Cleburne (APA-73)
1944-1947
Counties in Arkansas and Alabama.
(APA-73: displacement 4,247; length 426'; beam 58'; draft 16'; speed 17 knots; complement 370; armament 1 5-inch, class Gilliam)
Cleburne (APA-73) was launched on 27 September 1944 by Consolidated Steel Corp., Wilmington, Calif., under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by Mrs. J. E. Trainer, acquired by the Navy on 21 December 1944; and commissioned the next day, Lt. Cmdr. F. T. Callaghan in command.
From 12 February 1945 to 10 June 1945, Cleburne made two voyages from west coast ports to conduct training in the Hawaiian Islands, returning each time with passengers and hospital patients. She sailed from San Francisco 28 June to transfer troops in the western Pacific, calling at Eniwetok, Guam, Ulithi, Okinawa, ports in the Philippines, and Jinsen, Korea, before she arrived at Portland, Oreg., from the Far East on 13 November. On 7 December ,she sailed to carry men to Shanghai and Tsingtao, China, returning to San Francisco on 13 February 1946.
Cleburne arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 March 1946, and there was decommissioned on 7 June 1946. After use in the atomic weapons tests at Bikini, she was towed to San Francisco and transferred to the Maritime Commission on 7 July 1947.
