An LSM-1 Class Landing Ship Medium:, the vessel was built by Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company, Chicago, IL.
Detail from
Navsource archives reveals her history as;
- Commissioned USS LSM-315, 13 July 1944, LT. Alfred W. Holmes, USNR in command
- Decommissioned, 14 June 1946, at Astoria, OR.
- Sold, 26 January 1960, to the Australian Army, assigned to the Royal Australian Engineers, 32 Small Ship Squadron, renamed Vernon Sturdee (AV-1355)
- Sold for commercial service in 1972, possibly modified as a timber carrier
- Final disposition, believed to have sunk in the Solomon Islands, circa 1984
AV-1355 carried the militarily significant name of Sir Vernon Ashton Hobart Sturdee (1890 - 1966) DSO,OBE,CB,KBE. A sapper for 9 months with the Corps of Australian Engineers, Militia, before being commissioned in 1908. Following a career that spanned from Gallipoli to Washington to Papua and Lae including accepting the regional surrender of the Japanese in Rabaul. Sir Vernon was later described by Sir Sydney Rowell “as a kindly, humble and simple man who carried out his work with the minimum of fuss.” Sentiments that Association crew members would recognise as common to not only his name sake vessels work ethic, but to 32 Small Ship Sqn as a whole.
As for all 32 Small Ship Sqn vessels the call is out for a fuller history of voyages of AV1355 and her sister vessels. As photos from Dave Perham's collection attest - www.navsource.org - she saw further active service on station in Vietnam from April 1966 to 25 Jun 1966 and from January 1967 to December 1967.
