One of 18 US merchant vessels supporting the battle of Iwo Jima, SS Joliet Victory was present there from March 5 - 13, 1945. Her cargo was artillery ammunition. Three pages of action reports in the National Archives mention the ship, two from destroyer USS Stanly (DD478) and another from USS Harry Lee (APA10).
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Earlier in the war, the ship participated in the landings at Leyte in November 1944 and the January 1945 operations at Lingayen Gulf. After the war SS Joliet Victory was laid up in the Hudson River reserve fleet during 1948, but reactivated for Korean war service from 1950 to 1953. Renamed USNS Michelson in 1958, the ship began a new career as a deep ocean survey vessel.
