World War II
Having operated as a transport between the west coast and Alaska, with occasional runs to Hawaii prior to her transfer to the Navy, St. Mihiel performed the same duty after commissioning. In July 1942, she transported the wreckage of the Akutan Zero to San Diego, which become first flyable Zero fighter acquired by the United States during the war.
Into 1943, she called regularly at ports on mainland Alaska and in the eastern Aleutians. In May 1943, she participated in the occupation of Attu; then resumed more routine transport duties. On 9 September 1943, two days later, she headed south to San Francisco. On the 23rd, she steamed west to Hawaii and from there began her last voyage for the Navy. Transiting the Panama Canal in mid-October, she steamed on to Boston, where she was decommissioned on 16 November 1943 and returned to the Army which used her as a hospital ship for the remainder of World War II.
In 1946 she was decommissioned, passed to US Maritime Commission and laid up until scrapped at Baltimore by Patapsco Scrap Company in 1957.
Read more about this topic: USS St. Mihiel (AP-32)
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