_leaving_Sasebo%2c_Japan%2c_on_30_April_1951_(80-G-428659).jpg) USNSGeneral LeRoy Eltinge (T-AP-154) leaving Sasebo, Japan, on 30 April 1951 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | General LeRoy Eltinge |
| Namesake | LeRoy Eltinge |
| Builder | |
| Launched | 20 September 1944 |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. James McCloud |
| Acquired | 21 February 1945 |
| Commissioned | 21 February 1945 |
| Decommissioned | 29 May 1946 |
| In service |
|
| Out of service |
|
| Renamed |
|
| Reclassified | T-AP-154, 1 March 1950 |
| Stricken | June 1946 |
| Identification | IMO number: 7027215 |
| Fate | Scrapped 1980[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | General G. O. Squier-classtransport ship |
| Displacement | |
| 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 |
|
USSGeneral LeRoy Eltinge (AP-154) was aGeneral G. O. Squier-classtransport ship for theUS Navy inWorld War II. She was named in honor ofUS Army generalLeRoy Eltinge. She was transferred to the US Army asUSATGeneral LeRoy Eltinge in 1946. On 20 July 1950 she was transferred to theMilitary Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) asUSNSGeneral LeRoy Eltinge (T-AP-154). She was later sold for commercial use and operated under the namesSSRobert E. Lee andSSRobert Toombs, before being scrapped in 1980.[1]
| International radio call sign of General LeRoy Eltinge[2] | |||
 |  |  |  |
| November | Mike | Charlie | Uniform |
General LeRoy Eltinge (AP-154) was launched 20 September 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Inc., Yard 3,Richmond, California; sponsored by Mrs. James McCloud; acquired by the Navy and commissioned 21 February 1945.
After shakedown out ofSan Diego,General LeRoy Eltinge departedSan Pedro 23 March with 3,100 troops forCalcutta, India, arriving 27 April viaMelbourne, Australia. Underway 7 May with more troops, she debarked some atTinian and others atGuam, before arrivingSan Francisco 27 June with 1,161 troops embarked atPearl Harbor. She sailed 20 June forMagic-Carpet duty in the Atlantic, arrivingNorfolk 14 July. Between 30 July and 14 September she made two round trips from Norfolk toMarseille, France, to transport 6,206 home-bound veterans. On 29 September she departed Norfolk forKarachi, India, where she embarked veterans for Magic-Carpet passage to the United States, arrivingNew York 11 November.
Clearing New York 29 November for further duty in the Pacific,General LeRoy Eltinge carried replacement troops to theCanal Zone, proceeded toShanghai and thePhilippines and returned toSeattle, Washington, 26 January 1946 with veterans embarked atManila. On a voyage from 3 March to 6 April she carried rotation troops toKorea and returned veterans to Seattle, before departing 27 April for New York. She arrived 13 May, decommissioned 29 May, was returned to the Maritime Commission and stricken from theNavy List June 1946.In 1949, the General LeRoy Eltinge was used to transport emigrants from Displaced Persons camps of World War II.
Reacquired 20 July 1950, from Maritime CommissionGeneral LeRoy Eltinge joinedMSTS 1 August while operating in the Western Pacific. After joining MSTS, she participated in several major troop and refugee operations. For more than a year she transported troops from Seattle and San Francisco to Japan and Korea. In October 1951 she supported theInternational Refugee Program, making two trips from New York toBremerhaven, Germany. The following year she made several runs for theUnited Nations, including the transportation ofDutch troops fromRotterdam to Korea. During 1953 she carried additional refugees fromBremerhaven to New York and transportedEthiopian andGreek troops to Korea. Her MSTS service continued until she was placed in reduced operational status 26 November 1955 at New York.
General LeRoy Eltinge resumed operations between the United States and Europe 18 May 1956. Following theHungarian Revolution 23 October – 4 November 1956, she supported the refugee relief program; and during December she embarked several thousand refugees at Bremerhaven for passage to the United States. The 2007 documentary filmFreedom Dance, which follows artistEdward Hilbert and his wife, Judy, during their escape fromHungary includes an account of this voyage ofGeneral LeRoy Eltinge. The ship suffered through a large storm during the crossing of the Atlantic.
From May to September 1957 she made UN runs toTurkey andThailand. After theLebanon crisis of July 1958, she conducted two voyages toBeirut during October to return troops to France and Germany;General LeRoy Eltinge had the distinction of hauling the final load of troops out of Beirut.
On November 6th 1957, USS Leroy Eltinge crossed the Arctic Circle to enter the Northern Domain of the Polar Bear.
She continued to operate in support of UN programs through 1959. While en route from New York toİzmir Turkey on 24 August 1960 she assisted in the rescue of 26 survivors fromSSHalcyon Mediterranean, which had collided with tankerSS Esso Switzerland off the coast of Spain. Returning to New York 1 September, she again assumed reduced operational status 26 September.
Following the outbreak of violence in theBelgian Congo in July 1960,General LeRoy Eltinge departed New York 20 February 1961 to support the UN peace mission. After lifting a cargo of famine relief supplies toPointe-Noire,Congo Republic 11 March; she steamed, viaCape Town, South Africa, toPort Swettenham,Malaya andBombay, India to embark 1207 troops for the UN Congo operations. Departing Bombay 15 April, she debarked troops and supplies atMombasa,Kenya, andDar es Salaam,Tanganyika. After operating along the African coast fromNigeria to South Africa, she was released from UN operations and departed Cape Town for the United States 13 May, arriving New York 30 May. She returned to reduced operational status 29 June. Departing New York 16 July 1962, she sailed via thePanama Canal to San Francisco where she arrived 1 August to resume reserve status.
In response to the mounting crisis inSouth Vietnam, she returned to service 13 May 1965 and embarked from Oakland, CA 2,497 troops of the101st Airborne Division, an Engineering Battalion, the 510th Engineer Co., Maintenance DS, for Southeast Asia. Painted entirely gray, and not in the best of condition, the ship lost all power on seven occasions and was stranded at sea until it was towed toMidway Island. The troops were allowed to disembark for one afternoon and relax on the beach. They waited for another World War II carrier to take them toCam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, after stops in Manila and Subic Bay, the Philippines. One of theparatroopers, and many others, wondered what battle General Eltinge had lost to have such an apparently sorry ship named after him.[3]
In late November 1965General LeRoy Eltinge again supported the US escalation in South Vietnam and Southeast Asia through sealifts of men and supplies from west coast ports to the Far East. Her cargo included the1st Infantry Division, the first full infantry division transported to the Vietnam War. Along with the more than 1,500 infantry troops were selected members of the519th Military Intelligence Battalion fromFort Bragg, North Carolina. In September 1966, the Eltinge transported the 2nd Battalion (175mm) 94th Field Artillery from San Francisco to Da Nang, Vietnam with a stop at Okinawa. She returned to San Francisco in January 1967, underwent overhaul, was transferred to the Maritime Commission, and was placed in ready reserve status as part of theNational Defense Reserve Fleet.
In 1968,General LeRoy Eltinge was sold for commercial use toWaterman Carriers, Inc. of New York and rebuilt as a 10,562 gross ton general cargo ship atPortland. In December 1969 she was renamed SSRobert E. Lee, and she was renamedRobert Toombs in September 1973. In April 1980 the ship was scrapped atKaohsiung,Taiwan.[1][4]
The USNS General Leroy Eltinge: 510 feet long, every inch painted gray. It seemed too short to have such high smokestacks. "Gee," remarked a trooper from Arizona, "I wonder what battle General Eltinge lost to have it named after him?" A voice from the crowded deck informed him, "He was Custer's S-2."
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.