USS Washburn (AKA-108) was a in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1970 She was scrapped in 1980.
History
Washburn was named after Washburn County, Wisconsin. She was laid down as a Type C2-S-AJ3 ship on 24 October 1944 at Wilmington, North Carolina, by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1801); launched on 18 December 1944; sponsored by Maj. K. A. Towle, USMCR; delivered to the Navy in an incomplete state on 30 December 1944; and completed at the Todd-Hoboken shipyard at Hoboken, N.J., where she was commissioned on 17 May 1945.
World War II, 1945
Following two weeks of shakedown training in the Virginia Capes area, Washburn departed Norfolk, Virginia, en route to the Mediterranean coast of France. She arrived in Marseille on the 26th and began loading Army troops and supplies bound for the Philippines. She stood out of Marseille on 11 July and arrived in Manila on 24 August, nine days after the cessation of hostilities.
Post-war activities, 1945–1950
With the war ended, the attack cargo ship unloaded her passengers and cargo at Manila and began service in support of the occupation of former Japanese holdings in the Far East. She moved to Lingayen in northern Luzon to load soldiers of the 6th Army's 33rd Division for transportation to the Japanese home islands and occupation duty. She departed the Philippines soon thereafter and arrived at Wakayama on the island of Honshū, Japan, and disembarked her passengers.
For the remainder of the year, she carried passengers and equipment between various locales in the western Pacific in continued support of the American occupation. From January to March 1946, she conducted amphibious and fleet training in the eastern Pacific before returning to the Far East to resume her support missions for the occupation forces. In April, Washburn headed back east to resume her training schedule. That employment — broken only by a voyage to Alaskan waters in July 1948 for a resupply mission — lasted until November 1948.
At that point, the ship returned to the Orient once more for almost a year of duty in support of the occupation forces. During that time, she visited Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor, and Qingdao in China. During the fall of 1949, she returned to the West Coast to participate in Operation "Miki", a large-scale, joint-service exercise staged out of Puget Sound, Washington, which simulated the invasion and defense of the Hawaiian Islands.
In February 1950, she transited the Panama Canal to return to the Atlantic for the first time since her maiden voyage. She participated in Operation "Port-rex", an Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Forces assault exercise held at a small island near Puerto Rico. After a liberty call at San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the operation's conclusion, she retransited the Panama Canal and resumed duty with the Pacific Fleet.
Korean War, 1950–1953
That summer, the outbreak of hostilities in Korea called her back to the Far East. Following a resupply mission to Point Barrow, Alaska, Washburn turned west toward Japan; and, for about 18 months, she plied the waters between Japan and Korea keeping the flow of supplies and reinforcements to bolster the United Nations forces. She participated in the Inchon and Wonsan landings in September and, afterward, resumed her supply and reinforcement shuttles. In June 1951, she returned to the role for which she was designated by participating in the diversionary landings staged at Kangmung, Korea. After a resumption of Japan-to-Korea runs, which she conducted from July to November, she headed back to the United States, arriving on the West Coast on 16 December 1951.
Eastern Pacific operations, including another resupply run to Point Barrow in Alaska during June 1952, occupied her time until the spring of 1953. In March, she again voyaged to the Far East, visiting Nagoya and Sasebo in Japan and Pusan and Inchon in Korea. She stopped at the latter port during her participation in "Operation Big Switch", the mutual repatriation of prisoners of war at the end of the Korean War. In October, Washburn returned to the United States and resumed West Coast operations.