USS Admiral W . S . Sims ( AP - 127 ) USS " Admiral W . S . Sims " ( AP - 127 ) was a transport in the United States Navy . She was later renamed USNS " General William O . Darby " ( T - AP - 127 ) . Later her name was struck and she was known simply by her hull number . In 1981 , she was reclassified as IX - 510 . " Admiral W . S . Sims " . " Admiral W . S . Sims " was laid down on 15 June 1944 at Alameda , California , by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at Alameda , California , under a Maritime Commission contract ( MC null 685 ) ; launched on 4 June 1945 ; sponsored by Mrs . Anne Hitchcock Sims , widow of Admiral William Sims ; delivered to the Navy on 27 September 1945 and commissioned the same day , Captain Edward C . Holden , USNR , in command . Following shakedown training out of San Pedro and post - shakedown availability at the Todd Shipyards at Wilmington , California , the transport sailed for the Philippines on 20 October with 222 passengers . She arrived at Manila on 6 November , and departed the Philippine port with 4 , 980 troops and passengers , arriving at San Francisco on 25 November . She commenced her second round - trip voyage to the Philippines with her departure from San Francisco on 7 December . Arriving at Manila on the 22d , the transport sailed for home two days after Christmas . Re - routed on her return voyage , " Admiral W . S . Sims " reached San Pedro with 4 , 973 passengers on board on 11 January 1946 . She subsequently conducted one troop lift from Okinawa , sailing from San Pedro on 3 February 1946 , and bringing home 4 , 988 Army troops to Seattle , Washington on 6 March . " Admiral W . S . Sims " made one more voyage to the Far East as a Navy transport . After shifting down the west coast from Seattle to San Francisco , she sailed from the latter port on 27 March for Korean waters , with 2 , 966 Army troops embarked . The transport arrived at Jinsen ( now Inchon ) , on 11 April 1946 , and , after embarking 106 passengers at Jinsen sailed for Okinawa , arriving there on 15 April and embarking 910 additional passengers . Clearing Buckner Bay for the Philippines on 16 April , the ship disembarked 26 people at Manila , and embarked 4 , 106 others for passage to the west coast of the United States . " Admiral W . S . Sims " reached San Francisco on 7 May . Decommissioned at San Francisco on 21 June 1946 , she was simultaneously transferred to the War Shipping Administration . " Admiral W . S . Sims " was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 3 July 1946 . " General William O . Darby " . Turned over to the Army for operation with the Army Transport Service ( ATS ) , the ship was renamed " General William O . Darby " in honor of Brigadier General William O . Darby , USA ( 1911 – 1945 ) , leader of the famed World War II " Darby ' s Rangers " who distinguished themselves in combat in North Africa , in Sicily , and in Italy . He was killed in action on the Italian front on 30 April 1945 , while serving as Assistant Commander of the 10th Mountain Division . After operations with the ATS as USAT " General William O . Darby " , the ship was reacquired by the Navy on 1 March 1950 and reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register on 28 April 1950 as USNS " General William O . Darby " ( T - AP - 127 ) . Operating out of New York under the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) , the transport steamed between Europe and the Mediterranean Sea carrying troops on rotation , military dependents , and supplies . Between 1950 and 1953 , she made more than 20 round trip voyages to Bremerhaven , Germany , and back . In November 1951 , the ship veered 100 miles off course to respond to an SOS from a German freighter in the Bay of Biscay . Thirteen of " General William O . Darby ' s " sailors volunteered to man a lifeboat and brave the 30 - foot seas to transfer a critically burned German sailor to the transport for medical treatment . Departing New York on 20 June 1953 , " General William O . Darby " proceeded to Yokosuka , Japan , via the Panama Canal , arriving at the Japanese port on 17 July to embark Korean War veterans . Returning to Seattle on 29 July , the transport made five more round - trip voyages between the west coast of the United States and Japan in the next five months . After returning to San Francisco on 23 January 1954 , she sailed for the east coast on the 25th to resume operations with MSTS ( Atlantic ) , and reached New York on 8 February . In 1954 and 1955 , the ship conducted 12 and 13 round - trips , respectively , and , in the first six months of 1956 , conducted seven before being deployed to the Mediterranean to support the operations of the 6th Fleet . Ranging from North Africa to Turkey in that tour , she eventually returned to New York on 6 August 1956 . Between 1956 and 1965 , the ship conducted some 135 runs to Bremerhaven and back , deploying to the Mediterranean on nine occasions . In this period the ship took part in the mass movement of 50 , 000 troops to Cherbourg and Bremerhaven in the Berlin crisis in the autumn of 1961 , the biggest troop - lift for MSTS since the in 1953 . In February 1963 , " General William O . Darby " brought back from Bremerhaven two paintings loaned temporarily to the United States from the French Louvre , Whistler ' s Mother and La Madeleine . Scheduled to be shown at a succession of art galleries from New York to Atlanta , the two art treasures were met upon arrival at Pier 4 , Brooklyn Army Terminal , by cultural attaches from the French embassy . With the buildup of American strength in Vietnam in 1965 , all six MSTS ( Atlantic ) transports , including " General William O . Darby " , were withdrawn from the New York - to - Bremerhaven run and assigned to duty in the Pacific . Transatlantic sailings were canceled in late July 1965 . " General William O . Darby " and her sister ship , , carried out the longest point - to - point trooplift in MSTS history when they arrived at Vung Tau , Vietnam , on 13 August 1966 with 3 , 124 troops embarked between them , having sailed from Boston a voyage of 12 , 358 miles . They had departed the east coast on 15 July , transited the Panama Canal on the 20th , and fueled at Long Beach on the 27th . The longest leg of the voyage was non - stop , Long Beach to Vung Tau , a distance of some . The Pacific leg of the trip was for the most part smooth as glass for the whole crossing with the exception of a day or two of 15 foot swells . Since there were no docking facilities in Vung Tau , the troups were transported to shore on landing craft . Placed in reserve at Caven Point Army Depot in New York harbor in 1968 , " General William O . Darby " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 January 1969 and transferred to the Maritime Commission ' s reserve fleet . At one point in 1976 , the state of Maryland expressed an interest in alleviating its overcrowded correctional facilities by the use of the ship . Vehement objections to the retention of the name of the Army war hero on a ship designated to incarcerate prisoners apparently arose , contributing in large part to the cancellation of the ship ' s name on 6 July 1976 . The ship , herself , now merely the unnamed T - AP - 127 , remained on the Naval Vessel Register . IX - 510 . Reclassified as IX - 510 in October 1981 , the ship was towed from her berth in the James River to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard , where she was placed in service on 1 July 1982 . In 1987 , she was serving as a barracks and accommodation ship at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard , providing berthing and messing facilities for ships undergoing work at the yard . IX - 510 was returned to the James River reserve fleet in April 1991 , stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in October 1993 , and transferred to full Maritime Administration ownership in May 1999 . In February 2005 she was towed to Brownsville , Texas , to be dismantled .