We begin with an article by Walker Huffman, a Gunners Mate and Plank Owner
who served on the LST 662 from Commissioning to Decommissioning
This will be added to as memories are jogged and new information received

     We crew assembled in Pittsburg at the Carnegie Tech dormitories and on April 25, 1944, boarded and commissioned LST 662 at the Ambridge ship yards.  Then it was off down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans where we took our shake down cruise to the white sand shores of Panama city, Florida.
     Returning to New Orleans, we loaded cargo and sailed the Gulf of Mexico and through the Panama Canal to California.  At the Oakland Navy Yard we had a LCT put on our top deck.

     We arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in July, took on board a company of the 81st "Wildcat" Infantry Division and participated in more amphibious training.  We then headed across the International Date Line and the Equator to the Solomon Islands where we rendezvoused with other ships to form a convoy that took us to our first invasion on September 17 of Anguar Island in the Palau Islands as part of "Operation Stalemate II".  At Anguar we captured a Japanese soldier and turned him over as a prisoner of war.  Also at Anguar we damaged one of our screws on the coral while retracting from the beach.

LST 662 at Anguar Island	Anguar Island Landing Beaches

     We had to travel from Anguar to Milne Bay, New Guinea (an Australian repair base) alone at top speed of 5 knots to get our screw repaired.  After the repair we formed a convoy at Hollandia, New Guinea and participated in the Philippine liberation with the invasion and landing a San Antonio beach (Luzon) on January 29, 1945.  Returning to Guam after the Philippine invasion we joined a large invasion force convoy and sailed to Okinawa for "Operation Iceberg" as part of XXIV Corps.

Shipping assignments - LST 662 in bold	Okinawa - Plan of attack	Hagushi Beaches on L+3

     Our LST 662 was one of the first to land on Purple beach on L-Day, April 1, 1945.  We landed the 1140th Engineer Group of the 7th Infantry Division on the Asian side of the island at Purple Beach at the Hagushi beaches.  At Okinawa our ship was credited with shooting down two Japanese aircraft as we watched wave after wave of Kamikaze aircraft attack the ships.  These were trying days as nerves were on edge with the constant attacks.  It was here that we learned of the death of our Commander-In-Chief, Franklyn Roosevelt.
     
     On April 16 we landed part of the 77th Division at Ie Shima as part of the Ryukyu Islands invasion.  Here we witnessed the medics bring the body of Ernie Pyle, the G.I.s buddy, to the beach on 18 April.
     
We left the Okinawa area on 28 April with convoy 7U 51.15.26.  On this day the hospital ship Comfort was hit by a Kamikaze in our area.  We sailed into the tail end of a typhoon where we almost capsized as we were going back to Guam.  From Guam we sailed to Pearl Harbor where we got word of the Japanese surrender as we passed Eniwetok Island.  Our orders were to gear up at Pearl Harbor and head for the invasion of Honshu as our sealed orders dictated-so the atomic bomb saved us from that experience.
     Instead we loaded up with troops and, in early September, sailed for San Diego where, being one of the first ships to arrive after the war ended, we were met by a large group of cheering people and a band.  We then made a round trip to San Francisco to unload some cargo.
     We decommissioned our ship at San Diego in December 1945.

The USS LST 662 earned 3 Battle Stars for her service in the Asiatic Pacific theater.

In June 1946 she was sold to Arctic Circle Exploration, Inc of Seattle, WA where she was used as a factory ship to process fish catches.  Her final disposition is so far unknown.