USS Bollinger (APA-234) was a Haskell-class attack transport in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1947. She was scrapped in 1982.
Bollinger was named after Bollinger County, Missouri. She was launched 19 November 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding of Vancouver, Washington, under a Maritime Commission contract; transferred to the Navy 8 December, and commissioned the next day.
Bollinger joined the Pacific Fleet and arrived at Pearl Harbor 19 February 1945. She departed Pearl Harbor two days later for the invasion of Iwo Jima where she provided logistic support (6–16 March).
After returning to Pearl Harbor 5 April, she made a voyage to San Pedro, California, and back (22 April – 23 May), and then carried cargo and passengers to Eniwetok, Ulithi, Okinawa, Saipan, and Guam before returning to San Francisco on 29 July.
Leaving San Francisco 10 August she steamed to Eniwetok, Ulithi, and the Philippines before landing occupation troops at Wakayama, Honshū, Japan (12–26 September). She made one more voyage from the Philippines to Japan in October and then returned to San Diego, arriving 15 November. The transport made another voyage across the Pacific (December 1945 – January 1946) to bring men home from the Philippines.
During June and July 1946 she carried passengers to Bikini Atoll for Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests designed to test the effect of nuclear weapons on warships. Over 200 warships participated in this operation, 75 of them as targets.
Bollinger then returned to cross-Pacific service and was decommissioned at San Francisco 1 April 1947. She was returned to the Maritime Commission the following day, and laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, California. While still in the Reserve Fleet, she was redesignated an amphibious transport LPA-234 on 1 January 1969. She was sold for scrapping by the MARAD on 19 February 1982.
Bollinger received one battle star during World War II.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
