USS Markab ( AD - 21 ) USS " Markab " ( AD - 21 ) was a " Hamul " - class destroyer tender named for " Markab " , the third - brightest star in the constellation Pegasus . Built as the cargo ship Mormacpenn by Ingalls Shipbuilding Company of Pascagoula , Mississippi ; launched 21 December 1940 ; acquired by the United States Navy on 2 June 1941 at Charleston , South Carolina ; and commissioned as USS " Markab " ( AK 31 ) on 15 June 1941 with Commander Allen D . Brown in command . Service history . World War II . Cargo ship , 1941 – 1942 . " Markab " operated with Atlantic amphibious forces in the Hampton Roads area until 1 October 1941 . She then loaded cargo at Jersey City , New Jersey for delivery to American troops recently stationed in Greenland . Returning to Brooklyn , New York on 21 November , she took on board supplies for distribution to various bases in the Caribbean . World War II engulfed the United States before " Markab " steamed into Ensenada Honda , Puerto Rico , her first port of call . The new wartime demands on the Navy caused this voyage to terminate at Mobile , Alabama on 8 January 1942 where she was converted to a destroyer tender . Sixteen days later she was redesignated AD - 21 , but it was 27 September before Commander Brown again commanded a fully commissioned vessel . Destroyer tender , 1942 – 1947 . After shakedown " Markab " transited the Panama Canal on 27 October to join Destroyer Force , Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor . Ships recently returned from the battle for the Solomon Islands made use of her facilities for three months prior to her departure on 6 February 1943 to service the North Pacific Force . In the year she remained in the Aleutians , she rendered noteworthy service in helping to prepare vessels for both the Attu and Kiska invasions . Steaming to San Francisco late in January , 1944 the ship prepared for an even more extensive Pacific tour . She departed the West Coast on 26 February and worked her way toward the war zone . As a part of Service Squadron 10 , " Markab " overhauled , repaired , and replenished destroyers and destroyer escort s at Pearl Harbor , Majuro , and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands , and Ulithi in the Carolines . Having assisted in preparing and sustaining the ships fighting in the bloody conquests of the Marianas and Iwo Jima , she sailed for the Philippines on 16 February 1945 . Her work force now overhauled and readied landing craft for the assault on Okinawa . During June she played an important part in preparing TF 38 for the last great raids on Japan . Following the Japanese surrender , " Markab " refitted and restocked ships bound for the occupation areas of Japan , Korea , and China . Steaming in their wake , she arrived Sasebo , Japan on 1 November and early in January 1946 joined the 7th Fleet at Shanghai , China . Her services in the western Pacific ended 2 April as " Markab " commenced the long voyage home for inactivation . The ship off loaded at New Orleans beginning 6 May . At Orange , Texas on January , 1947 she decommissioned and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet . Korea , 1952 – 1955 . When the Cold War turned hot in Korea , the resultant expansion of the Navy brought the temporary reactivation of " Markab " . Recommissioned on 26 February 1952 with Captain Melvyn H . McCoy in command , she remained on the East Coast servicing Destroyer Force ships . Operating initially at Newport , Rhode Island and after April , 1955 at Fall River , Massachusetts , " Markab " also participated in the semiannual fleet exercises . On 9 February she departed on a voyage to Charleston where she decommissioned on 31 July . Vietnam , 1960 – 1969 . Into a crisis - beset world she emerged again in 1960 . Towed to Mare Island Navy Yard in California , she was redesignated as Repair Ship AR - 23 on 15 April and recommissioned on 1 July with Captain Edwin Monroe Westbrook , Jr . in command . Homeported at Alameda Naval Air Station , the repair ship sailed to Pearl Harbor late in October , returning 22 December . Between 5 July 1962 and 14 September 1966 she projected her services even more widely , steaming three times on seven month WestPac deployments with Capt . Bennie W . Jones , Jr . at the helm . On the first such voyage " Markab " returned a priceless Chinese art treasures exhibit to Taiwan . On the next two tours , ships returning from combat patrol off the coast of Vietnam increasingly required her facilities . Interspersed with the work periods in the Philippines and Japan were brief rest and rehabilitation periods at Hong Kong and Buckner Bay , Okinawa . She continued this pattern of West Coast duty and western Pacific deployment into 1969 . " Markab " earned one campaign star for Vietnam War service . Decommissioned again on 19 December 1969 at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Vallejo , California , " Markab " was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1976 . Custody was transferred to the Maritime Administration who disposed of the ship by MARAD sale 12 April 1977 , her final fate unknown .