USS President Adams (AP-38/APA-19) was a of the United States Navy, named for Founding Father John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, the second and sixth Presidents of the United States. Service history President Adams, built under Maritime Commission contract, was laid down as MC hull 57 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, on 6 June 1940; launched on 31 January 1941; sponsored by Mrs. Robert H. Jackson; delivered to the Navy on 5 June 1941; converted by the Norfolk Navy Yard; and commissioned on 19 November 1941. 1941–1942 Stripped for war service with the entry of the United States into World War II, on 7 December 1941, President Adams fired her guns against the enemy, a U-boat, for the first time on Christmas Day. Following the encounter, she continued her shakedown exercises, then, steamed to the Pacific and trained troops off California as she readied for her first amphibious operation. In June 1942, she embarked the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, and got underway on 1 July for the South Pacific. Between 7 and 9 August, as the United States launched the first step on the island-paved path to victory in the Pacific, her LCMs and LCVPs landed the Marines in the Guadalcanal-Tulagi area. Retiring from the area, the converted liner carried casualties to Samoa, whence she began bringing in reinforcements. For six months she transported fresh troops and equipment to, and brought out wounded from, Guadalcanal. 1943 Organized resistance on Guadalcanal ceased on 9 February 1943, but the Solomon Islands campaign was not over. President Adams, redesignated APA-19 (effective 1 February) continued to carry men and equipment to and from embattled islands of the south Pacific, escaping serious damage from numerous Japanese air attacks. During March and April she trained assault troops in New Zealand, then transported men and materiel from there, and from Australia, to Guadalcanal, whence she steamed with United States Army forces for Rendova. Landing those troops on 30 June, she took on survivors from on 1 July, and sailed to Nouméa. From New Caledonia, President Adams returned to New Zealand, underwent an abbreviated overhaul, then resumed transporting men and equipment to the Solomon Islands and training assault troops for amphibious operations, this time for the Bougainville campaign. On 1 November, after bombarding the beaches at Torokina Point, she landed the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, at Empress Augusta Bay.