Transport Ship General R. E. Callan (AP-139) was launched 27 April 1944 under a
Maritime Commission contract (MC #667) by Kaiser Inc.,
Richmond, California sponsored by Mrs. Robert E. Callan, wife of General Callan; acquired 7 July 1944; and commissioned 17 August 1944.
General R. E. Callan sailed from
San Francisco 25 September 1944 with Army troops and debarked them at Oro Bay and
Langemak Bay,
New Guinea, on-loading at the latter port 2,700 troops and casualties which she put ashore at San Francisco 1 November on her return. She embarked over 2,600 fighting men at
San Diego and after touching San Francisco 13 November, got underway from that port 3 days later for
Kahului Harbor,
Hawaii, where she debarked the troops and returned to San Francisco 2 December with over 250 homeward-bound veterans. From 20 December 1944 – 8 February 1945 the transport carried 2,500 troops from San Francisco to
Eniwetok and
Guam, returning to
Los Angeles the latter date with 2,500 troops embarked at
Pearl Harbor.
General R. E. Callan then stood out 23 March 1945 with more than 3,000 fighting men bound for
Melbourne,
Australia;
Calcutta,
India; and
Trincomalee,
Ceylon; returning via
Fremantle, Australia;
Manus,
Tinian,
Saipan, Guam, and Pearl Harbor to moor at San Francisco 28 June. Two days later the busy ship steamed under the
Golden Gate bound for
Norfolk, closing that port 15 July and getting underway again 25 July for
France. She embarked over 3,000 troops at
Marseille 6 August and returned to Norfolk 18 August to debark her war-weary passengers. From 20 August-12 September the ship made another voyage to Marseille and put in at
Boston 12 September with over 4,000 troops. On 26 September she stood out to eastward, touching
Karachi,
India, via the Suez and returning to
New York with a full load of veterans on 21 November. After a round-the-world troop rotation cruise which brought the ship to Karachi,
Singapore and Hawaii after her departure 7 December 1945 from New York,
General R. E. Callan moored at
Seattle on 30 January 1946. Following a voyage to
Leyte, she returned to San Francisco in early April, and subsequently sailed thence via
Panama for Boston, where on 24 May 1946 she was placed out of commission and turned over to the Maritime Commission for peacetime operations as an Army transport. Her name was struck from the
Navy List on 19 June 1946. In September 1947
General R. E. Callan and sister ship
General Harry Taylor put in at
Todd Shipyard,
Brooklyn for limited modifications. The changes were so the ships would be in compliance with
United States Coast Guard requirements for commercial passenger carriers. In January 1948 USAT
General R. E. Callan responded to a distress signal from Army Transport
Joseph V. Connolly which was burning at , some east of New York. Freighters
Union Victory and
Black Diamond each picked up a lifeboat, while
General R. E. Callan picked up the remaining two boats. The Army transport stayed with the burning hulk of
Joseph V. Connolly until being relieved by Army ocean-going tug
LT-788.
General R. E. Callan was ordered to
Halifax with the survivors. All 46 hands from
Joseph V. Connolly were saved by the three ships, while the ship itself was lost.
General R. E. Callan was reacquired from the Army on 28 April 1950 and crewed by the Civil Service for transatlantic passenger service under the
MSTS until 29 May 1958 when her name was again struck from the Navy List. Returned to the Maritime Commission, she was assigned to the
Maritime Defense Reserve Fleet in the
Hudson River,
New York.
Missile Range Instrumentation Ship General R. E. Callan was transferred to the Air Force 15 July 1961, and rebuilt at
Bethlehem Shipbuilding, Brooklyn as a
Missile Range Instrumentation Ship. She was renamed USAFS
General H. H. Arnold in honor of
General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold and designated as ORV-1908. On 1 July 1964 she was acquired by the Navy and designated T-AGM-9.
General H. H. Arnold operated in the Atlantic under MSTS as a
Missile Range Instrumentation Ship. She was also seen operating in the North Pacific during the late 1970s. She was struck from the
Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1982. The ship was operated by Military Sealift command and had a crew of 200 and supporting contractors and military personnel of approx 50. During the late 1970s and early 1980s RCA Service Corp had the contract for supporting the electronics with a contingent of approx 50 personnel. The RCA personnel operated and maintained the radar equipment. At that time the main computer was a NASA modified 642B mainframe. Supplemental computers were a Univac 1911. The aft dish was a 30 ft Telemetry dish, the 40' midship dish was an X and L band radar capable of tracking a 15-inch sphere to 1500 miles. The L band radar was 8M watts. The 30' forward dish was a C Band radar. There was an optical 'flexure monitoring system' running from beneath the Ship's Inertial Navigation System" (SINS) gyros to beneath the telemetry mount. This system allowed for computer-aided steering of the three antennas to maintain 'target convergence' in compensation for the forces inflicted upon the ship in the roll, pitch and yaw axes by the sea motion. In addition, just behind the bridge and above the ship's navigational gyro was a 'star tracker' system that provided celestial navigation backup, verification and calibration for the SINS. A single-side-band (SSB) radio communication system, visibly represented by two large, vertically oriented antennae located on the forward deck, permitted radio communication to operational centers in the U.S. from virtually anywhere around the globe. Much (most) of the technical and operational characteristics of the Arnold were replicated on her sister ship, the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg (ORV-1907). Perhaps the most significant difference was in the dual-function radar systems supported on the mid-ships antenna; X and L band on the Arnold, X and UHF band on the Vandenberg. == See also ==