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NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive

USAT American Legion
USS American Legion ( AP-35)
USS American Legion (APA-17)

Flag Hoist/International Radio Call Sign:
November - Uniform - Lima - Victor

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive, 8 NOV 43) - American Defense Service Medal (with Fleet clasp)
Bottom Row - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (2) - World War II Victory Medal
Personnel Awards

Purple Heart (1-KIA 8 NOV 43 - S1/c Charles Kaplan)

Harris Class Transport:

Laid down, 11 October 1919, as the passenger ship SS Badger State, at New York Shipbuilding Corp, Camden, N.J., under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract

Launched 1921

Delivered to the USSB, 15 July 1921, for lay up in the reserve fleet

Sold, 18 December 1925 to Muston Line, for operation between New York and South America

Laid up, 13 March 1939, at Patuxent River, MD.

Acquired by the US Army Transportation Corps and placed in commission as USAT American Legion in February 1940

Acquired by the Navy from the War Department, 22 August 1941

Commissioned USS American Legion (AP-35), 26 August 1941, CDR. Thomas. D. Warner in command

Converted to a Naval Transport, at Atlantic Basin Iron Works, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Redesignated Attack Transport (APA-17), 1 February 1943

During WWII American Legion was assigned first to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated in the:

**Asiatic-Pacific Campaigns**
Campaign and Dates	Campaign and Dates
Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings 7 to 9 August 1943	Treasury-Bougainville operation Occupation and defense of Cape Torokina, 1 to 8 November 1943

Decommissioned, 20 March 1946, at Olympia, WA., and returned to the War Department the same day

Struck from the Naval Register, 20 March 1946

Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 5 February 1948, to Zidell Ship Dismantling Co., of Portland, OR.

American Legion received two battle stars for her World War II service

Specifications:
Displacement 13,529 t.(lt), 21,900 t.(fl)
Length 535' 2"
Beam 72'
Draft 31' 6"
Speed 17.5 kts.
Complement 43 Officers, 639 Enlisted
Troop Capacity 107 Officers, 1,537 Enlisted
Cargo Capacity 120,000 cu. ft., 2,500 t.
Armament

four single 3"/50 gun mounts

two twin 40mm AA gun mounts

ten single 20mm AA mounts

two quad 1.1" AA gun mounts
Propulsion eight Babcox and Wilcox header-type boilers, two Westinghouse geared turbines, two propellers, design shaft horsepower 12,000hp

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By
USAT American Legion
	74k	USAT American Legion, circa 1940, underway, location unknown. Photo from Frederick Wood Collection	Stanley C. Svec
USS American Legion (AP-35)
	130k	American Legion (AP-35), undergoing conversion to a Navy transport, at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works, Brooklyn, New York, on 28 August 1941. She appears to be undergoing repainting from her white US Army Transport color scheme to dark gray Navy camouflage paint. Note the weathered neutrality flag painted on her hull side amidships. The tanker *Royal Arrow* is visible in the right background. US National Archive photo # 19-N-25097, a US Navy photo from the Bureau of Ships Collection now in the National Archives.	US Naval Historical Center
	94k	American Legion (AP-35) at New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, 25 October 1941. Note her weathered dark gray camouflage paint, with white canvas lifeboat covers. US National Archive photo # 19-N-25715, a US Navy photo from the Bureau of Ships Collection now in the National Archives.	US Naval Historical Center
USS American Legion (APA-17)
	111k	Amidships plan view of American Legion (APA-17) at Alameda, CA., 5 April 1944 Navy Yard Mare Island photo # 2144	Darryl Baker
	90k	Forward plan view of American Legion (APA-17) at Alameda, CA., 5 April 1944 Navy Yard Mare Island photo # 2147	Darryl Baker
	88k	Broadside view of American Legion (APA-17) in San Francisco Bay, 6 April 1944 Navy Yard Mare Island photo # 2150	Darryl Baker
	81k	American Legion (APA-17) underway, circa 1944-45, location unknown. US Navy photo # NH 92699, from the Collection of Rear Admiral Bradford Bartlett, USN, 1981, at the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center
	92k	American Legion (APA-17) partially enveloped in a smoke screen, during amphibious training exercises off the Southern California coast, circa 1944-45. US Navy photo # NH 92700, from the Collection of Rear Admiral Bradford Bartlett, USN, 1981, at the US Naval Historical Center.	Robert Hurst
	58k	American Legion (APA-17), off San Francisco, CA., in 1945-46, probably after the end of World War II. Note that her forward guns have been removed. US Navy photo # NH 77398, from the Collection of Donald M. McPherson, 1973, at the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center