Return to Manuscript ListImage of an anchorReturn to Navy Department LibraryImage of anchorSearch the Library Catalog
Flag banner
Navy Department Library banner

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

"Magic Carpet" Press Release

UNITED STATES
PACIFIC FLEET and
PACIFIC OCEAN AREAS
(For Immediate Release to
Press and Radio, Thursday,
29 November 1945.)

Press Release No. 910.

Less than three months after the official surrender of Japan, almost one-third of the servicemen who were in the Pacific Ocean Areas on September 2 had been returned to the continental United States.

The exact number of Army, Navy and marine personnel who had been transported on shipboard to the mainland on November 25 was 1,104,685. On September 2, there were 3,400,000 servicemen in the Pacific.

Of the total returned, 596,564 were Naval personnel, but this figure included more than 165,000 members of ships' crews who returned aboard their own vessels for discharge or re-assignment. On V-J Day there were approximately 1,620,000 Navy men assigned to ships and shore bases in the Pacific. An even larger proportion of the 185,000 men attached to the Fleet Marine Force in the Pacific three months ago had been brought back to the United States by November 25. The exact figure was 74,002.

Of the 1,595,000 Army ground and air force men stationed in the Pacific at the close of the war, 410,800 had been returned aboard ship by November 25. In addition, thousands of others came home by air.

In spite of the gigantic task of moving more than a million servicemen to the mainland, Army and Navy transportation officers were able to provide space during the same period for 23,656 RAMPS, civilian internees, and civil service workers.

During the same three-month period, a closely integrated and efficiently controlled Fleet with a total passenger capacity in excess of 450,000 had been assigned to Rear Admiral Henry 3, Kendall's "magic carpet". Starting on September 10 with only 19 ships, Admiral Kendall's command had grown to 341 vessels on November 25.

There was a corresponding increase in the number of returnees carried by the shuttle Fleet during the same time. During September, only 8,241 passengers were actually landed in the United States by the transport Fleet. In October the figure skyrocketed to 153,593, and the November total, with nearly a week left in that month, had already reached 244,847.

It is expected that by the first of the year, the "magic carpet” vessels will be disembarking about 350,000 men each month,

This is how the "magic carpet" Fleet was disposed on November 25: A total of 162 vessels, with a passenger capacity of 227,000, were loading in the Pacific, or en route to the United States.

During the week from November 25 to December 1, 46 of these ships, capacity 55,000, were scheduled to arrive at West Coast ports. An additional 37 vessels, capacity 52,000, will arrive soon after December 1. The remainder of the 162 vessels preparing to head back to the United States -- a total of 79, capacity 110,500 -- were loading in the Pacific.

Headed West from the United States to the four principal staging areas in the Pacific (Hawaii, Marianas, Philippines and Okinawa-Japan) were 93 more ships with a capacity of more than 130,000. In West Coast ports were 84 vessels, with a capacity of about 118,000.

The 46 ships due to arrive at the West Coast next week have been routed to West Coast ports in the following manner: San Francisco: 29 ships; six from Okinawa-Japan, four from the Philippines, 12 from, the Marianas, five from Hawaii, and two from other Pacific areas. Seattle: three ships; two from Okinawa-Japan and one from the Philippines. San Pedro: nine ships; one from the Philippines, six from the Marianas, and one from .another area. San Diego: five ships; two from the Philippines, two from Hawaii, and one from another section.


28 Nov 2006