USS Hope, a 6,000-ton hospital ship, was built under Maritime Commission contract at Wilmington, California, as a C1-B type freighter. The Navy purchased her in late August 1943, when she was launched, and had her converted to a hospital ship at Terminal Island, California. Commissioned in mid-August 1944, the new ship steamed to the Palaus to care for men wounded during the September invasion there. In November she proceeded to Leyte, in the Philippines, on the first of several casualty evacuation missions. In early December, while so engaged, she was twice attacked by Japanese aircraft, but escaped without damage.
Hope continued her casualty evacuation work during the first months of 1945, taking injured men from the Philippines to safer areas away from the combat zone. She went to Okinawa in April to care for casualties of the bitter battles there and in early July was sent to the East Indies during the invasion of Balikpapan. With the end of the Pacific War's fighting in August, Hope steamed north to participate in the occupation of Japan. In October she began the first of three trans-Pacific trips to bring home sick and wounded veterans. The last of these voyages ended at San Francisco in March 1946. USS Hope was decommissioned in May of that year and laid up at Suisun Bay, California. She remained there, in the custody of the War Department and later the Maritime Administration, until sold for scrapping in 1978.
This page features the only views we have concerning USS Hope (AH-7).
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Photo #: 80-G-246912 USS Hope (AH-7) Underway on 30 August 1944, photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-31. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 103221 USS Hope (AH-7) Steering wheel from the ship, as prepared for presentation to entertainer Bob Hope. Photographed 13 April 1970 by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class J.W. Wilson, of the Naval Photographic Center, Washington, D.C. This photograph has been retouched to obscure the inscriptions on the two plaques attached to the wheel. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 104KB; 595 x 765 pixels |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital image presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 31 October 2005
New image added 18 November 2005