 Book is 8" x 10½" Paper Back with 28 pages View all APA's Amphibious/Attack
Transports were designed
to sail
to the site of amphibious operations carrying assault troops and
support
equipment. APA/LPAs had
the
capacity to hold a full battalion of troops. The APA disembarked troops
with the ships own landing craft. The APA would then stand off the
beachhead
ready to evacuate troops, casualties, and prisoners of war. In order to
carry out its primary mission APAs had to provide all facilities for
the
embarked troops including, berthing, messing , medical and dental care,
and recreational facilities. All APAs in the Navy inventory on 1
January
1969 were redesignated LPAs.
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During Presented to her Crew Topside
Below
Decks Boat Crew PA91-15 PORTS |
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See Linn's Duty Station
.......
Read one of Linn's Good Memories
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CENTRAL
PACIFIC; Magic Carpet Adair participated in Operation "Magic Carpet" carring troops home four times; Guam-San Francisco; Samar-San Francisco; Okinawa-San Diego; and China-San Francisco. At 1500 troops per trip that means she took at least 6000 troops back home. On her 1st trip to San Franciso she was reconfigured to carry more troops, (500) in place of trucks and tanks. So that means she may have carried a total of 7500 troops back home. Note: The records of ships
used to carry troops to
their
theaters of operations were destroyed intentionally in 1951. "According
to our [U. S. National Archives] records, in 1951 the Department of the
Army destroyed all passenger lists, manifests, logs of vessels, and
troop
movement files of United States Army Transports for World War II."
(Sorry,
but there was no word on why the records were destroyed.) Thus there is
no longer an official record of who sailed on what ship, though there
are
still valuable sources that can be found.....Wesley Johnston
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Makin Island also
participated in
"Magic
Carpet". Plans started around
1943 when the U.S. faced the problem of
how
to return service personnel back to the states after the war ended.
Because
of over 7 million service personnel overseas it was decided to let the
"War Shipping Administration" draw up plans on how to do it. The Army with its troopship's and the Merchant Marine cargo ship's converted to troopers, they started to move personnel from Europe in late June of 45. The Navy because of the Pacific war did not release it's ship's until Japan quit. My understanding of "Magic
Carpet" is
that it started
in late June of 45 and finished around September of 46. Over 8 million
service personnel returned stateside. The whole operation included over
700 U.S. merchant ship's, British troopers like the "Queen's", U.S.
Army,
Navy and Coast Guard vessels. Bill Longo,
longo@catlover.com
The
unique nature of operations that require
use
of APA ships and the diverse composition of the forces involved demand
timely political and military decisions from a wide spectrum of
organizations,
commands, and agencies. Operations may involve single or split APA
deployments
or a combination of airlift, sealift, and APA. The organization and
responsibilities
of the various commands and agencies discussed in this section are not
intended to be all-inclusive and are provided only as a start point for
more in-depth planning. Detailed coordination, flexibility, and
provision
for rapid deployment are the organizations' key characteristics.
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