North Dakota is the county she was named for. Mrs. Margaret H. Marshall sponsored her. Permanente Metals Corp. at Richmond, California, built the Haskell attack transport under a Maritime Commission contract, launched her on 20 September 1944, and saw her commissioned on 16 November 1944 with Commander R. R. Stevens in command.
Shakedown done, she embarked troops at Seattle and on 10 January 1945 sailed for the Philippines, reaching Leyte Gulf on 21 February. Men of the 77th Infantry Division then put to sea with her for amphibious practice off Leyte. San Pedro Bay was the start, on 21 March, of the convoy run toward the Okinawa invasion. Off Kerama Retto she arrived on 26 March. Troops went ashore on 2 April while her gunners brought three planes down. She left that anchorage, reached San Francisco on 22 May, and loaded troops who later went ashore at Manila.
San Francisco on 6 August was the turnaround. Another body of troops sailed with her and landed at Batangas, on Luzon, on 11 September. Occupation troops taken up in Leyte Gulf went ashore at Hakodate on 4 October. Marines were then carried from Japan to Tsingtao in China. Homeward bound on 6 November, she left commission on 12 July 1946. Stockton's Pacific Reserve Fleet was the berth that took her.
The Korean conflict returned her to commission on 9 September 1950. A sailing on 22 December for the Far East kept her moving men between Japan and Korea until San Diego on 2 August 1951. Her second tour with the 7th Fleet began on 28 May 1952 and, across the next six months, ran between Hong Kong and Korea. On 14 October she took part in a feint off Kojo that fooled the Communist side completely. Long Beach in December was the return. West-coast training lasted until 28 November 1953, when she sailed for Japan and worked between the Philippines and Japan into August. Operation Passage to Freedom then took her, the large movement of refugees from the north of Vietnam to the south. Long Beach on 9 October 1954 ended the cruise, and on 1 October 1955 she decommissioned into reserve again.
A new commission on 22 November 1961 attached her to Amphibious Squadron 12 of the Atlantic Fleet. Training filled the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and in the fall of 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, she helped thicken the American force at Guantanamo Bay. October and November 1964 were NATO landing exercises in southern Spain. She left Norfolk on 8 February 1965 for a first 6th Fleet deployment, exercised off Norway in June and July, and was back at Norfolk on 20 July. Annual deployments with that fleet were still going on into 1969. One battle star was credited for the Second World War and three for Korea.