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USS Hickman County (LST-825)
Encyclopedia
USS Hickman County (LST-825) was an built for the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
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...
. Named after counties in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Originally laid down as LST-825 on 2 October 1944 by the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company, Evansville, Indiana
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the largest city in Southern Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 117,429. It is the county seat of Vanderburgh County and the regional hub for both Southwestern Indiana and the...
; launched 11 November; sponsored by Mrs. John Spindler; commissioned at New Orleans on 8 December with Lieutenant Henry V. Hartsell in command.
World War II, 1944–1946
After shakedown in the Gulf of MexicoGulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, USS LST-825 loaded oil and cargo at New Orleans and sailed for the West Coast. She arrived at San Diego on 30 January 1945, discharged her cargo and continued on to Seattle, arriving on 4 February. Loading oil, ammunition and embarking troops, LST-825 sailed for the Pacific on 26 February 1945. The momentous Pacific campaign was in full swing at Okinawa when LST-825 reached that rocky Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese fortress via 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...
, 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...
, Eniwetok, and 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...
on 21 April to discharge troop reinforcements and cargo. LST-825 retired to 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...
, where she loaded cargo and supplies for the famed Seabee
Seabee
Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...
s and returned to Okinawa on 26 June. A late July convoy took the LST to Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...
with cargo and supplies; and she returned to Okinawa on 4 September.
Hostilities having ended on 15 August, LST-825 embarked troops and equipment of the Fifth Air Force
Fifth Air Force
The Fifth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan....
destined to participate in the occupation of Japan. Entering Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
on 25 September, she disembarked the occupation forces and their equipment and set course for Okinawa. During November 1945 LST-825 completed a second Okinawa-Japan trip. On the 16th the landing ship embarked 514 enlisted men at Guam and sailed for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
via Pearl Harbor as part of the Operation Magic Carpet fleet bringing home veterans, arriving San Francisco on 22 December. After a few months of tactical operations along the West Coast, LST-825 decommissioned at Swan Island, Portland, Oregon and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet on 22 May 1946.
Korean War, 1950–1954
With the outbreak of hostilities in KoreaKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, LST-825 recommissioned on 3 November 1950 with Lieutenant Thomas R. Ashton in command. After training out of San Diego, LST-825 entered Pearl Harbor on 8 April 1951 where she transported passengers and cargo among the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
until returning stateside on 1 July. On 17 September she returned to Hawaii and operated there until her return on 16 December to San Diego. Departing San Diego on 26 April 1952, the LST arrived at Yokosuka on 11 June via Pearl Harbor and Midway Island. She made several cruises to the Korean coast to participate in tactical amphibious exercises and maneuvers of U.S. and Republic of Korean troops. LST-825 also carried prisoners-of-war from Korea to Japan. She returned to San Diego on 5 March 1953 for scheduled amphibious landing exercises and fleet tactics along the western seaboard. Her second Western Pacific cruise began on her departure from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
on 20 January 1954. Spring and early summer were spent in operations along the Japanese and Korean coast as well as cargo duty between Eniwetok and Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....
.
Operation Passage to Freedom, 1954–1955
On 11 August 1954 LST-825 departed Yokosuka for French IndochinaFrench Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
, where she assisted in "Operation Passage to Freedom
Operation Passage to Freedom
Operation Passage to Freedom was the term used by the United States Navy to describe its transportation in 1954–55 of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam...
." When the French withdrew from Indochina, after their defeat in the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
, and the subsequent partition of Vietnam
Partition of Vietnam
The Partition of Vietnam was the establishment of the 17th parallel as the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone in 1954, splitting Vietnam into halves after the First Indochina War.The Geneva Conference was held at the conclusion of the First Indochina War...
, over 800,000 North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
ese chose to forsake their homes and move to the southern half of the country. Nearly 100 ships of the U.S. Navy under Rear Admiral Lorenzo S. Sabin helped transport the refugees in a mass exodus. In all, the U.S. Navy evacuated 310,848 North Vietnamese as well as 68,757 tons of cargo and over 8,000 vehicles. Hard-pressed and cramped sailors were rewarded when many of the 184 children born on the "Passage to Freedom" were named after U.S. ships and officers. Part of this task force from 26 August to 5 October 1954, LST-825 made five trips from the Northern capital, Haiphong
Haiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
, to southern ports with Vietnamese refugees and French troops and equipment. In recognition of her efforts the ship was awarded the Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citation
Presidential Unit Citation (Vietnam)
The Republic of Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation was awarded by the Vietnamese government to all personnel in the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indo-China, during August and September 1954. The emblem consists of three vertical red stripes on a golden yellow background, in a gold...
. LST-825 returned to San Diego on 27 November 1954 and operated out of there until decommissioned on 20 September 1955, having been renamed USS Hickman County (LST-825) on 1 July.
Dominican Republic, 1963–1965
Hickman County recommissioned in service at San Diego on 22 March 1963 with Lieutenant Edward F. Powers in command. Assigned to LST Reserve Squadron 2, she reported to the U.S. Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek, Virginia on 19 June 1963. For the next two years she underwent various phases of training in amphibious warfare. In May 1965 the Dominican RepublicDominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
crisis erupted and Hickman County sailed from 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....
on 8 May laden with supplies for the logistical support of the U.S. Armed Forces keeping the peace in that country. Hickman County remained in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
area as a standby ship supplying the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
contingent in the Dominican Republic until 15 July when it called at Puerto de Haina
Bajos de Haina
Bajos de Haina, also known simply as Haina , is a town and municipality in the San Cristóbal , of the Dominican Republic. In 1993 the population was estimated at 68,261, but recent estimates in 2005 claimed the population was as high as 140,175...
, Dominican Republic to embark Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
troops and sailed for Sunny Point, North Carolina, debarking them on 22 July 1965. From 26 August until 9 December, the busy ship transferred military personnel and cargo between the United States and the Dominican Republic and acted as host to foreign ships at San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
. On 10 December she arrived at Little Creek, departing for Brooklyn, New York four days later for overhaul.
Vietnam, 1966–1969
On 23 February 1966 the ship transited the Panama CanalPanama 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 at Pearl Harbor on 19 March and departed Kāne'ohe Bay
Kane'ohe Bay
Kāneohe Bay, at 45 km², is the largest sheltered body of water in the main Hawaiian Islands. This reef-dominated embayment constitutes a significant scenic and recreational feature along the windward coast of the Island of Oahu...
, Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
on 4 April 1966 for the Western Pacific.
During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
Hickman County participated in the following campaigns:
- Vietnamese Counteroffensive (6 May–30 June 1966)
- Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase II (1 July 1966–31 May 1967)
- Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase III (1 June–31 December 1967)
- Tet Counteroffensive (16 February–1 April 1968)
- Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase IV (2 April–30 June 1968)
- Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase V (1 July–1 November 1968)
- Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase VI (29 December 1968–22 February 1969)
- Tet 69/Counteroffensive (23 February–8 June 1969)
- Vietnam Summer-Fall 1969 (9 June–26 July 1969)
- Vietnam Winter-Spring 1969 (1–3 November 1969)
Decommissioning and transfer, 1969–1979
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
on 26 November 1969, and the ship was renamed as RPS Cagayan (LT-97). Struck from the Naval Vessel Register
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
on 15 September 1979, her final fate is unknown.
Awards
As LST-825 the ship earned one battle star for World War II service, and two battle stars and the Korean Presidential Unit CitationPresidential Unit Citation (Korea)
The Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation is issued by the government of South Korea to both Korean military and foreign units. The last major issuance of the decoration was during the Korean War when the decoration was bestowed to several U.S., U.K., and Commonwealth military units...
for Korean War service. As Hickman County she earned ten campaign stars, and the Vietnamese Presidential Unit Citation
Presidential Unit Citation (Vietnam)
The Republic of Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation was awarded by the Vietnamese government to all personnel in the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indo-China, during August and September 1954. The emblem consists of three vertical red stripes on a golden yellow background, in a gold...
for Vietnam War service.