USS Newman

USS Newman (DE-205/APD-59) was a in service with the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1966. History Newman was named in honor of Laxton Gail Newman (1916–1941), who was killed in action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart for his actions. The ship was laid down by the Charleston Navy Yard on 8 June 1943; launched on 9 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. J. B. Newman, mother of L. G. Newman AD3; and commissioned on 26 November 1943. Following shakedown off Bermuda, Newman was assigned transatlantic escort duty. Between 11 February and 29 June 1944, she crossed the ocean six times. On 30 June, at Tompkinsville, Staten Island Naval Base, she commenced conversion to a Charles Lawrence-class high speed transport, reporting for shakedown in Chesapeake Bay as APD-59 on 19 September. At the end of the month she departed Norfolk, Virginia, as flagship of TransDiv 103, and headed for the Pacific. Arriving at Hollandia on 4 November, she escorted supply convoys between that port and Leyte Gulf until 12 December. Then, at Leyte, she embarked troops of the 24th Division and got underway for her first amphibious operation, the 15 December invasion of Mindoro. Landing her troops with the first waves, she turned back to Leyte, then proceeded to New Guinea to prepare for the initial operations of 1945.