Eastern Kentucky is the county she was named for. Kaiser Co. at Vancouver, Washington, laid the keel on 21 July 1944. Mrs. Lucien Garon sponsored the launch on 15 October 1944. Commander Paul P. Spaulding, USNR, commissioned the Haskell attack transport on 4 November 1944.
ComPhibsTraPac had her from 8 December 1944 for hard amphibious drills. Within a month she was bound for Hawaii with Navy and Marine people and cargo. Honolulu cleared that first load on 15 January. A South Pacific sailing on the 27th ended at Guadalcanal on 5 February, and further exercises there pointed toward Okinawa. On 1 April the transport area received her, units of the 6th Marine Division and a cargo load aboard, and she stayed through the 4th. The first two days put the troops ashore; the 3rd and 4th cleared the cargo. On the 5th she turned for home, reaching San Francisco on 11 May to load Army personnel and cargo for the Philippines.
By 19 June Leyte had taken those passengers and that cargo, and she ran a short freight trip to Milne Bay in New Guinea. The return from the Netherlands East Indies brought her to San Pedro on 2 August. After the Pacific fighting stopped, occupation troops still went out to Japan and tired veterans came home. Magic Carpet let her go early in 1946. On 9 March the 19th Fleet received her report, and decommissioning on 31 July left her at Stockton.
Hostilities in Korea pulled her from the mothball fleet. Recommissioning on 2 December 1950 put her again in the Amphibious Force of the Pacific Fleet. Two long western Pacific tours came before a second inactivation in 1955. From April 1951 through March 1952 she moved troops between Japan and Korea and inside Korean waters, so United Nations units could be shifted where they were needed. The later tour, August 1953 to April 1954, combined large drills with American and Korean Marines and flagship duty on Operation Big Lift. Indian troops who were neutral in that war went to Panmunjon for the peace conference, and she carried them. During 1955 she left commission for reserve duty with the San Francisco Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. On 1 October the Naval Register dropped her name and the Maritime Commission took her. The reserve berth later given her was Suisun Bay. One battle star was credited for the Second World War and two for Korea.