General John Pope Class
Transport:
Laid down, 14 March 1944 as a
Maritime Commission type
(P2-S2-R2)
hull, under Maritime Commission
contract (MC hull 677) at Federal
Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.,
Kearny, NJ; Launched, 3
September
1944; Acquired by the Navy, 4
January
1945; Commissioned USS General
William Weigel (AP-119), 6 January
1945, with a Coast Guard crew at
Bayonne, NJ; Decommissioned, 10
May
1946 and Struck from the Naval
Register, at New York, NY.;
Returned
to the Maritime Commission for
assignment to the US Army
Transportation Service, renamed
USAT
General William Weigel;
Re-acquired by
the US Navy, 20 July 1950 and
placed
In-service with MSTS as USNS
General William Weigel
(T-AP-119); 1
August 1950; Placed in Reduced
status
1955; Placed Out-of-service and
returned to the Maritime
Commission,
12 June 1958, for lay up in the
National
Defense Reserve Fleet Olympia
WA.;
Re-acquired, 18 August 1965,
Placed
In-service with MSC as USNS
General
William Weigel (T-AP-119); Placed
Out-of-service and struck from the
Naval Register, 31 March 1986;
Final
disposition, disposed of by MARAD
exchange, 10 April 1987, fate
unknown.
Specifications: Displacement
11,450
t.(lt) 20,175 t.(fl); Length 622' 7";
Beam
75' 6"; Draft 25' 6"; Speed 20.6kts;
Complement 533; Troop Capacity
4,244; Armament four single 5"/38
dual
purpose gun mounts, sixteen 1.1"
guns,
twenty 20mm guns; Propulsion
steam
turbines, twin shafts, 17,000hp.
Marines, the following video was
supplied by B. Sean Fairburn,
SOC. Turn up your speakers and
enjoy!!
Video
The troop transport ship U.S.N.S
General William Weigle departed
San
Diego, California on February 18,
1966
for Pearl Harbor. Arrived on March
5th.. Picked-up some Army troops
and
departed 24 hours later. Arrived in
DaNang on March 10th.. Many
Marines on board were assigned to
3rd.
Battalion, First Marines and were
transported to Chu Lai on March
14th.
Arrived with only our sea bags.
Received M-14's and ammo a
couple of
days later...much of the gear had
been
used by dead or wounded Marines
on
Operation Utah.
Dr. Claude V. DeShazo, 3/1
Battalion Surgeon treating
Vietnamese children in Quang Ngi ,
1st. quarter 1966.
Recommended reading:
* A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan
* A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo
* Dereliction of Duty by H.R. McMaster
* Conversations with the Enemy by Winston Groom
*
Commanding Officer
Lt. Col. James R.
Young
I'm Stanley D. Young the son of Col. James R.
Young,
U.S.M.C. (ret.). I was in the 8th. Grade in Fallbrook,
Ca.
and my brother, Roland, was a sophomore in
Fallbrook
Union High School while Dad was away with the
battalion
in '65-'66. I did a search on 3/1 and found your
website.
After living in Arizona for 26 years after retirement in
1976,
Dad is currently living in a nursing facility here in Fort
Collins, Co. which is his hometown. He turned 77 in
August 2003. Dad's story as a Marine officer,
serving with
distinction for 26 years with his disability from his
Korean
War wound was pretty unique.
The text copy of the email I received
from Stan Young is to the right. Most
of
the young Marines who served under
his
fathers command did not know him
but
would have to agree with Stan in his
observations of his father.
This website is dedicated to all the Marines and Navy
Corpsman who served in Vietnam. We will never forget
our
fallen comrades. The site is intended to serve as a
contact point
for locating old friends, identifying faces and viewing
some of
the landscape we traversed.
Once a Marine by Charles Latting and Claude
DeShazo, M.D.
