LST-918 was a tank landing ship, and the hull number was her name. She was an LST-542-class ship. Bethlehem-Hingham, at Hingham, Massachusetts, laid her down on 5 April 1944, launched her on 7 May 1944, and the Navy commissioned her on 29 May 1944, Lieutenant Paul Cherin of the Naval Reserve in command. The class figures are the LST-542 set NavSource prints, and the gun list with them is a design.
Two battle stars. The Leyte landings on 20 October 1944, and the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto from 26 March to 7 June 1945. For Okinawa, NavSource places her in Flotilla 14. On 23 July 1945 she lay at the Yonabaru pier between LST-715 and LST-871. The same caption names LST-819, LST-879, LST-681, LST-926, and LST-944, and leaves two hulls unnamed. She was not sunk. She also received the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation and the Philippine Liberation Medal with one star.
Lieutenant David C. Matthews of the Naval Reserve relieved Cherin on 5 November 1944. On 4 October 1945 the list gives the next officer as Gleason, Wesley, Anthony, of the Naval Reserve. That is the printed line. Read in the same last-name-first order as the other names on the list, it is Wesley Anthony Gleason, and the extra comma is not treated as a second surname. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kenneth Geohegan of the Naval Reserve, spelled that way on the list, had her from 7 February 1946. Occupation service is two stretches, 22 October to 5 November 1945 and 15 December 1945 to 8 January 1946. She was decommissioned on 12 June 1946, struck on 31 July 1946, and sold for scrap on 18 December 1947 to the Learner Company of Oakland, California.
A note on sources. NavSource gives the builder dates, the Leyte and Okinawa stars, both occupation windows, the 12 June and 31 July 1946 dates, the 18 December 1947 sale, and the four commands. The third command is printed Gleason, Wesley, Anthony. The San Francisco Bay photograph is NH 79583, courtesy Donald M. McPherson, 1974. The pier photograph is 21st Naval Construction Battalion negative 204.
