , to transport 6 , 206 home - bound veterans . On 29 September she departed Norfolk for Karachi , India , where she embarked veterans for Magic - Carpet passage to the United States , arriving New York 11 November . Clearing New York 29 November for further duty in the Pacific , " General LeRoy Eltinge " carried replacement troops to the Canal Zone , proceeded to Shanghai and the Philippines and returned to Seattle , Washington , 26 January 1946 with veterans embarked at Manila . On a voyage from 3 March to 6 April she carried rotation troops to Korea and returned veterans to Seattle , before departing 27 April for New York . She arrived 13 May , decommissioned 29 May , was returned to the Maritime Commission and stricken from the Navy List June 1946 . " General LeRoy Eltinge " resumed operations between the United States and Europe 18 May 1956 . Following the Hungarian Revolution 23 October – 4 November 1956 , she supported the refugee relief program ; and during December she embarked several thousand refugees at Bremerhaven for passage to the United States . The 2007 documentary film " Freedom Dance " , which follows artist Edward Hilbert and his wife , Judy , during their escape from Hungary includes an account of this voyage of " General LeRoy Eltinge " . The ship suffered through a large storm during the crossing of the Atlantic . From May to September 1957 she made UN runs to Turkey and Thailand . After the Lebanon crisis of July 1958 , she conducted two voyages to Beirut during October to return troops to France and Germany ; " General LeRoy Eltinge " had the distinction of hauling the final load of troops out of Beirut . She continued to operate in support of UN programs through 1959 . While en route from New York to İzmir , Turkey , 24 August 1960 she assisted in the rescue of 26 survivors from SS " Halcyon Mediterranean " , which had collided with tanker off the coast of Spain . Returning to New York 1 September , she again assumed reduced operational status 26 September . In response to the mounting crisis in Vietnam , she returned to service 13 May 1965 and embarked 2 , 497 troops of the U . S . 101st Airborne Division for Southeast Asia . Painted entirely gray , and not in the best of condition , one of the paratrooper s wondered what battle General Eltinge had lost to have such an apparently sorry ship named after him . During 1966 " General LeRoy Eltinge " supported the US escalation of troop levels in Vietnam and Southeast Asia through sealifts of men and supplies from west coast ports to the Far East . She returned to San Francisco from Vietnam in January 1967 , underwent overhaul , was transferred to the Maritime Commission , and was placed in ready reserve status as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet . In 1968 , " General LeRoy Eltinge " was sold for commercial use to Waterman Carriers , Inc . of New York and rebuilt as a 10 , 562 gross ton container ship at Portland . In December 1969 she was renamed SS " Robert E . Lee " , and she was renamed " Robert Toombs " in September 1973 . In April 1980 the ship was scrapped at Kaohsiung , Taiwan .