USS General Omar Bundy
{{Short description|U.S. Navy transport ship in WWII}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
| {{Infobox ship begin|infobox caption=General Omar Bundy}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=USS General Omar Bundy (AP-152) off a coast, circa in 1945.gif |Ship caption=USS General Omar Bundy }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1944}} |Ship name=General Omar Bundy |Ship namesake=Omar Bundy |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=*Kaiser Co., Inc. |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=date 1944 |Ship launched=5 August 1944 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired=6 January 1945 |Ship commissioned=6 January 1945 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=14 June 1946 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=after 30 August 1946 (U.S. Army) |Ship out of service=12 December 1949 (U.S. Army) |Ship renamed=*SS Portmar, 10 April 1964
|Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck=8 October 1946 |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=*{{IMO Number|5127956}} |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=missing, presumed sunk, 1980{{cite web | first = Gary P. | last = Priolo | url = http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/22/22152.htm | title = USS General Omar Bundy (AP-152), USAT General Omar Bundy | work = NavSource Online | publisher = NavSource Naval History | date = 5 October 2007 | access-date = 2007-11-13 }} |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class={{sclass|General G. O. Squier|transport ship}} |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement=9,950 tons (light), 17,250 tons (full) |Ship length={{convert|522|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|71|ft|6|in|m|2|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft={{convert|26|ft|6|in|m|2|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=single-screw steam turbine with {{convert|9900|shp|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed={{convert|17|kn|km/h}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity=3,823 troops |Ship troops= |Ship complement=356 (officers and enlisted) |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*4 × 5"/38 caliber gun mounts |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
USS General Omar Bundy (AP-152) was a {{sclass|General G. O. Squier|transport ship}} for the U.S. Navy in World War II.
She was transferred to the U.S. Army as USAT General Omar Bundy in 1946, named in honor of U.S. Army major general Omar Bundy.
She was later sold for commercial operation under several names, including SS Poet, before being declared missing in 1980 and presumed sunk.
Operational history
General Omar Bundy (AP-152) was launched 5 August 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC #704) by the Kaiser Co., Richmond, California; sponsored by Mrs. Lawrence Wainwright of Richmond; acquired and simultaneously commissioned 6 January 1945.
Many years later, in 1980, after being converted to a bulk carrier and renamed the SS Poet, the ship disappeared off the coast of Delaware with all hands and sparked a discussion of maritime safety inspections and the wisdom of keeping very old American ships at sea.
File:Line drawings of SS Poet, as she appeared in 1980.png
General Omar Bundy stood out of San Francisco Bay 10 March 1945 with 2,700 sailors and marines bound for the Southwest Pacific, and after delivering them to Pearl Harbor, Ulithi, and Guam, returned to San Diego 11 May with over 1,700 homeward-bound troops after debarking 200 Japanese POW's at Pearl Harbor on 3 May. Six days later she sailed for the Atlantic via the Panama Canal and put in at Norfolk, 31 May. Underway again on 9 June, she touched Marseille to embark 2,800 troops for redeployment to the Pacific theater and brought them safely to Manila on 6 August 1945 via Panama. She brought nearly 500 officers and men from Manila to Tacloban, Leyte, Philippine Islands, and after embarking 1,500 veterans there, sailed via Ulithi and Guam to off-load her passengers at Seattle, Washington, on 4 September. Continuing her Magic Carpet duties, General Omar Bundy transported 3,000 replacement troops from Seattle to Okinawa in late September and October, returning to Portland, Oregon, on 2 November 1945 with nearly 3,000 victorious soldiers. The ship returned to the Philippines in November to embark 3,300 returning veterans, and brought them home to San Francisco on 19 December 1945.
In 1946 General Omar Bundy continued her "Magic-Carpet" and troop rotation duties, homeported at San Francisco and calling at Japan and Manila in February and at the Philippines again in April, returning to San Francisco after this last round-trip voyage and sailed from that port 17 May 1946 bound for New York via the Panama Canal. She was decommissioned 14 June 1946 and was delivered to the Maritime Commission the next day. General Omar Bundy was struck from the Navy list on 8 October 1946.
File:WAVES officers pose aboard USS General Omar Bundy (AP-152) on 25 June 1945 (80-G-330769).jpg
The transport was transferred to the War Department on 30 August 1946, and carried troops for the Army until returned to the Maritime Commission 12 December 1949.{{sfn|DANFS}}
On 11 June 1949 USAT General Omar Bundy left Naples with 842 displaced persons from Europe and arrived in Sydney on 8 July 1949.{{cite web | url = http://www.immigrantships.net/v6/1900v6/generalomarbundy19490708_01.html | title = Immigrant Ships, Transcribers Guild, General Omar Bundy | publisher = ImmigrantShips.net | date = 28 October 2002 | access-date = 2007-11-13 }} This voyage was one of almost 150 voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia.{{cite web | url = http://www.fifthfleet.net/pb/wp_6a2460ca/wp_6a2460ca.html | title = Ships of the Fifth Fleet | first = Ann | last = Tündern-Smith | work = FifthFleet.net | date = 31 December 2006 | access-date = 2007-11-13 }} General Omar Bundy made one more such trip herself, arriving in Sydney, again, with 842 refugees on 8 July 1949.
The ship was returned to the Maritime Commission on 12 December 1949. General Omar Bundy entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet and was berthed in the James River until delivered to the Bethlehem Steel Corp. 10 April 1964. Converted to a general cargo ship, she operated under the name Portmar, USCG ON 294731, IMO 5127956, for Bethlehem's subsidiary Calmar Line. She was sold to Ashley Steamship Co., Inc. on 10 August 1976 and renamed SS Port. Port was sold to Hawaiian Eugenia Corp. on 11 May 1979 and renamed SS Poet.{{cite web|title=SS Poet|url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2006-03-04/news/0603040137_1_poet-delaware-river-ship|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120827162817/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2006-03-04/news/0603040137_1_poet-delaware-river-ship|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 August 2012|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=4 March 2006 |access-date=14 March 2015}}
On 24 October 1980, Poet left Philadelphia for Port Said, Egypt, with a crew of 34. It was supposed to arrive 9 November, but never did so.{{cite web |title=Last Voyage of the S.S. Poet |website=The Washington Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123015324/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/11/26/last-voyage-of-the-ss-poet/e4fd6843-066b-42ee-8fe2-b5b6a1777ba8/ |archive-date=2022-11-23 |url-status=live |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/11/26/last-voyage-of-the-ss-poet/e4fd6843-066b-42ee-8fe2-b5b6a1777ba8/}} Poet was presumed sunk.Williams, 2013, pp. 135-136 A series of articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer by maritime writer Robert R. Frump stated that SS Poet and other World War II vessels, were kept in service long past their useful lifetimes by U.S. government programs such as the PL 480 Food for Peace, which required that American-built vessels carry surplus American grain to poor nations abroad. The articles about the Poet and later, the sinking of the {{SS|Marine Electric}}, helped bring about stricter enforcement of maritime laws. The system that kept the old ships at sea was described in Frump's book, Until the Sea Shall Free Them.
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite web|ref={{sfnRef|DANFS}}|title=General Omar Bundy|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/general-omar-bundy.html|access-date=2022-02-05|publisher=United States Navy|language=en-US}}
- {{cite book| last=Williams |first= Greg H. |title=World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands |publisher=McFarland Books |year=2013 |isbn= 978-0-7864-6645-0}}
- {{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/general-omar-bundy.html}}
External links
- {{navsource|09/22/22152|General Omar Bundy}}
- Shipspotting [http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1304993 Portmar]
- [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg545/docs/boards/poet.pdf Coastguard Marine Casualty Report]
{{General G. O. Squier class transport ship}}
{{Kaiser, Permanente Metals, Richmond Shipyards}}
{{1982 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:General Omar Bundy}}
Category:Transport ships of the United States Army
Category:Ships built in Richmond, California