USS Mount Olympus (AGC-8)

USS Mount Olympus moored in Antarctica, 1946-47
History
United States
Name:	USS Mount Olympus
Builder:	North Carolina Shipbuilding Company
Laid down:	3 August 1943
Launched:	3 October 1943
Commissioned:	24 May 1944
Decommissioned:	4 April 1956
Struck:	1 June 1961
Fate:	Scrapped in 1973
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mount McKinley-class command ship
Displacement:	12,142 tons
Length:	459 ft 2 in (140 m)
Beam:	63 ft (19.2 m)
Draft:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Speed:	15 knots
Complement:	729
Armament:	2 × 5 in (127 mm) / 38 cal guns (2 × 1) 8 × 40 mm guns (4 × 2) 20 × 20 mm guns (20 × 1)

USS Mount Olympus (AGC-8) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named after the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains of Washington. She was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.

Mount Olympus was laid down on 3 August 1943 at the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, North Carolina; launched on 3 October 1943 as Eclipse, a transport, sponsored by Mrs. W. C. Park; renamed Mount Olympus on 27 December 1943; and commissioned at Boston, Massachusetts, after conversion on 24 May 1944, with Captain John Henry Shultz in command.

Mount Olympus departed the east coast in early July, arriving Hawaii via the Panama Canal 23 July. With Commander, 3d Amphibious Force, embarked, she was underway from Hawaii 29 August. She arrived Leyte Gulf 20 October, serving as the afloat headquarters for the invasion force. The landing force was subjected to constant air attacks but its survival was assured by the American naval victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which destroyed the Japanese Navy as an effective combat force.

On 26 October, the flagship departed for Hollandia, New Guinea, via Peleliu, in preparation for the next assault on the Japanese occupied Philippines. After invasion rehearsals in Huon Gulf, New Guinea, the ship departed Manus Island, Admiralties, 31 December for the assault on Lingayen Gulf 9 January 1945. After the initial assault and with the ground force commander disembarked, Mount Olympus was underway 11 January from Lingayen Gulf. She called at Ulithi to allow Commander, 3d Amphibious Force, to disembark to travel by plane to Hawaii, while she herself sailed for overhaul at San Francisco, arriving 11 February and leaving 22 April for Hawaii and Guam.