USS Admiral H. T. Mayo, a 9,676-ton (light displacement) Admiral W. S. Benson class transport built at Alameda, California to the Maritime Commission's P2-SE2-R1 design, was commissioned in April 1945. After shakedown she steamed to the Atlantic and, in June, carried 5,819 released prisoners of war from Le Havre, France, to Boston. Her next voyage took her to Marseilles, France, where she embarked 4,888 quartermaster and engineer troops and transported them to Okinawa, arriving in September. Admiral H. T. Mayo then began the first of several "Magic Carpet" trips, bringing servicemen home from the Western Pacific. The ship completed the last of these voyages in April 1946 and sailed for New York, where she was decommissioned in May 1946 and transferred, via the Maritime Commission, to the U.S. Army.
The Army operated the ship with a civilian crew as part of its water transportation service and soon renamed her General Nelson M. Walker. In mid-1948 she received upgraded accommodations for military dependents. General Nelson M. Walker returned to the Navy in March 1950 when most of the Army's larger ships became part of the newly-created Military Sea Transportation Service. Still civilian-manned and retaining her "General" name, the ship made numerous crossings of the Pacific in support of the Korean War. To increase her troop capacity, in early 1952 she was refitted as an "austerity" transport, with most amenities removed. Later in 1952 she carried Greek and Turkish troops from their homelands to Korea, and in August 1953 she brought the first group of 328 returning American prisoners of war home from Korea. General Nelson M. Walker continued to operate in the Pacific until January 1957, when she transited to the Atlantic and carried out a single round trip voyage to Bremerhaven, West Germany. Placed in ready reserve status in February 1957, she was berthed in the Maritime Administration's Hudson River reserve fleet from June 1957 to June 1958 and again after January 1959, when she was transferred to the Maritime Administration and stricken from the Navy List.
In August 1965 the Navy reacquired General Nelson M. Walker, reinstating her on the Navy List to support the buildup of U.S. forces in Vietnam. She carried out troop lifts to Southeast Asia through the end of 1967 and was again inactivated at New York in early 1968. She joined the Maritime Administration's James River, Virginia, reserve fleet in April 1970 and was formally transferred to the Maritime Administration in July 1971. The transport was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1981 to clear the way for transfer to a private organization for operation as a hospital ship, but the transfer did not materialize. In December 1994 the Navy passed full ownership of the ship to the Maritime Administration, which put her on indefinite hold for possible use in civil emergencies. The hold was lifted in September 1998 and the ship was ready for disposal by June 2001. In January 2005, nearly a half-century after completion, General Nelson M. Walker was towed out of the James River Reserve Fleet en route to a Brownsville, Texas scrap yard.
This page features selected views concerning USS Admiral H. T. Mayo (AP-125), USAT Admiral H. T. Mayo and USNS General Nelson M. Walker (T-AP-125).
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Admiral H. T. Mayo (AP-125) and USNS General Nelson M. Walker (T-AP-125). The following list features some of these images:
The images listed below are NOT in
the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USNS General Nelson M. Walker (T-AP-125) on 23 August 1953 entering San Francisco Bay with repatriated prisoners of war from Korea. This photo, showing the ship just after it passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, was taken by PH3 W. F. Stevens shortly before Photo # NH 103686 (seen above). A port quarter aerial view of USNS General Nelson M. Walker (T-AP-125) underway taken during the 1950s. A starboard side aerial view of USNS General Nelson M. Walker (T-AP-125), dated 6 April 1967, as she prepared to disembark troops at the Vung Tau Anchorage, South Vietnam. A starboard bow aerial view of USNS General Nelson M. Walker (T-AP-125), dated 6 April 1967, as she prepared to disembark troops at the Vung Tau Anchorage, South Vietnam. Photo by PH1 J. T. Luscan, USN.
Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". |
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 1 May 2006
New image added 12 February 2007