USS Rockwall
USS Rockwall was a that served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1947 and from 1951 to 1955. She was scrapped in 1984.
History
Rockwall was named after Rockwall County, Texas. She was laid down for the United States Maritime Commission on 9 September 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding of Vancouver, Washington; launched on 5 November; acquired by the Navy on loan-charter 14 January 1945, and commissioned on the same day at Astoria, Oregon.World War II
After shakedown off the California coast, Rockwall sailed for Saipan, where she debarked a Marine Rocket Detachment and a Naval Construction Regiment 12 April. With other attack transports, she practiced amphibious operations and maneuvers off Lanai and Maui, 1–5 May. She then made a hydrographic survey on Palahinu Beach, Lanai, before arriving at Pearl Harbor on 7 May.She departed on 24 May, with Marines and debarked them at Okinawa 10 June. The next day, Rockwall sailed for Ulithi, and on 18 May, took on board the 5th Military Police Battalion of the U.S. Marines at Guam and carried them to Iwo Jima.
Rockwall began her homeward voyage with officers and enlisted men from Iwo Jima 29 June, picked up further troops at Tinian on 4 July, and arrived at San Francisco on 24 July.
Rockwall carried Army replacements to Manila on 9 September and loaded stores and embarked Army troops at Leyte Gulf on 13 September. She sortied on 18 September with, the amphibious force flagship, and a convoy of 24 attack transports and attack cargo ships for Honshū, Japan. The force arrived on 25 September and began unloading.
Rockwall sailed on 29 September for Shanghai, China, joining the destroyer escort as escort on 4 October and arrived 6 October. She embarked 1,728 passengers on 11 October and arrived at Seattle, Washington on 26 October. Rockwall made two more voyages to the Philippines.
Peacetime Operations
During the spring of 1946, she took part as a support vessel in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll designed to test the effectiveness of nuclear weapons on warships. Over 200 warships participated in the experiments, 75 of them as targets, the rest as support vessels.Rockwall was then transferred to the Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and soon began amphibious training operations in the Caribbean. On 15 March 1947, Rockwall was decommissioned and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.