La Moure County I (LST-1183)
1955-1960
A county in the southeastern part of the state of North Dakota.
I
(LST-883: displacement 1,625; length 328'0”; beam 50'0”; draft 14'1"; speed 12 knots; complement 226; armament 8 40 millimeter, 12 20 millimeter; class LST-511)
LST-883 was laid down on 16 November 1944 at Evansville, Indiana, by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co.; launched on 30 December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. L. D. McBride; and commissioned at New Orleans, La., on 23 January 1945, Lt. Winfield H. Cook, D-V(G), USNR, in command.
LST-883 received one battle star for her World War II service in the Pacific Theater, for the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (26—30 June 1945). LST-883 (q.v.) took part in the Korean War, receiving seven battle stars for the following campaigns: Inchon Landing (15-17 September 1950), North Korean Aggression (18 September-2 November 1950), Communist China Aggression (3 November-27 December 1950), First United Nations Counter Offensive (3 February-7 March 1951), Second Korean Winter (28 December 1951-9 January 1952, 27 January-13 March 1952, 20-28 March 1952), Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952 (10 June-14 July 1952), and Korea, Summer-Fall 1953 (27 July 1953). Following her service in that conflict, she was renamed La Moure County on 1 July 1955.
La Moure County operated with peacekeeping forces between Japan and Korea until sailing for the west coast on 20 September 1955. Following her return to San Diego on 19 October, she resumed coastal operations and amphibious training duty off southern California. She served out of San Diego during the next two years and in 1956 completed two amphibious training cruises to Hawaii.
La Moure County departed San Diego on 9 January 1958 on her third deployment to the Far East since the Korean conflict. She arrived off Okinawa on 12 February for duty with the Seventh Fleet, and over the next four months steamed with that force to the Philippines, Korea, and Japan. Departing the western Pacific on 25 June 1958, she operated along the west coast until deploying to the Far East on 29 January 1959. Based at Yokosuka, she cruised the Japanese coast and participated in amphibious exercises off Okinawa and South Korea. She then sailed from Yokosuka for the U.S. on 19 May and arrived at Long Beach, Calif., on 14 June.
La Moure County was decommissioned there on 7 December 1959. Her name was stricken from the Naval Register on 1 January 1960; and she was sold for scrapping to Zidell Explorations Corp., on 30 November 1960.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
27 October 2023
