West Point arrives in New York in 1945, bringing home a full load of weary American troops.
On 6 June1941, in a brief on-deck ceremony, West Point was commissioned at Newport News with Capt. Frank H. Kelley, Jr., in command.
During her service as a troopship, West Point transported 450,000 troops over 436,126 nautical miles and sailed 149 missions. Like HMT Queen Mary and most other former ocean liners converted into troopships, West Point generally traveled alone through enemy waters, depending on her speed as her primary defense.
West Point was decommissioned as a troopship in 1946 and returned to United States Lines to resume transatlantic service as America. Beginning in 1952, she sailed for over a decade with her larger fleetmate, United States. America was retired from transatlantic service by United States Lines in 1963. As a cruise ship, she sailed for several different lines until her ignominious destruction in 1994.
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