My Father, Lt. Jean Hart Daly served aboard "The Squier” as the navigation/damage control officer. I recall my Father commenting that they would take U.S. troops over and bring back German prisoners of war. Dad said this trip was made several times a month.

Patrick Daly

General G. O. Squier (AP-130) was launched 11 November 1942 under Maritime Commission contract by the Kaiser Co., Richmond, Calif.; sponsored by Miss Mary Ann Somervell; acquired 30 August 1943 and commissioned 2 October, Captain A. E. Uehlinger in Command.

General G. O. Squier made three round-trip, troop-carrying voyages out of San Francisco from 29 October 1943 to 30 March 1944 to Noumea; Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Wallis Island, Samoa, Noumea, and Honolulu, respectively. Underway again from San Francisco 7 April she brought troops to Noumea and Milne Bay before heading for Norfolk, where she arrived 2 June. On 1 July the ship departed with 3,300 troops for Italy, and debarked them at Naples. Following a voyage thence to Oran and back, General G. O. Squier joined Task Force 87 off Naples 13 August in preparation for Operation Dragoon. Operation Dragoon was the codename for the Allied invasion of southern France, which took place on 15 August 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up primarily of the French First Army. The landing caused the German Army Group G to abandon southern France and to retreat under constant Allied attacks to the Vosges Mountains. Despite being a large and complex military operation with a well-executed amphibious and airborne component, Operation Dragoon is not well known as it was overshadowed by the larger Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day) which occurred over two months earlier.

Arriving off Cap Camarat 15 August, she debarked her troops into waiting LCI's which put them ashore to become another deadly prong thrust deeply into Kilter's "Heartland." Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) were several classes of seagoing amphibious assault ships of the Second World War used to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than their smaller Landing Craft Assault (LCA). The result was a small steel ship that could land 200 troops, traveling from rear bases on its own bottom at a speed of up to 15 knots. The next day, General G.O. Squier headed for Oran to bring nearly 3,000 troops back to the Cap Camarat beachhead on the 30th. General G. O. Squier returned to New York 26 September with casualties and prisoners of war embarked at Naples.

From 14 October 1944 to 14 September 1945, she made 10 transatlantic, troop-carrying and rotation voyages: 7 from New York, 2 from Norfolk, and 1 from Boston, to ports in the United Kingdom (Plymouth, Southampton, and Avonmouth) and France (Le Havre and Marseilles). Between 20 September 1945 and 18 June 1946, six other round-trip, "Magic Carpet" voyages out of New York at war's end brought home veterans from the Far East (Karachi, Calcutta, and Colombo) and Europe (Le Havre, Leghorn, and Bremerhaven). Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II operation by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and Asian theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports like The Squier began repatriating soldiers from Europe in June 1945. Beginning in October 1945, over 370 navy ships were used for repatriation duties in the Pacific. Warships, such as aircraft carriers, battleships, hospital ships, and large numbers of assault transports were used. The European phase of Operation Magic Carpet concluded in February 1946 while the Pacific phase continued until September 1946.

General G. O. Squier reached Norfolk 22 June and decommissioned 10 July 1946.

She was returned to the WSA on 18 July 1946 and entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet at James River in Virginia. She was sold to the Bethlehem Steel Corp. 7 April 1964, converted to a general cargo ship for Bethlehem's subsidiary Calmar Line, and renamed Pennmar, USCG ON 295108, IMO 6413730, on 27 May 1965. The ship was sold and renamed Penn in 1976, renamed Penny in 1978, and scrapped in 1984.

General G. O. Squier was awarded one battle star for World War II service.

U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command
CECOM Historical Office U.S. Army