Sitka I APA-113

Sitka I

(APA-113: dp. 8,393; 1. 492'; b. 69'6"; dr. 26'; s. 18.4 k.; cpl. 478; a. 2 5", 4 40mm., 18 20mm.; cl. Custer;T. C3-S-A2)

Sitka (APA-113) was laid down on 2 February 1944 under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 875) by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula Miss.; launched on 23 June 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Mary Lee Council, and commissioned on 14 March 1945, Capt. Charles F. M. S. Quinby in command.

Sitka departed Mobile on 20 March 1945; and, after stopping at New Orleans for supplies, arrived at Bolivar Roads, Galveston, on 28 March 1945 for shakedown. However, her shakedown lasted only four dayrs as she received orders to report to Newport, R.I., for duty as training ship for precommissioning crews being formed there. Sitka arrived at Newport on 6 April and, for two and one-half months, she trained crews of new amphibious and auxiliary vessels in seamanship and gunnery. Relieved by Guilford (APA-112), Sitka sailed from Newport for Norfolk on 25 June.

After a brief overhaul, Sitka sailed from Norfolk on 6 July with a replacement draft of several hundred marines, &S well as other troops and cargo.Transiting the Panama Canal on 11 July, Sitka called at Pearl Harbor from 24 July to 3 August and at Eniwetok on the 11th and 12th, before arriving at Guam on the 15th. She discharged her troops and cargo at Guam, and sailed for Manila on 27 August to embark troops for the occupation of Japan. Departing Manila on 7 September, the transport arrived at Yokohama, Japan, on the 13th and began disembarking troops and equipment two days later. Sitka departed Yokohama on the 19th; and, between 23 and 27 September, embarked units of the 6th Marine Division at Guam £or the occupation of Tsingtao, China. She arrived at Tsingtao on 11 October and disembarked her troops and cargo on the 16th and 16th. After returning to Manila on the 23d for a week of upkeep, she embarked units of the 52d Chinese National Army at Haiphong, Indochina on 3 November, and disembarked them at Chinwangtao in northern China on the 13th. After a week at Taku, she departed China on the 21st and arrived at Manila on the 26th to join operation "Magic Carpet," the transportation of war veterans home to the United States. Sitka sailed from Manila on 28 November carrying homeward-bound servicemen and arrived at Seattle, Wash., on 14 December.

Sitka remained at Seattle for repairs until sailing to Saipan and Guam on 30 January 1946. The ship arrived at San Pedro on 23 February and got underway for the east coast on 1 March. On i6 March, she arrived at Norfolk, Va., for deactivation. Sitka was decommissioned on 14 May 1946, returned to the War Shipping Administration the next day, and struck from the Navy list on 5 June 1946. She was sold into mercantile Service as P. & T. Trader in 1947, and, after being renamed Mormaeguide in 1957 and American Condor in 1964, remains in service into 1974.