Windsor - class attack transport The " Windsor " - class attack transport was a class of US Navy attack transport . Ships of the class saw service in World War II . Like all attack transports , the purpose of the " Windsor " s was to transport troops and their equipment to foreign shores in order to execute amphibious invasions using an array of smaller assault boats integral to the attack transport itself . Like all the attack transports , the " Windsor " - class was well armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect itself and its cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone . Class history . The " Windsor " class is inconsistently documented in the US Navy ' s official " Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships " ( DANFS ) . The ships were based upon the Maritime Commission ' s ubiquitous C3 cargo type , but unusually , appear to be of more than one subtype . This is probably because the class entered service in fits and starts , the first two vessels from June 1943 and the remaining seven between July 1944 and January 1945 . The early examples , then , were based upon the C3 - S - A1 hull and the later ships on the C3 - S - A3 , but the last two , " Griggs " and " Grundy " have larger length , beam and draft specifications which are inconsistent with their listed subtype , but consistent ( in length and beam ) with some other C3 subtypes - for example the C3 - S - A2 or the C3 - S1 - A3 . It is unknown therefore whether DANFS has listed the subtype incorrectly for these two ships , or whether it has listed the specifications incorrectly . Since ships of a given class usually have the same dimensions , the latter explanation may be the more correct - either that , or the class was constructed of three different C3 hull types , which would make it quite unusual . Other unusual aspects in regards to this class is that they are listed with a variety of different armaments . Early models had two five - inch guns while the later ships had only one ; the " Leedstown " was at least initially fitted with 1 . 1 " antiaircraft guns instead of 40mm ; and " Griggs " is listed with 8 x 40mm guns and no 20mm , whereas the other ships are listed with a maximum of 2 x 40mm and 22 x 20mm . The " Windsor " s also appear to be more lightly armed than most other attack transport classes , particularly with respect to the 40mm weapon which was considered far more effective than the 20mm gun which comprised most of the " Windsor " ' s armament . Most of the ships were built by Bethlehem Steel at its Sparrows Point Shipyard in Baltimore , Maryland ; the last two , " Griggs " and " Grundy " , were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula , Mississippi . In service . Ships of the " Windsor " class served exclusively in the Pacific Theatre . The first two ships of the class , the and , were built and commissioned in mid - 1943 , much earlier than the later units . Consequently they saw much more action , both earning at least five battle star s . The next two were not commissioned until at least July 1944 and only saw three combat operations between them . The remaining five ships arrived too late to see combat and served out the war on transport and training missions . After V - J Day , the " Windsor " s , like virtually all classes of attack transport , were assigned first to transporting fresh troops to occupation missions in Japan and its former occupied territories such as China and Korea , and later to Operation " Magic Carpet " , the giant sealift organized to bring millions of demobilizing servicemen back to the United States . The class as a whole was subsequently demobilized in early 1946 , and the individual ships sold into commercial service , mostly as cargo ships . Most of the ships were scrapped in the early - to - mid - 1970s , having enjoyed overall service lives of approximately 30 years . A notable exception was the . Following her refurbishment and service as passenger - cargo ship SS " Excambion " , she was loaned to the Texas Maritime Academy in April 1965 and spent the next 30 years as training ship USTS " Texas Clipper " . She was finally decommissioned in 1995 and sunk as an artificial reef in 2007 . Another " Windsor " class ship , became dormitory ship for Stevens Institute of Technology after serving as passenger - cargo ship . References . See the individual DANFS ship entries ( APA numbers 55 , 56 , 91 , 97 , 98 , 103 , 105 , 110 and 111 ) in the DANFS Online amphibious ship index .