J FRANKLIN BELL APA 16

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Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

    Harris Class Transport
    Keel Laid May 13 1919
    Launched May 15 1920 as KEYSTONE STATE
    Delivered May 28 1921 to the Pacific Steamship Co.
    Renamed PRESIDENT McKINLEY June 9 1922
    Turned over to the Admiral Orient Line December 21 1922
    Laid up at Seattle 1938

  1. USAT J. FRANKLIN BELL
    Purchased by War Department October 26 1940 and renamed
    Transferred to U.S. Navy December 26 1941
    Converted to Naval Transport

  2. USS J. FRANKLIN BELL AP-34
    Commissioned April 2 1942

  3. USS J. FRANKLIN BELL APA-16
    Reclassified Attack Transport (APA) February 1 1943
    Decommissioned March 20 1946
    Returned to U.S. Army
    Transferred to Maritime Commission February 12 1947

    Sold April 3 1948 for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

  1. J. Franklin Bell Covers Page 1     (1944-46)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.


 

Postmark Type
---
Killer Bar Text

Date From
to
Date To
Thumbnail Link To
Postmark Image
Thumbnail Link To
Cover Image


 

US Sea Post

1927-10-20

As PRESIDENT McKINLEY
American Mail Line stationary.



 

Locy Type
3 (A-BBT)

1946-03-13

Note:


 

Locy Type
3z

1944-05-29

Censored wartime (WWII) use


 

Other Information

J. FRANKLIN BELL earned the following awards during her Naval career - Combat Action Ribbon - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (w/ 6 Battle stars) - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp) - Philippines Presidential Unit Citation - Philippines Liberation Medal.

NAMESAKE - James Franklin Bell was born at Shelbyville, Ky., and graduated from the Military Academy in 1878. Frontier duty filled most of his years as a junior officer. During the Philippine Insurrection near Porac, Luzon, 11 December 1899, he "charged seven insurgents with his pistol and compelled the surrender of the captain and two privates under a close fire from the remaining insurgents concealed in a bamboo thicket." His heroism on this occasion won him the Medal of Honor. Promoted to major general in 1907, Bell served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 1906 to 1910. He died in New York City 8 January 1919. {DANFS}

 


 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 


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