Richard Dean "Dick" Schmidt (1925–2005) went aboard the attack transport USS Sumter (APA-52) as a Fireman First Class in July 1944 and left her, an Electrician's Mate Second Class, the week she was decommissioned in March 1946. In between: five invasion beaches, a kamikaze strike close enough to change his ship's place in formation, and the long, slow trip home.
Richard enlisted in the Navy at Chicago, where he and his mother Nellie were living at the time. He reported aboard USS Sumter on 20 July 1944 as a Fireman First Class — engine-room work, the standard entry rate for a young reservist headed into the fleet.
Sumter landed advance troops at Angaur, then stood offshore as floating reserve for the 1st Marine Division's assault on Peleliu — among the costliest fighting of the Pacific war — before serving as a casualty-evacuation ship and sailing on to Manus.
On 8 January a kamikaze struck the transport USS Callaway roughly 600 yards ahead of Sumter in the formation. Sumter took over as formation guide, and the next morning landed her assault troops — including Callaway's — on the Lingayen beaches. Richard was promoted to Electrician's Mate Third Class right around this operation.
After staging at Ulithi, Sumter landed 1,352 Marines of the assault waves near Yontan Airfield on the first day of the Okinawa invasion — the last and largest amphibious operation of the war Richard's ship took part in.
After V-J Day, Sumter carried occupation troops to Wakayama and Matsuyama, Japan, then returned to Subic Bay to embark homebound Navy veterans for the trip back across the Pacific.
Sumter arrived in Seattle in November 1945, where Richard was promoted to Electrician's Mate Second Class on New Year's Day, 1946. He mustered aboard for the last time on 9 March, ten days before the ship was decommissioned and he was transferred to the Receiving Barracks at Mobile for separation.
| Displacement | 13,910 t. (fl) |
| Length | 468' 9" |
| Beam | 63' |
| Draft | 23' 3" |
| Speed | 16.5 kts. |
| Complement | 39 Officers410 Enlisted |
| Troop Accommodations | 91 Officers1,472 Enlisted |
| Cargo Capacity | 1,300 DWT170,000 cu. ft. non-refrigerated |
| Armament | Two single 5"/38 cal. dual-purpose gun mountsFour twin 40mm AA gun mountsTen single 20mm AA gun mounts |
| Fuel Capacities | NSFO 8,575 BblsDiesel 750 Bbls |
| Propulsion | One General Electric geared-drive turbineTwo Babcock & Wilcox header-type boilers, 450 psi / 750°Double General Electric main reduction gearThree 300kW 120V/240V D.C. ship's service generatorsSingle propeller, 6,000 shp |
Sumter's story runs well past Richard's two and a half years aboard her — she was under construction before he enlisted, and spent twenty years as a working cargo ship after he mustered out for the last time. The five official battle-star campaigns below include two, Marshall Islands and Marianas, that predate his reporting aboard on 20 July 1944.
| Construction & Commissioning | |
| 3 Apr 1942 | Laid down as a Maritime Commission type (C2-S-E1) hull, MC hull No. 474, for the Waterman Steamship Co., as SS Iberville, at Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL. |
| 4 Oct 1942 | Launched. |
| 1 Feb 1943 | Reclassified Attack Transport, APA-52 (fleet-wide classification, ahead of physical conversion). |
| 30 Apr 1943 | Acquired by the U.S. Navy as AP-97; placed in reduced commission, CDR William A. McHale, USNR (APA Ferry Crew #5), in command; renamed Sumter. |
| 13 May 1943 | Decommissioned at Maryland Drydock Co., Baltimore, MD, for fitting out as an attack transport. |
| 1 Sep 1943 | Re-commissioned in full as USS Sumter (APA-52), CAPT Allan D. Blackledge in command. |
| Wartime Assignment & Campaigns — Asiatic-Pacific Theater | |
| — | Assigned to TransRon Twelve, COMO H.B. Knowles, USN; TransDiv Thirty-Six, CAPT G.W. Johnson, USN. |
| 31 Jan – 8 Feb 1944 | Marshall Islands operation — occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls |
| 15–24 Jun 1944 | Marianas operation — capture and occupation of Saipan |
| 6 Sep – 14 Oct 1944 | Western Caroline Islands operation — capture and occupation of the southern Palau Islands |
| 16–21 Oct & 19–29 Nov 1944 | Leyte operation — Leyte landings, San Pedro Bay |
| 1–5 Apr 1945 | Okinawa Gunto operation — assault and capture of Okinawa Gunto |
| 13–27 Oct 1945 | Occupation service. |
| Decommissioning & Disposal | |
| 19 Mar 1946 | Decommissioned at Gulf Shipbuilding Co., Chickasaw, AL. |
| 17 Apr 1946 | Struck from the Naval Register. |
| 1 Aug 1946 | Returned to the Maritime Commission for disposal. |
| Merchant Service — SS Gateway City | |
| 8 Apr 1947 | Title passed to Waterman Steamship Co. |
| 7 Feb 1956 | Sold to Pan-Atlantic Steamship Co. |
| Sep 1957 | Converted to a cargo trailership / containership at Mobile SR Inc., Chickasaw, AL; renamed SS Gateway City. |
| Dec 1957 | Resold to Coastal Ship Corp. |
| 15 May 1968 | Resold to Donmac Corp. |
| 12 Dec 1970 | Resold to R.J. Reynolds Industries Inc. |
| 31 Aug 1978 | Sold for scrapping to Four Seas Enterprises Ltd.; scrapped at Hong Kong, October 1978. |
The family/NARA-derived record used to build this page credits Sumter with five battle stars for World War II service. Wikipedia and the Naval History and Heritage Command's DANFS entry both credit six. Not yet resolved — flagged here rather than silently picking one.
As SS Gateway City, this same hull is credited by NavSource and Wikipedia as the first true container ship — converted in September 1957 for Pan-Atlantic Steamship Co. (the forerunner of Sea-Land), roughly a decade after Richard's Navy discharge. The ship he served on for the end of the war spent its second life helping invent an entirely different kind of shipping.