 Leaving Norfolk, VA in April, 1945, the ship sailed to Miami, FL, where soil and palm trees were loaded aboard to create a Pacific Island Jungle on a portion of the tank deck.It then moved to New Orleans, and was in that city on VE Day, May 8, 1945.It then began the journey up the Mississippi River to the Illinois River, and was the first LST to make the trip up both those rivers, and was the first and only LST to return to the inland shipyard (Seneca, IL) where it was built.