Mellette was a
Victory ship design, VC2-S-AP5 and was named after
Mellette County, South Dakota, United States. She was launched by
Oregon Shipbuilding Corp.,
Portland, Oregon, 4 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Clarissa Bickford; acquired from the
United States Maritime Commission on a loan‑charter basis; and commissioned 27 September 1944.
World War II In November 1944,
Mellette followed a
San Pedro shakedown cruise with a voyage to the
Hawaiian Islands for training operations. She conducted amphibious troop, gunnery, and tactical exercises off
Maui into January 1945. On 27 January she joined TG 51.1 and got underway for
Iwo Jima. With units of the
4th Marine Division embarked, she steamed west, via
Eniwetok and
Saipan, arriving off the
Volcano Islands to participate in the
initial assault 19 February. She remained off the eastern beaches of Iwo Jima for the next 6 days, unloading supplies and taking on casualties. On the 25th she sailed for Saipan where she disembarked her wounded passengers and began preparations for the upcoming
Okinawa campaign. Through the next month
Mellette trained off
Tinian's western beaches with TG 51.2 and on 27 March weighed anchor and headed for the
Ryukyus. On 1 April she was off
Okinawa and at 0631 commenced disembarking units of the
2d Marine Division in diversionary landings along the island's southeastern coast. Her mission completed by mid‑morning, she reembarked her
Marines and sailed to the main assault area to stand by until needed. There she remained until ordered back to Saipan on the 11th. She disembarked the Marines at Saipan on the 14th and remained there until 4 June when she began carrying men and cargo among the
Marianas and
Solomons. In July she carried reinforcements, the
Army's 24th Infantry Regiment, to
Kerama Retto. Back at Saipan when the
Japanese capitulation was announced, 15 August,
Mellette immediately took on men of the
6th Marine Division and sailed for
Honshū. Arriving with the first wave of occupation troops, she disembarked the Marines at
Yokosuka Naval Base on the 30th, witnessed
official surrender in
Tokyo Bay 2 September, and then returned to Saipan to take on men of the 2d Marine Division for transportation to
Nagasaki. Next assigned to
"Magic Carpet" duty, she completed two voyages between the western
Pacific and
Seattle before 21 January 1946 when she got underway for the
east coast and inactivation. Arriving at
Norfolk, Virginia, 3 February, she decommissioned 25 June and entered the
Reserve Fleet at
Yorktown, Virginia.
Cold War With the outbreak of
hostilities in Korea,
Mellette was reactivated, recommissioning 18 October 1950. For the next 4 years she operated primarily along the east coast, participating in fleet operations and exercises from
Nova Scotia to the
Caribbean. During that period she served with the
6th Fleet in the
Mediterranean 8 September 1953 to 4 February 1954.
Fate She decommissioned 18 June 1955 and joined the
Charleston, South Carolina, group of the
Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Berthed at Charleston for the next 5 years, she was transferred to the
National Defense Reserve Fleet in June 1960. Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1960, she has remained berthed with the
James River, Virginia group into 1969. She was sold to Chi Shun Hua Steel Co. Ltd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan for scrapping on 3 June 1988. ==Awards==