Outagamie County
(LST-1073) was laid down 20 February 1945 by Bethlehem Hingham
Shipyard, Hingham Mass.; launched 22 March 1945; and
commissioned 17 April 1945.
At New York she loaded cargo consisting of three LCMs on the
main deck and mortar shells and smoke pots in the tank deck,
and, on 4 June 1945, departed for islands in the Pacific by way
of the Panama Canal, arriving Pearl Harbor 7 July. From Pearl
Harbor she went to Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam, back to Saipan and
then on to Nagasaki, Japan, arriving 24 September.
From September 1945 to January 1946, LST-1073 operated
between various ports in Japan and the Philippines. She departed
Manila 17 January for San Francisco, stopping enroute at Guam
and Pearl Harbor, and arriving San Francisco 27 February. On 5
August she decommissioned and was put into the Reserve Fleet at
Astoria, Oreg.
After Communist forces invaded South Korea, LST-1073 was
towed from Astoria, Oreg., to Bremerton, Wash., on 10 October
1950 for reactivation and recommissioned 3 November 1950, Lt.
Comdr. B. F. Poduska in command.
On 11 February LST-1073 departed Long Beach, Calif. on
her second tour of duty in the western Pacific, arriving
Yokosuka, Japan, 23 March 1951. On this tour she visited various
ports including Kobe and Sasebo, Japan, and Pusan, Kojo Do, and
Inehon, Korea. On 4 April 1951 she transported Army Signal Corps
units from Camp MeGill, Jnpan, to Inchon, Korea. During May and
June LST-1073 helped to carry 17,366 prisoners of war
from Pusan to Koje Do. On 29 October LST-1073 departed
from Yokosuka, Japan, for San Diego, Calif.
LST-1073's third tour of duty in the western Pacific
began 3 January 1953 when she departed San Diego enroute Japan.
After brief stops in Yokosuka, Kobe, and Sasebo, she proceeded
on to Inchon for west coast island resupply work. She took part
in the Marine landing exercises at Inchon from April to June and
spent June and July redeploying the 187th Regimental Airborne
Combat Team and the 24th Infantry Division from Japan to Korea.
In August the ship assisted in the evacuation of Cho Do Island,
Korea, and in operation "Big Switch" transporting
North Korean POW's between various Korean ports. On 23 October
the ship departed Yokosuka, Japan, for a return voyage to San
Diego.
During the next decade, the landing ship operated on the West
Coast and made four West PAC deployments. She was named Outagumie
County 1 July 1955.
In early 1963 she conducted oceanographic survey operations in
mid-Pacific. In March 1964 Outagamie County transported
troops between Oahu and training areas on Hawaii itself. During
a four month tour to Adak, Alaska, in mid-1965, the ship aided a
large freighter, Liberian ship Hadjitsakas, which had run
aground on a small island in the Aleutians.
In late January 1966 Outagamie County arrived at Da Nang,
South Viet Nam to begin nine weeks of intra-coastal logistic
operations. After an upkeep period at Subic Bay, Philippine
Islands, the ship returned to her coastal shuttle runs. The ship
returned to San Diego 9 September. The rest of 1966 and the
first half of 1967 was spent operating off the West Coast of the
United States.
Outagamie County departed San Diego 9 June 1967 and
steamed via Subic Bay to Viet Nam arriving Saigon 26 July. For
the next four months she shuttled troops and supplies between
Japan, the Philippines, and Viet Nam, and returned to San Diego
21 December. Operating on the West Coast until departing San
Diego 1 November 1968, the veteran landing ship returned to the
war zone late in the year and supported allied operations until
arriving Guam 18 April 1969.
Outagamie County received four battle stars for Korean
War Service.
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