USS Grundy (APA-111) was a Windsor-class

Windsor class attack transport

The Windsor-class attack transport was a class of US Navy attack transport. Ships of the class saw service in World War II.Like all attack transports, the purpose of the Windsors was to transport troops and their equipment to foreign shores in order to execute amphibious invasions using an array of...

 attack transport

Attack transport

Attack Transport is a United States Navy ship classification.-History:In the early 1940s, as the United States Navy expanded in response to the threat of involvement in World War II, a number of civilian passenger ships and some freighters were acquired, converted to transports and given hull...

 that served with the US Navy during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was commissioned late in the war and initially assigned to transport duties; consequently she did not take part in any combat operations.

Grundy was launched under Maritime Commission contract 16 June 1944 by Ingalls Shipbuilding

Ingalls Shipbuilding

Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA, originally established in 1938, and is now part of Huntington Ingalls Industries...

, Pascagoula, Mississippi

Pascagoula, Mississippi

Pascagoula is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, as a part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. The population was 26,200 at the 2000 census...

; and commissioned 3 January 1945, Captain J. M. Cabanillas in command.

World War II

After loading supplies at New Orleans, the new transport conducted shakedown training out of Galveston, Texas

Galveston, Texas

Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

, until 28 January 1945. She departed 4 February for her first assignment, as school ship for pre-commissioning crews at Newport, Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...

. Arriving Newport 10 February, Grundy held underway drills and training for the crews of nearly finished ships, helping to speed their delivery as active fighting units. This duty was completed 31 March, and Grundy sailed for Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...

.

The ship arrived Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, 1 April and immediately embarked Seabees for transportation to the Pacific. Departing 14 April, she sailed to Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 via the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

, arriving there 2 May 1945. At Pearl Harbor Grundy performed amphibious exercises and loaded cargo and passengers for the western Pacific. She departed 7 June; stopped at Eniwetok, Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

, and Saipan

Saipan

Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

; and anchored 1 July at Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

 to join an Okinawa-bound convoy.

Grundy departed in convoy for battle-scarred Okinawa 10 July, and after her arrival 4 days later unloaded her troops and cargo. She then sailed to Ulithi and Peleliu

Peleliu

Peleliu is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu forms, along with two small islands to its northeast, one of the sixteen states of Palau. It is located northeast of Angaur and southwest of Koror....

 to bring troops from those islands to Guam, where she arrived 31 July. Grundy remained there until 2 August when she got underway for Pearl Harbor, unloading her supplies upon arrival 10 August. The war ended while Grundy was on her way to San Diego, where she arrived 19 August.

After hostilities

Her troop spaces loaded with replacement units, Grundy sailed from Seattle 1 September 1945, and after a stop at Eniwetok arrived Leyte

Leyte

Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...

 19 September. There she remained until 26 September, when the transport group of which she was a part departed for Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 with occupation troops. Arriving in Japan 4 days later, Grundy put ashore her contingent of the occupation forces, embarked veteran troops, and sailed for San Francisco 8 October. She arrived 19 October 1945.

Operation Magic Carpet

The busy transport's next duty was as part of the Magic-Carpet fleet, performing the gigantic task of returning the thousands of servicemen to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 from the Pacific. Carrying replacement troops, she sailed 26 October for Okinawa, arriving 12 November. She then sailed for Shanghai, China, with troops to aid in the occupation and to help stabilize the tense situation there. Grundy arrived Shanghai 17 November, and sailed 23 November to embark a group of soldiers for transportation to Seattle from Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

. The transport sailed from Jinsen 5 December and arrived at her revised destination, Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, on Christmas Day 1945.

Decommission

Designated for return to the Maritime Commission, Grundy sailed via San Francisco and the Panama Canal to Norfolk, where she arrived 8 March 1946. She decommissioned 8 May, and was returned to the Maritime Commission 13 May. The ship was subsequently acquired by Moore-McCormack Lines in 1948, and renamed Mormacsurf. In 1966 she was part of a six-ship west coast

West Coast of the United States

West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

 fleet sold to Grace Lines, serving as Santa Anita.