Orleans Parish (LST-1069)
1945–1975
The parish in Louisiana containing the city of New Orleans.
(LST-1069: displacement 1,625; length 328'; beam 50'; draft 5'3"; speed 12 knots; complement 117; armament 8 40 millimeter, 12 20 millimeter; class LST-542)
LST-1069 was laid down on 7 February 1945 at Hingham, Mass., by Bethlehem Hingham Steel Co.; launched on 7 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. James Whitfield; and commissioned on 31 March 1945, Lt. Lewis A. Rockwell in command.
The tank landing ship steamed to Chesapeake Bay for shakedown prior to her departure for the Pacific Theater of Operations. Before the end of June 1945, she transported tank landing craft (LCT) sections from New York to the Hawaiian Islands. After off-loading her cargo, she embarked U.S. Army troops slated for transportation to Leyte, Philippines, embarked. Sailing via the Marshalls and Marianas, LST-1069 completed her mission and remained in the Philippines until after the Japanese capitulation.
With LST Group 37, LST-1069 proceeded to Shanghai, China, and became one of the first American ships to steam up the Yangtze River since 1941. Her sailors were tasked in mid-September to set up an advanced operational base. In October and November, Chinese troops were transferred to Formosa for occupation duty from Ningpo, China and Haiphong, French Indo China, respectively. Four round trips between Tsingtao, China and Sasebo, Japan returned a number of Japanese civilians and soldiers to their home soil by 18 February 1946. After an additional voyage disembarking a group of repatriated Koreans at Pusan, Korea, LST-1069 began to work her way toward the United States.
In the Bonin Islands, 110 marines along with 18 Japanese war criminals and suspects awaited transportation to Guam. A round trip to Saipan followed and then on to Pearl Harbor, where she took infantry landing craft LCI-757 in tow and delivered her on 29 May 1946 at San Francisco. Upon resuming her journey, she transited the Panama Canal on 5 July, visited Norfolk, unloaded her ammunition in New Jersey and decommissioned at Staten Island, N.Y. on 6 August 1946. The ship remained in the Third Naval District serving the Naval Reserve Training Program until transferred to the Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs, Fla. in September 1949.
The outbreak of Communist aggression in Korea ended her retirement two years afterwards and Lt. E.V. Walsh assumed command in November 1951. She was re-commissioned on 11 January 1952 and converted as a mine squadron flagship and logistic support vessel. Helicopter landing, fueling and repair facilities also permitted her to embark and control helicopters as demonstrated during exercise LANTMINEX in 1955. Also during that year, LST-1069 was named Orleans Parish on 1 July.
In December 1955, she made her first Atlantic crossing to take part in an Atlantic Fleet mine evaluation project at Port Lyautey, Morocco. Her duties as flagship for MinRon 8 were interrupted from 16 December 1957 to 19 December 1958, while the ship lay out of commission in reserve at Charleston, S. C.
With additional communications equipment installed and other modifications, Orleans Parish rejoined the fleet as the mine countermeasure support ship, MSC-6. She resumed participation in the annual Springboard, MinEx, and PhibEx exercises and on 20 November 1959 she departed Charleston in order to escort several recently acquired Norwegian and Spanish minesweepers across the Atlantic. After visiting Lisbon, Portugal, Orleans Parish returned to her homeport on 4 January 1960. That summer she conducted her first Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Midshipmen indoctrination cruise. During February 1963 she paid her first visit to NewOrleans at the height of Mardi Gras.
Orleans Parish's area of operations and assignment changed greatly when she was decommissioned on 20 May 1966 and transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). Designated Orleans Parish (LST-1069) and altered to serve as a cargo ship, she soon received a civilian crew and on 12 September sailed for the Panama Canal and the Pacific. Her first voyage brought her to Guam; Subic Bay, Philippines; Vung Tau, South Vietnam; and Yokohama, Japan.
Orleans Parish was placed out of service on 29 June 1973 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 June 1975. She was sold to the Republic of the Philippines on 1 September 1976 to serve as Cotabato Del Norte (LT-511).
Detailed history pending.
Paul J. Marcello
11 July 2016
