USS Noble (APA-218)

USS Noble (APA-218), underway off San Diego, December 1956
History
United States
Name	Noble
Namesake	Noble County, Indiana, Noble County, Ohio, and Noble County, Oklahoma
Ordered	as a Type VC2-S-AP5 hull, MCE hull 566[1]
Builder	Permanente Metals Corporation, Richmond, California
Yard number	566[1]
Laid down	20 July 1944
Launched	18 October 1944
Sponsored by	Mrs Maxine C. Jones
Commissioned	27 November 1944
Decommissioned	1 July 1964
Stricken	1964
Identification	Hull symbol: APA-218 Code letters: NPQR
Honors and awards	1 × battle star for World War II service 6 × battle stars for Korean War service
Fate	Sold to the Spanish Navy, 19 December 1964
Spain
Name	Aragón
Namesake	Autonomous Community of Aragon
Acquired	19 December 1964
Decommissioned	1980
Stricken	1 January 1983
Identification	Hull symbol: TA-11
Fate	Scrapped 1987
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	Haskell-class attack transport
Type	Type VC2-S-AP5
Displacement	6,873 long tons (6,983 t) (light load) 14,837 long tons (15,075 t) (full load)
Length	455 ft (139 m)
Beam	62 ft (19 m)
Draft	24 ft (7.3 m)
Installed power	2 × Babcock & Wilcox header-type boilers, 465 psi (3,210 kPa) 750 °F (399 °C) 8,500 shp (6,338 kW)
Propulsion	1 × Westinghouse geared turbine 1 x propeller
Speed	17.7 kn (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	2 × LCMs 1 × open LCPL 18 × LCVPs 2 × LCPRs 1 × closed LCPL (Captain's Gig)
Capacity	2,900 long tons (2,900 t) DWT 150,000 cu ft (4,200 m3) (non-refrigerated)
Troops	87 officers, 1,475 enlisted
Complement	56 officers, 480 enlisted
Armament	1 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber dual purpose gun 1 × quad 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors anti-aircraft (AA) gun mounts 4 × twin 40mm Bofors (AA) gun mounts 10 × single 20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon cannons AA mounts
Service record
Part of:	TransRon 21 (WWII)
Operations:	World War II Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (1–5 April 1945) Korean War Inchon Landing (14–17 September 1950) North Korean Aggression (18–21 September, 8–31 October 1950) Communist China Aggression (2–28 December 1950) First UN Counter Offensive (8–11 February, 27 February–6 March 1951) UN Summer–Fall Offensive (6, 11–14 November 1951) Second Korean Winter (22–23 January, 3–4 February 1952) Vietnam War Vietnam Advisory Campaign (24 April–4 May, 27 August–12 September 1–10 November 1963)
Awards:	World War II Navy Unit Commendation China Service Medal American Campaign Medal Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal Navy Occupation Service Medal National Defense Service Medal Korean War Korean Service Medal United Nations Korea Medal Republic of Korea War Service Medal Vietnam War Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal

USS Noble (APA-218) was a Haskell-class attack transport which saw service with the US Navy in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. She was transferred to the Spanish Navy in 1964 under a mutual assistance agreement. Noble was named after Noble County, Indiana, Noble County, Ohio, and Noble County, Oklahoma.^Noble

Noble was laid down 20 July 1944, under Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCV hull 566, by Permanente Metals Corporation, Yard No. 2, Richmond, California; as a modified Victory ship; completed by the Kaiser Shipyard at Richmond; launched 18 October 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Maxine C. Jones; acquired by the Navy 27 November 1944; and commissioned the same day.^[3]

Noble's primary mission was to transport to a combat area the men and some of the material necessary for an assault on an enemy shore. Her main armament, her boat group, was designed to deliver her troops and cargo to the beach in a planned and orderly fashion. After discharging troops and equipment, she could evacuate casualties or prisoners of war.^[3]

In January 1945, Noble steamed westward to participate in the Okinawa campaign.^[3]

Upon termination of the war, she assisted in the delivery of released allied prisoners of war from Korea to the Philippines. She also participated in Operation Magic Carpet, returning servicemen from the Pacific to the United States. Noble was attached to the US Atlantic Fleet from 1946 through 1949, operating out of Norfolk, Virginia.^[3]

Noble returned to San Diego 13 September 1949, and was undergoing overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, when war broke out in Korea in June 1950. In August, she steamed to Korea to participate in the September Inchon amphibious assault. Thereafter, she assisted in the transport of US and foreign troops and equipment to and from the Korean combat zone.^[3]

In July 1953, she participated in Operation Big Switch, moving Communist North Korean prisoners from Koje Do to Inchon pursuant to the armistice agreement.^[3]

Subsequent to the Korean War, Noble conducted training operations in both the eastern and western Pacific areas. In 1955, she assisted in the evacuation of Chinese civilians and military from the Tachen Islands to Formosa. The ship appeared in the 1956 20th Century Fox movie D-Day the Sixth of June starring Robert Taylor, Richard Todd and Dana Wynter and in the 1956 movie Between Heaven and Hell starring Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, and Buddy Ebsen. At the outset of the Cuban Missile Crisis on 27 October 1962, Noble embarked 1,400 Marines with their equipment and steamed for the Caribbean in company with other Pacific Fleet amphibious units. She returned to San Diego in December, then deployed to WestPac in March 1963 for a tour with the Seventh Fleet Amphibious Ready Group.^[3]

Noble returned to San Diego in December 1963, and conducted upkeep and training operations until she decommissioned 1 July 1964. She then entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for preparation for transfer to Spain under the Mutual Assistance Program. The transfer ceremony took place 19 December, at San Francisco.^[3]

Renamed attack transport Aragón (TA-11), by the Spanish Navy, the ship served until being laid up and struck from the Spanish Navy Vessel Register on 1 January 1982. She was sold for scrap in 1987.^[4]

^Noble Noble County, Indiana, was named for Noah Noble, an early governor of that state; Noble County, Ohio, was named for Warren P. Noble, an early settler, member of the Ohio House of Representatives and a US Representative from Ohio; and Noble County, Oklahoma, was named for John Willock Noble, Secretary of the Interior from 1889 to 1893.

Citations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Noble (APA-218).

• Photo gallery of USS Noble (APA-218) at NavSource Naval History