CHILTON (AP-38) transport

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

CHILTON (AP-38) transport

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:57 pm

Built as transport vessel under yard No 85, type (C3-S-A2) by the Western Pipe and Steel Co., San Francisco for the Maritime Commission.
10 September 1942 keel laid down.
29 December 1942 launched as the SEA NEEDLE.
Assigned to the USA Navy as Naval Transport (AP-83)
February 1943 reclassified Attack Transport (APA-38)
29 May 1943 acquired by the Navy and placed in partial commission USS CLINTON (APA-38) for transit to her fitting out yard in New York.
10 July 1943 decommissioned by the Todd Eric Basin Shipyard, Brooklyn, N.Y. for conversion as an Attack Transport.
Displacement: 8,100 ton light weight, 16,100 full load. Dim. 150.11 x 21.18 x 8.08m. (draught), length bpp 141.8m.
Powered by one General Electric geared turbine, 8,500 shp, one shaft, speed 16.5 knots.
Armament: two single 5"/38 cal. dual purpose gun mounts one fore and one aft.
Two quad 1.1" gun mounts, aft port and starboard, replaced by two single 40mm AA gun mounts
Four twin 40mm AA gun mounts.
Eighteen single 20mm AA gun mounts.

Crew 60 officers and 521 men, and accommodation for, 82 officers and 1,515 troops.

Carried 12 LCVP, four LCM (Mk-6), and three LCP(I)(MK-IV) landings boats.

Largest heavy derrick lift 30 tons.

Cargo capacity 200,000 cubic feet, 4,700 ton.

07 December 1943 re-commissioned, under command of CDR. A.C. Geisenhoff for the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.

USS CHILTON (APA-38) was a Bayfield-class attack transport. Her task was to deliver troops to the battlefront and to recover and care for the wounded. She served in the Pacific Ocean in the war against the Empire of Japan and returned home post-war with one battle star to her credit.
CHILTON (APA-38) was launched 29 December 1942 by the Western Pipe and Steel Company, San Francisco, California, under a Maritime Commission contract, as SS SEA NEEDLE; sponsored by Mrs. Henry A Reilly, Jr. (Matilda); acquired by the Navy 29 May 1943; converted at New York Navy Yard; and commissioned 7 December 1943, Commander A. C. Geisenhoff, USNR, in command.

World War II Pacific Theatre operations
CHILTON served at Newport, Rhode Island, as a training ship for pre-commissioning crews of attack transports from 31 January 1943 to 15 October 1944. She sailed from Boston, Massachusetts, 20 November for San Diego, California, before arriving at Pearl Harbor 23 January 1945. Here she embarked troops, and sailed by way of Eniwetok and Ulithi, to Leyte, arriving 21 February. After rehearsal landings, CHILTON put out of Leyte 16 March to land troops at Kerama Retto 26 March in a key preliminary to the assault on Okinawa. On April 2nd, she was hit by a Kamikaze attack. She remained off Okinawa as flagship for Transport Squadron 17 supporting the establishment and reinforcement of beachheads until 30 April, departing then for San Francisco and overhaul.

Supporting the Okinawa invasion
CHILTON returned to Ulithi on 17 July 1945 to load troops and cargo for Okinawa, where she lay until 31 August. From then until 8 December, when she arrived at Seattle, Washington, CHILTON had duty in the redeployment of the United States and Chinese troops, calling at Jinsen, Tientsin, Hong Kong, Chinwangtao, Tsingtao, and Nagoya. She cleared Seattle on 21 December for the first of two "Operation Magic Carpet" voyages to the Philippines and Okinawa to carry home servicemen, returning from the second of these to San Francisco on 10 May 1946.

Supporting Bikini nuclear testing
She cleared San Francisco 2 June to participate in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, returned to San Francisco 1 August, and sailed for transport duty in China and Japan from 7 September to 22 January 1947. She visited the Bikini area as a floating laboratory that summer, then returned to San Diego for local operations.

Final operations
CHILTON cleared San Diego, California, on 15 November 1948 to withdraw U.S. Marines from China, returning to San Diego on 31 May. Local operations and exercises in the Hawaiian Islands occupied her until 25 November 1949 when she sailed from San Diego for her new homeport, Norfolk, Virginia, arriving 10 December. While based at Norfolk in 1951, she appeared at the dock in the opening scenes of the film “You're in the Navy Now.”
Local operations, overhaul, and service as a training ship in Cuban waters preceded her first tour of duty in the Mediterranean, 11 June-20 December 1951. On 21 August 1952, she sailed from Norfolk to participate in NATO Operation Mainbrace, proceeding to the Mediterranean for duty until 6 February 1953. CHILTON continued to alternate local and Caribbean operations with tours of duty in the Mediterranean from 1954 through 1963. From April 1, thru June 9th, 1965, the CHILTON participated in the Dominican Republic rebel uprising, with the crew of VMM-263 on board. The CHILTON continued to do Mediterranean training operations throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Final decommissioning
CHILTON was reclassified as an Amphibious transport (LPA-38), 1 January 1969 before being decommissioned on 1 July 1972. On 1 July 1972 she was struck from the Naval Register, and transferred to the Maritime Administration for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet. On 15 July 1974 she was sold by MARAD to Ships Incorporated of Camden, New Jersey, for scrapping

Military honors and awards:
CHILTON received one battle star for World War II service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Chilton_(APA-38) http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/03038.htm
Djibouti 2020 250F sg?, Scott? Although authorized by the Djibouti Postal Administration, this issue was not sold in Djibouti, but only distributed to the novelty trade by the Djibouti philatelic agency.
Liberia 2020 1200$ sgMS?, scott? (In margin of sheet)
Attachments
Chilton_(APA-38)_at_anchor,_circa_in_the_1950s_(L45-51.02.01) (2).jpg
2020 CHILTON 75th-Anniversary-of-the-Okinawa-Battle (2).jpg
2020 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa(3).jpg

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