USS Warren (APA-53)

History

USS Warren (APA-53) was a Sumter-class attack transport that served with the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Founding Father and American Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren.

Jean Lafitte – named for the legendary pirate of Barataria, Louisiana, who assisted General Andrew Jackson in defending New Orleans against the British in 1815 – was a C2-S-E1-type merchant ship laid down under a United States Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 475) on 19 April 1942 at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation. She was launched on 7 September 1942; renamed Warren and classified a transport, AP-98; redesignated as an attack transport, APA-53, on 1 February 1943; and placed in commission, in ordinary, on 19 February 1943.

Taken to the Key Highway plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation soon thereafter, the ship was decommissioned on 10 March 1943; and was recommissioned on 2 August 1943.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Warren (APA-53), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1942
   As part of TG 78.6, she subsequently sailed for the Philippine Islands, as General Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return – this time well-backed by ships, men, and planes – to the islands from which he had been forced to leave in 1942.
2. 1943
   On 1 November 1943, Warren departed Hampton Roads and headed for Panama, reaching the Canal Zone on the 5th after a brief stop at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, en route.
3. 1944
   On the latter day, Friday 13 January 1944, Warren sailed for the Central Pacific with men of the 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, embarked.
4. 1944
   Underway on 26 December 1944, Warren picked up her convoy at Manus and then set out for Leyte again on 2 January 1945.
5. 1946
   Reaching San Francisco on 17 December, Warren remained at that west coast port until 14 January 1946, when she got underway for New Orleans.
6. 1947
   Renamed Arizpa in 1947, the former attack transport was converted for merchant service and operated under the Waterman house flag until 1966, when she appeared on contemporary merchant vessels registers as operating with Litton Industries Leasing Corp. of Wilmington, Delaware.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Warren (APA-53)”

More history

• Wikipedia: USS Warren (APA-53)