Arthur Middleton - class attack transport The " Arthur Middleton " - class attack transport was a class of US Navy attack transport that saw most of its service in World War II . Ships of the class were named after signatories of the American Declaration of Independence . Like all attack transports , the purpose of the " Arthur Middleton " class was to transport troops and their equipment to hostile shores in order to execute amphibious invasions . To perform this task , attack transports were equipped with a substantial number of integral landing craft , and heavily armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect themselves and their vulnerable cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone . Background . The " Arthur Middleton " class was based on the Maritime Commission ' s ubitiquous Type C3 hull - specifically the C3 - P & C ( Passenger & Cargo ) type . This hull type had been designed with both merchant cargo service and naval auxiliary service in mind . All three ships were laid down by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Company of Pascagoula , Mississippi between July and October 1940 . Time between initial laying of the keel to commission for each vessel varied from 20 to 26 months - an unusually long time , which suggests the shipyard may have experienced delays or had other priorities . The first to be commissioned was " Samuel Chase " on 13 June 1942 , followed by the " George Clymer " two days later . " Arthur Middleton " , the lead ship of the class , was laid down first but not commissioned until 7 September 1942 , about three months later . The ships were initially classified as transports ( AP ) but were redesignated attack transports ( APA ) on 1 February 1943 , the date on which several other classes of transport ship were redesignated . In service . During World War II , two of the ships , " Arthur Middleton " and " George Clymer " , served almost exclusively in the Pacific Theatre , taking part in many of the Navy ' s island hopping campaigns . " Samuel Chase " , however , was assigned to the European Theatre , where she participated in the invasions of North Africa , Sicily , Italy and Normandy , before transferring to the Pacific to take part in the final Battle of Okinawa . Immediately after the war the three ships of the class were assigned to transporting troops to occupation duties in newly conquered Japan . They were then assigned to Operation Magic Carpet , the huge sealift organized to return demobilizing servicemen to the United States . Following the " Magic Carpet " operation , two of the ships were decommissioned in late 1946 - early 1947 , after which they saw no further service . " George Clymer " however , remained in commission , eventually seeing service in the Chinese Civil War , the Korean War and the Vietnam War . She was finally retired on 31 October 1967 , having provided the Navy with 26 years of continuous service and accumulated an impressive fifteen battle star s . She was sold for scrap on 31 July 1968 . Her two sister ships , decommissioned more than twenty years earlier , followed her to the scrap yard on 9 May 1973 . References . See the individual ship articles from DANFS Online for " Samuel Chase " and " George Clymer " and the DANFS entry for " Arthur Middleton " . See also the individual ship pages from the Navsource Online amphibious transport index .