USNSGeneral H. B. Freeman in the 1950s
History
United States
Name	General H. B. Freeman
Namesake	Henry Blanchard Freeman
Builder	Kaiser Co., Inc. Richmond, California
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	11 December 1944
Acquired	26 April 1945
Commissioned	26 April 1945
Decommissioned	4 March 1946
In service	after 4 March 1946 (Army) 1 March 1950 (MSTS)
Out of service	1 March 1950 (Army) 24 July 1958 (MSTS)
Reclassified	T-AP-143, 1 March 1950
Stricken	24 July 1958
Identification	IMO number: 6903199
Fate	Scrapped[1]
General characteristics
Class & type	General G. O. Squier-classtransport ship
Displacement	9,950 tons (light), 17,250 tons (full)
Length	522 ft 10 in (159.36 m)
Beam	71 ft 6 in (21.79 m)
Draft	24 ft (7.32 m)
Propulsion	single-screwsteam turbine with 9,900 shp (7,400 kW)
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h)
Capacity	3,823 troops
Complement	356 (officers and enlisted)
Armament	4 ×5"/38 calibergun mounts 4 ×40 mmAA gun mounts 16 ×20 mm AA gun mounts

USSGeneral H. B. Freeman (AP-143) was aGeneral G. O. Squier-classtransport ship for theU.S. Navy inWorld War II. The ship was crewed by theU.S. Coast Guard until decommissioning.^[2] She was named in honor ofU.S. Army generalHenry Blanchard Freeman. She was transferred to the U.S. Army asUSATGeneral H. B. Freeman in 1946. On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to theMilitary Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) asUSNSGeneral H. B. Freeman (T-AP-143). She was sold for commercial operation in 1965, and eventually scrapped.^[1]

General H. B. Freeman (AP-143) was launched 11 December 1944 under aMaritime Commission contract (MC #710) by theKaiser Co., Inc., Yard 3,Richmond, California; sponsored by Mrs. Marie Wheeler; converted in the Kaiser yard atVancouver, Washington; acquired by the Navy 26 April 1945; and commissioned atPortland, Oregon, the same day.

After shakedown operations out ofSan Diego,General H. B. Freeman departedSan Pedro 1 June 1945 with 3,040 troops and passengers forCalcutta, India, where she arrived 9 July with 16 additional passengers,British Royal Marines who had embarked atBrisbane, Australia. On 13 July she was underway with more than 3,000 military passengers; embarking and debarking inCeylon, Australia,New Guinea, and thePhilippines before arrivingHagushi,Okinawa, 16 August 1945, the day after hostilities ended.

More than 1,000 homeward-bound veterans boarded the transport which departed Okinawa 21 August 1945 headed viaSaipan andPearl Harbor for the West Coast, arriving San Pedro, California, 12 September 1945. She sailed 7 October, carrying occupation troops toTokyo, and returned toSeattle, Washington, 5 November as the "Magic-Carpet" home for more than 3,000 fighting men from the Pacific War.General H. B. Freeman made a similar passenger run from Seattle toYokohama and back (16 November – 16 December 1945).

She next entered thePuget Sound Naval Shipyard,Bremerton, Washington, for inactivation overhaul and decommissioned there 4 March 1946. She was redelivered to the Maritime Commission for service with the Army's peacetime transport fleet.

General H. B. Freeman was reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950 and assigned toMSTS. Manned by a civil service crew,General H. B. Freeman carried military passengers throughout theKorean War from the West Coast toKorea, Japan, and island bases in the Pacific.

She was in the fleet that evacuatedHŭngnam. Her distinguished service won her the "Smart Ship Award" for three consecutive years (1950, 1951, and 1952). The transport continued to operate throughout the Pacific until 24 July 1958 when her name was again struck from theNavy List. She was returned to the Maritime Commission and to theNational Defense Reserve FleetOlympia, Washington, where she remained until sold for commercial service in 1967 under the MARAD Ship Exchange Program.

The ship was rebuilt in 1968 by Todd Shipyards, Galveston, TX as thecontainer ship SSNewark, USCG ON 511486, IMO 6903199, forSea Land Service. She was sold for scrapping in Taiwan in 1986.^[1][3][4]

• Cudahy, Brian J. (2006).Box Boats: How Container Ships Changed the World. Fordham University Press.ISBN 978-0-8232-2569-9.
• Williams, Greg H. (2013).World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands. McFarland Books.ISBN 978-0-7864-6645-0.
•  This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• Photo gallery ofGeneral H. B. Freeman at NavSource Naval History

• General G. O. Squier-class transports
• Transport ships of the United States Army
• Korean War auxiliary ships of the United States
• Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States
• Ships built in Richmond, California
• 1944 ships
• Olympia Reserve Fleet

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