USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)

USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)
History
United States
Name:	USS Frederick Funston (APA-89)
Namesake:	General Frederick Funston
Builder:	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding
Launched:	27 September 1941
Sponsored by:	Miss Barbara E. Funston
Acquired:	(by the Navy) 8 April 1943
Commissioned:	24 April 1943
Decommissioned:	N/A
Reclassified:	To T-AP-178 (date unknown)
Struck:	N/A
Honours and awards:	Six battle stars for World War II service, one for the Korean War
Fate:	Scrapped, 1969
General characteristics
Class & type:	Frederick Funston-class attack transport
Displacement:	7,000 tons (lt)
Length:	492 ft
Beam:	69 ft 6 in
Draft:	26 ft 6 in
Propulsion:	Geared Turbine Drive, 2 × Babcock & Wilcox header-type boilers, single propeller, designed shaft horsepower 8,000
Speed:	16 knots
Capacity:	Troops: 2,200
Complement:	576
Armament:	1 x 5"/38 caliber dual-purpose gun mount, 2 x 3"/50 cal. dual purpose gun mounts, eight 1.1" AA guns, replaced by 16 x 20mm gun mounts
Notes:	MCV Hull No. ?, hull type C3-S-A1

USS Frederick Funston (APA-89) was a Frederick Funston-class attack transport that served with the US Navy during World War II. Before serving as a Navy APA, she had been the US Army transport USAT Frederick Funston. After World War II, she was returned to the Army and operated as USAT Frederick Funston. Funston was among the seventy-two ships transferred to the Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) in the 1 March 1950 group and placed in service as USNS Frederick Funston (T-AP-178).^[1]

Named after US Army General Frederick Funston^[2] a Medal of Honor recipient, the ship was launched 27 September 1941 by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation at Tacoma, Washington and acquired by the US Army as a transport ship. She was acquired from the Army by the US Navy on 8 April 1943, reclassified an APA (Auxiliary Personnel Attack, i.e. attack transport), and commissioned 24 April 1943, Commander J. E. Murphy in command.

Operational history

World War II

Mediterranean Theatre

Invasion of Sicily

Frederick Funston sailed from Norfolk, Virginia 8 June 1943 for rehearsal landings on the coast of Algeria, and on 10 July arrived off the assault beaches of Sicily to land her men successfully through heavy surf. Three days later she sailed to train at Oran for the assault on Salerno, off which she lay from 8 to 10 September landing soldiers.

Invasion of Salerno

The transport returned to North Africa to load reinforcements whom she landed at Salerno on 22 and 23 September, then made three voyages from Oran to Naples carrying Army service troops, engineers, and rangers. On 30 November, she cleared Oran for Northern Ireland with paratroopers on board, and after disembarking them, sailed on to New York, arriving 31 December 1943.

Pacific Theatre

Invasion of Saipan

After loading men of naval construction battalions at Davisville, Rhode Island, Frederick Funston sailed for the Pacific, arriving at Honolulu 16 March 1944. Here she landed the Seabees and embarked Marines for the invasion of Saipan, landing them in the initial assault 15 June. After a week off the beaches offloading cargo and taking casualties on board, she returned to Honolulu. Here the casualties were transferred to hospitals, and soldiers taken on board with whom she reinforced Guam on 24 July.

Invasion of Leyte

During August, the transport joined in training operations in the Hawaiian Islands, then crossed to Manus, from which she sailed 14 October for the invasion of Leyte. She landed her troops and cargo on 21 October, the day after the initial assault, and the following day cleared for Aitape, New Guinea, to embark reinforcements. These were put ashore at Leyte 14 November.

Invasion of Luzon

Training off New Guinea and in Huon Gulf prepared Frederick Funston for the initial landings on Luzon of 9 January 1945. That night a watchful lookout spotted and shot a suicide swimmer only 50 yards from the ship.

Invasion of Iwo Jima

Completing her unloading the next day, Frederick Funston sailed by way of Leyte and Ulithi to Guam to embark Marines for the assault on Iwo Jima. With her troops held in reserve, she did not land them until 27 February, although she lay off the island throughout the assault. She returned to Guam with casualties 8 March, then replaced her landing craft at Guadalcanal and exercised at Nouméa through April. She returned to the west coast for overhaul in May 1945

After hostilities

Frederick Funston reached the Philippines 3 October for inter-island transport duty until 8 December when she returned to San Francisco. Another voyage was made to carry occupation troops to the Marianas and return veterans to the United States between 22 December and 7 February 1946.

She was decommissioned and returned to the Army 4 April 1946.

Second Navy commission

After serving with the Army Transportation Corps Fleet out of Seattle, Frederick Funston returned to naval custody when the Military Sea Transportation Service was formed in 1950, and was placed in noncommissioned status for operations with a Civil Service crew, after which she saw some service in the Korean War.

The ship was scrapped in 1969.

Awards

Frederick Funston received six battle stars for World War II. service and one for the Korean War.

Footnotes

1. "Ships transferred to Military Sea Transport Service from Army Transportation Service, March 1, 1950". American Merchant Marine at War. 2000. Retrieved 15 September 2013. line feed character in |title= at position 86 (help)
2. Major-General Frederick Funston, U.S.V, California Military Museum. Funston was once the object of Mark Twain's satirical wit, see A Defence of General Funston.

References

• USS Frederick Funston (APA-89), DANFS Online.
• APA-89 Frederick Funston, Navsource Online.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.