Life of the USS Saline County
By Cody Berry
Did you know that the U.S. Navy had a ship named after Saline County? There was and it served in both World War II and the Korean War. The USS Saline County was a landing ship built in 1944, but it wasn’t given that name until July 1, 1955. The ship’s function was to carry vehicles such as tanks and supplies during the war.1 Originally known simply as LST-1101, the ship was manufactured by the Missouri Valley Bride and Iron Company of Evansville, Indiana in 1944 and it was launched on January 3, 1945, and taken down the Mississippi River to be officially commissioned in New Orleans on January 26, 1945.2
LST-1101 weighed 1,625 tons, was 328 feet long and 50 feet wide. It could reach speeds of 11.6 knots, and it could transport up to 16 officers and 147 soldiers. The ship was armed with two twin 40mm guns, four single 40mm guns, and twelve single 20mm guns. After serving in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific during WWII, LST-1101 survived to continue its service in the Korean War during the early 1950s. It was renamed the USS Saline County on July 1, 1955, in honor of counties in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. It sailed in the western Pacific after the Korean War until late 1958, made shuttle runs to Alaska in 1959 and was deactivated in 1960 having earned one battle star in WWII and five in Korea.3
The German Navy took control of the USS Saline County in 1960 where it was converted to serve as a mine layer, and it was struck from the naval list. The USS Saline County was transferred to the Turkish Navy on December 12, 1972, but its status is unknown today according to historian Mark Christ in his entry in the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas.4 While looking for WWII artifacts I found a picture of the ship underway on the ocean. I plan to use it in our fall exhibit about Saline County during World War II.
Citations:
1 Mark K. Christ, “USS Saline County (LST-1101),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/uss-saline-county-13706/, Date Accessed 5/28/2025.
2 “Saline County,” Naval History and Heritage Command, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/s/saline-county.html, Date Accessed June 5, 2025.
3 Mark K. Christ, “USS Saline County (LST-1101),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/uss-saline-county-13706/, Date Accessed 6/5/2025 and “Saline County,” Naval History and Heritage Command, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/s/saline-county.html, Date Accessed June 5, 2025.
4 Mark K. Christ, “USS Saline County (LST-1101),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/uss-saline-county-13706/, Date Accessed 6/5/2025