USS General W . H . Gordon ( AP - 117 ) USS " General W . H . Gordon " ( AP - 117 ) was a troop transport that served with the United States Navy in World War II . After the war , she was transferred to the US Army and served as USAT " General W . H . Gordon " . With the outbreak of the Korean War , she was reacquired by the Navy as a civilian - manned Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) vessel , and redesignated USNS " General W . H . Gordon " ( T - AP - 117 ) . She served again under the same designation in the Vietnam War . " General W . H . Gordon " was launched under Maritime Commission contract by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Kearny , New Jersey , 7 May 1944 ; and commissioned , after being acquired by the Navy , 29 June 1944 , Captain R . E . Wood , USCG , in command . World War II . Following her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay , " General W . H . Gordon " proceeded to Boston and sailed 5 September in convoy for France . She arrived Cherbourg with troop reinforcements 15 September and returned to New York " via " Plymouth 30 September 1944 . Subsequently , the transport made 12 voyages to various European and African ports in support of the accelerating Allied effort against the Axis . She carried supplies , troops , and took large numbers of German prisoners of war to the United States . " General W . H . Gordon " sailed to Panama from France 5 August 1945 , bringing replacement troops for the Pacific campaigns . She stopped at Ulithi and Manila to debark troops and steamed into San Francisco Bay 25 September 1945 . After hostilities . The war over , the veteran transport sailed again 13 October with over 4 , 000 occupation troops for Japan and Korea . After one more voyage to Japan , the ship returned to San Francisco 29 January 1946 and decommissioned at Oakland 11 March . She was then stricken from the Naval Vessel Register , and transferred to the War Shipping Administration ( WSA ) . Subsequently she was put to use by the Army Transport Service , as USAT " General W . H . Gordon " . Army transport . " General W . H . Gordon " was one of two ships of her class chartered by WSA to the American President Lines ( APL ) in mid - 1946 for postwar operation as troopship s , the other being . A design designated P2 - S2 - R10 was prepared , probably for the full conversion of these two ships to passenger liner s , but the project was not carried out . While in civilian service the ship appears to have been painted in APL colors but retained the name " General W . H . Gordon " . She made numerous calls at Shanghai , China , and was said to be the last American ship to leave that port before the Communists took over the city in 1949 . In March 1950 , at Tientsin , China , she embarked the U . S . Consul General from Shanghai , who a few days earlier had hauled down his flag , the last flying over a diplomatic post on the Chinese mainland . Korean War . In November 1951 , upon expiration of APL ' s charter , she was taken into the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) , reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register and placed in service as a civilian - manned Navy transport . USNS " General W . H . Gordon " ( T - AP - 117 ) departed San Francisco in December 1951 on the first of many trans - Pacific voyages in support of Korean War operations . 1950s - 1960s . She was modernized at Portland , Oregon , between June and December 1953 , with her World War II vintage lifeboats and davits being replaced and eight new empty positions for 3 " / 50 twin gun mounts fitted , presumably for service as a regular Navy armed transport if required . However , the need for large troop transports declined , and " General W . H . Gordon " was inactive between October 1954 and March 1955 . Transferred to the Atlantic in late 1956 , she was laid up in the Maritime Administration ' s Hudson River reserve fleet in June 1957 and a year later stricken from the Naval Vessel Register . In May 1961 the Navy reacquired " General W . H . Gordon " from the Maritime Administration , reinstated her on the Naval Vessel Register and returned her to MSTS service . She spent the next several years carrying troops between New York and Bremerhaven , West Germany . Vietnam War . In 1965 the transport went to the Pacific to support the expanding Vietnam War , making numerous voyages between the U . S . West Coast and Southeast Asia . On 21 July 1966 she departed from Tacoma Washington with elements of the 4th Infantry Division from Ft . Lewis Washington arriving at Qui Nhon Harbor on 6 August 1966 . Following disembarkation , the unit was transported to a base camp at the foot of Dragon Mountain near Pleiku , central highlands , later renamed Camp Enari . She was also credited with participating in the Vietnamese Counteroffensive and the Tet Counteroffensive between December 1967 and March 1968 . Final decommission . " General W . H . Gordon " was laid up in the Maritime Administration ' s National Defense Reserve Fleet on the James River , Virginia in April 1970 , stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in March 1986 and sold for scrapping in April 1987 . Awards . " General W . H . Gordon " received four service star s for her Korean War service and two for the Vietnam War .