Central Pennsylvania is the county behind the name. Mrs. Alma De Brettville Sprecies sponsored her. Permanente Metals Corp., at its Shipyard No. 2 in Richmond, California, laid the keel on 15 May 1944 and launched the Haskell attack transport on 7 August 1944. The Navy accepted her on loan and commissioned her on 11 October 1944, Commander L. J. Modave in command.
Shakedown over, Pearl Harbor was the next port, and 1,100 troops made that passage. Marines of the 4th Division then took their place. Practice off Maui lasted until the Saipan orders of 27 January 1945. Her boats, on 19 February, put the 4th Marines onto the shore at Iwo Jima. Nearly a week went to priority cargo, then to cargo called for later, and to battle casualties coming back aboard. Her own beach party was hit hard that first day, fourteen wounded and three missing, and a shell struck the director of the 40 mm guns. On the 28th she retired to Saipan with the wounded.
Boats and gear that had not come back were replaced. On 16 March she shifted to nearby Tinian and practiced for Okinawa. The boats on 1 and 2 April made a show of landing 2d Division Marines along the southeastern shore, so that less strength would meet the real effort on the western beaches. She took the Marines back to Saipan and remained until early June. Stores loaded in the New Hebrides went ashore at Guam on 30 June. Independence Day was the sailing for San Francisco, with few passengers and repairs to be done.
About two months later she was west again, and 1,600 Army replacement troops landed at Manila. The war had already stopped. Men of the 33d Infantry Division, bound for occupation duty, were the next load, and Wakayama received them on 25 September. Over the following month the 24th Infantry Division shifted upward of a thousand men from Mindanao to Okajima. She sailed to Okinawa on 30 October. Magic Carpet, from November into March 1946, brought thousands more veterans into San Francisco.
Inactivation came quickly. Out of service in reserve on 6 July 1946, she was assigned to the 19th Fleet at Stockton. The Navy Register dropped her on 1 October 1958, and that same day she went back to the Maritime Commission. Into 1969 the National Defense Reserve Fleet held her at Suisun Bay. Two battle stars were earned in the war.