LST-727 was a tank landing ship, and the hull number was her name. She was an LST-542-class ship. Jeffersonville Boat and Machine, at Jeffersonville, Indiana, laid her down on 8 August 1944, launched her on 10 September 1944, and Miss Sally Willis sponsored her. The Navy commissioned her on 4 October 1944. Lieutenant (junior grade) C. P. Campbell of the Naval Reserve had her, and the command list keeps him into 1946 without a day for the relief. NavSource's class figures, printed on her page, are 328 feet overall, a beam of 50 feet, and 11.6 knots on trial. The gun battery on these ships was fitted from what was on hand. The ultimate design battery printed with those figures is not a count verified for this hull.
In the war she was in LST Flotilla 25, Group 73, Division 145. Her own Dictionary entry is the short one. It names no assault and no battle star. The campaign ribbon on NavSource is the Asiatic-Pacific medal without a star. What the other ships say is plainer. On 23 March 1945 she was on Yellow Beach at Iwo Jima. Zuni (ATF-95) grounded there while trying to pull her clear, after a broken towline fouled the tug's anchor and propeller. Zebra's history says that net cargo ship pulled both Zuni and LST-727 off the beach. She was not sunk.
After the war she did occupation duty in the Far East and served in China until the middle of February 1946, which is the Dictionary's line. NavSource dates both the Navy Occupation Service Medal and the China Service Medal from 25 December 1945 to 20 February 1946. She came home, was decommissioned on 26 July 1946, and was struck on 28 August 1946.
The sale date is not one date. The Dictionary, the Great Lakes vessel history, and uboat.net sell her to Steele Powers on 15 June 1948. NavSource prints 1946. Under the Canadian flag she was Stanolind 56, then, from 1950, R.A. McInnis for the St. Charles Transportation Company, and from 1970 Fort Lennox. The Great Lakes history closes her register on 28 June 1983 as a hull permanently moored. NavSource still calls her a training ship at Morrisburg. She was not sunk in the war.
A note on sources. The building dates, the sponsor, the occupation duty through mid-February 1946, the decommissioning, the strike, and the 15 June 1948 sale are the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry for LST-727. The commanding officer, the flotilla, and the medal dates are NavSource, the officer list credited there to Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves. The first name behind the initials C. P. is not on that list. The Yellow Beach grounding is the Dictionary entry for Zuni, and the pull off the beach is the Dictionary entry for Zebra. LST-727's own entry does not mention either ship. The Canadian names are NavSource and the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes at Bowling Green. The 28 June 1983 closing of the register is the Great Lakes history.
