USS General W . M . Black ( AP - 135 ) USS " General W . M . Black " ( AP - 135 ) was a for the U . S . Navy in World War II . The ship was crewed by the U . S . Coast Guard until decommissioning . She was named in honor of U . S . Army general William Murray Black . She was transferred to the U . S . Army as USAT " General W . M . Black in 1946 . On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) as USNS " General W . M . Black " ( T - AP - 135 ) . She was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS " Green Forest , before being scrapped in 1980 . Operational history . " General W . M . Black " ( AP - 135 ) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract ( MC # 658 ) 26 November 1942 by Kaiser Co . , Inc . , Yard 3 , Richmond , California ; launched 23 July 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . Decatur S . Higgins ; acquired by the Navy 26 January 1944 ; converted to a transport by Matson Navigation Co . , San Francisco ; and commissioned 24 February 1944 , Captain J . P . Murray , USCG , in command . One of the most active ships of her type , " General W . M . Black " plied the world ' s oceans and touched many distant ports in completing her varied missions as a troopship . On her first voyage she embarked 3 , 500 Army troops and sailed from San Francisco 26 March 1944 , delivering them at Pearl Harbor before returning to San Francisco 9 April with nearly 500 veterans . Underway again 22 April , " General W . M . Black " carried 3 , 500 troops from San Francisco to New Caledonia and Guadalcanal . She departed Guadalcanal 14 May , embarked 2 , 700 at Balboa , Canal Zone , and reached New Orleans 8 June . The transport subsequently steamed to Kingston , Jamaica , where she embarked 2 , 400 passengers and sailed to Norfolk , arriving 26 June . " General W . M . Black " began the first of 13 transatlantic , round - trip voyages when she departed Norfolk 28 July with 2 , 700 fighting men bound for Naples , and returned to New York 31 August with 3 , 000 homeward - bound troops and casualties . From 12 September to 19 August 1945 the busy transport made 10 similar round - trip troop - carrying voyages ( 5 from New York , 3 from Boston , and 2 from Norfolk ) to the United Kingdom ( Plymouth , Liverpool , Southampton ) ; France ( Cherbourg , Le Havre , Marseilles ) ; North Africa ( Oran ) ; and Germany ( Bremerhaven ) . In addition to carrying German prisoners of war to the United States , she rotated tens of thousands of troops and patients to and from the European theater in this period of nearly a year . Departing Boston 31 August 1945 , " General W . M . Black " sailed for India via the Suez Canal . A unit of the " Magic - Carpet " fleet , she returned to Boston in October with 3 , 000 veterans of the South Pacific fighting . After making a similar voyage during November and December , she moored at New York 5 January 1946 . She decommissioned there 28 February 1946 and was returned to service as an Army transport . On 16 February 1948 , the USS General W . M Black arrived First in Puerto Cabello , Venezuela , carrying 1500 Italians , Hungarians , Croats , etc . and after in Peru , on 24 February 1948 carrying 626 Croats from a refugee camp in Italy , Camp Fermo . On 2 March 1948 USAT " General W . M . Black " left Bremerhaven with 860 displaced persons from Europe and arrived in Melbourne on 27 April 1948 . This voyage was one of almost 150 voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia . " General W . M . Black " made three more such trips herself . On 30 September 1948 , she arrived in Ilha das Flores , Rio de Janeiro , Brasil , with Eastern European refugees many of whom had been in ( Villach / St . Maarten ) Austrian DP camps ( Ukrainians , Polish , etc . ) sailing out of Bremenhaven sometime in September . She departed Naples on 29 May 1949 arriving 25 June 1949 in Melbourne with 826 more displaced persons . On 16 November 1949 she again departed Naples with 1 , 314 refugees , this time arriving in Sydney on 13 December 1949 . " General W . M . Black " made a fourth run to Australia , arriving in Melbourne , again , with 1 , 316 refugees on 13 April 1950 . " General W . M . Black " was reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950 and assigned to MSTS . Manned by a civilian crew , she operated out of New York in the Atlantic until 1 September when she shifted her homeport to San Francisco . Between 1950 and 1953 she steamed to the Far East and transported more than 65 , 000 troops and their combat equipment in support of the Korean War . After the Korean armistice , she continued tranpacific voyages , deploying troops to Japan , Korea , and Alaska and returning veterans of the Korean fighting to the United States . In June 1955 she carried troops and cargo to the Bering Sea during Operation " Mona Lisa . " Following her return to San Francisco , she was placed out of service 26 August and was transferred back to the Maritime Administration . At present , she is berthed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay , California . There she remained until 1967 , ( some sources say 1965 ) when she was purchased by Central Gulf Steamship Co . of New Orleans . She was renamed " Green Forest " after she was rebuilt as a 10 , 577 - ton cargo ship . " Green Forest " was scrapped at Taiwan in 1980 . " General W . M . Black " received six battle star s for Korean War service .