USS General W . C . Langfitt ( AP - 151 ) USS " General W . C . Langfitt " ( AP - 151 ) was a for the U . S . Navy in World War II . She was named in honor of U . S . Army general William Campbell Langfitt . She was transferred to the U . S . Army as USAT " General W . C . Langfitt in 1946 . On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) as USNS " General W . C . Langfitt " ( T - AP - 151 ) . She was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS " Transindiana , before ultimately being scrapped in 1983 . Operational history . " General W . C . Langfitt " ( AP - 151 ) was launched under Maritime Commission contract ( MC # 703 ) 17 July 1944 by the Kaiser Co . , Inc . , Yard 3 , Richmond , California ; sponsored by Mrs . William E . Lynd ; acquired by the Navy and simultaneously commissioned 30 September 1944 , Captain Kenneth O . Ekelund in command . After shakedown , " General W . C . Langfitt " embarked marines and departed San Diego 10 November 1944 for Eniwetok and Saipan via Pearl Harbor . Returning to San Francisco 5 January 1945 , she embarked troops and sailed 19 January for the Western Pacific where she shuttled troops to Finschhafen and Hollandia , New Guinea ; Leyte , Philippines ; Ulithi , Caroline Islands ; and Kossol Roads , Palaus . Loaded with medical patients and returning veterans , she departed Hollandia for the United States 22 March and arrived San Francisco 10 April . On the 21st , the busy ship again sailed for the Western Pacific ; and , after steaming via Pearl Harbor to the Admiralty Islands , the Philippines , and the Marshalls , she returned 2 , 302 passengers to San Francisco , arriving 11 June . Having contributed so much to the rising tide of victory in the Pacific , she sailed 15 June for Norfolk , reaching there 30 June . " General W . C . Langfitt " departed 16 July for France , where on the 26th she embarked troops at Marseilles for redeployment to the Pacific . She departed 28 July and sailed via the Panama Canal to Hollandia and points in the Philippines . As a unit of the " Magic Carpet " fleet , she departed Leyte 18 September , arriving Seattle 3 October . The transport departed again for the Western Pacific 25 October ; carried occupation troops to Nagoya , Japan ; and steamed to the Philippines before returning to San Francisco 10 December . Between 22 December and 16 April 1946 " General W . C . Langfitt " made two more " Magic Carpet " voyages to the Philippines and back bringing home thousands of veterans . After returning to San Francisco 16 April , she steamed to New York where she arrived 20 May . She decommissioned there 6 June 1946 and was returned to WSA for use by the Army Transport Service . In February 1949 the " General W . C . Langfitt " left Bremerhaven with European immigrants and arrived in Buenos Aires on 25 March 1949 . On 22 May 1949 USAT " General W . C . Langfitt " left Naples with 826 displaced person s from Europe and arrived in Melbourne on 17 June 1949 . This voyage was one of almost 150 " Fifth Fleet " voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia . " General W . C . Langfitt " made two more such trips to Melbourne with 826 refugees on 22 September 1949 , and with 1 , 282 on 14 January 1950 . The fourth and final group taken to Australia by " General W . C . Langfitt " arrived in Fremantle on 18 February 1950 and consisted of 1 , 118 displaced persons of Polish descent . The group embarked on their voyage in Mombasa , Kenya in late January and early February 1950 . This particular group of migrants , referred to as “ The General Langfitt Group ” , was chronicled in the 1995 book " The General Langfitt story : Polish refugees recount their experiences of exile , dispersal , and resettlement " . The book tells the story of the group ’ s exile in the Soviet Union and journeys that took them from that country to Iran , India , East Africa , and finally Australia . " General W . C . Langfitt " was reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950 for assignment as an overseas transport under MSTS . She undertook the job of carrying troops , dependents , and even refugees to the far corners of the world , making round - the - world voyages in 1952 and 1953 . Between 24 November 1954 and 30 April 1957 she made 32 voyages from New York to Bremerhaven , Germany , and back , carrying European refugees to the United States under the Refugees Relief Act . Following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution , she operated with MSTS transport and brought over 45 , 000 Hungarian refugees to the United States . After carrying additional refugees from Europe to Australia during May and June 1957 , " General W . C . Langfitt " arrived New York 13 July and was inactivated there 30 September . Transferred to the Maritime Administration on 13 May 1958 , she was berthed with the National Defense Reserve Fleet , James River , Virginia . In 1968 she was sold to Hudson Waterways Corporation of New York and rebuilt as a 13 , 489 - ton , container vessel by the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Co . of Baltimore . She entered commercial service as SS " Transindiana " in December 1969 . By July 1970 , she was operated by Seatrain Lines , and was laid up at New York in November 1978 while still operating for that line . " Transindiana " was scrapped at Brownsville , Texas in 1983 .