USS Braxton (APA-138) was a Haskell-class attack transport in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1973. History Braxton (APA-138) was laid down on 29 August 1944 at Wilmington, California, by the California Shipbuilding Corp. under a Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 54); launched on 3 November 1944; sponsored by Mrs. J. R. DeFrees; acquired by the Navy from the Maritime Commission on a loan-charter basis on 28 December 1944; and commissioned the following day at Terminal Island, San Pedro, California. Pacific War Following alterations and repairs between 3 and 5 January 1945, the attack transport sailed on 9 January for shakedown training in the Long Beach, California, area. Less than a week later on 14 January, Braxton collided with the merchant tanker SS Mission Capistrano during a heavy fog and suffered damage to two LCVP's, three life rafts, and her hull. Following repairs, the attack transport departed Long Beach on 22 January, proceeded to San Diego, California, and reported the next day for duty with the Amphibious Training Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Braxton then conducted amphibious exercises off the coast of southern California until mid-February and then headed for San Francisco, California, where she arrived on the 20th. After embarking passengers, she departed from the Bay area on the 24th, bound for Hawaii. The ship moored at Pearl Harbor on 1 March and disembarked her passengers. For the rest of the month, she operated in Hawaiian waters conducting amphibious exercises off Maui and Oahu. On the morning of 9 April, the attack transport sailed for the Marshalls in convoy PD-372T—with also , Sea Flasher, and the minesweepers and —and anchored at Eniwetok on the morning of 18 April. The following day, after picking up additional escorts in the form of and PCE-898, the convoy sailed thence for the Marianas. Braxton reached Saipan early on 23 April and disembarked some of her passengers before pushing on to Guam which she reached on the afternoon of the 26th. There, she disembarked her remaining out-bound passengers before embarking U.S. Marine Corps officers and enlisted men for the return voyage on 1 May. That afternoon, the transport sailed for Oahu. Braxton arrived at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 10 May, but sailed the following morning for the U.S. West Coast. Although initially ordered to San Diego, she was redirected to San Francisco en route and