Army acquired the ship through allocation by WSA and named it Junior N. Van Noy after Private Junior Van Noy, recipient posthumously of the Medal of Honor, killed in action 17 October 1943 in New Guinea. All port repair ships were named for Engineers killed in action. Private Van Noy was in an Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment. Conversion The Army had identified the Maritime Commission type N3–M–A1 cargo ship hulls as the candidates most suitable to meet the requirement for port repair ships. There was competition from both the U.S. Navy and the British for the diesel powered version, the N3-M-A1, of this design. The offer of the steam version, the N3-S-A1 was rejected by the Army. During the resulting disputes the Army obtained the Josephine Lawrence by allocation from the WSA. The conversion of the Josephine Lawrence began 11 September 1943. The U.S. Army Transportation Corps (TC) had the lead in the conversion of the ships to Corps of Engineers specifications and then turned over to the Engineers for operations. The converted ship had been promised by TC for 15 January 1944 almost on the schedule required by the European command. Delays, shortages of materials, workers and intense competition from other requirements pushed that date even further into February and then 19 April 1944. On initial test operation the TC found the generators it had specified were insufficient and replacement was required. The Corps of Engineers crews had been trained ashore separately from the ships and thus had to join the ships to learn the practical details. The Junior N. Van Noy, the first of the port repair ships to be ready, sailed from Mobile, Alabama in late April with an Engineers crew sent from Fort Belvoir to Philadelphia for final preparation before deployment overseas. The crew was an organized, designated Corps of Engineers unit designated as an Engineer Port Repair Ship Crew. The reference, "Preparing to Reconstruct Ports", notes: The trip was a trying experience but perhaps more valuable in some ways than formal training. The soldiers quickly turned sea-men. Between Mobile and Key West the crew learned to spit to leeward and talk in terms of decks, bulkheads, and ladders. Morale was not so high, however, among the more experienced officers who knew ships and had to run this one. Deficiencies in both ship and crew were worked in Philadelphia, Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay and