SS Panama was laid down 25 October 1937 as hull number 1467, launched on 24 September 1938 and completed 22 April 1939 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy Massachusetts.

[6] On 17 September 1941 the Navy, under Presidential directive, informed the Army to convert ten of its ships to combat unit loaded transports as soon as possible.

On 29 September 1941 it was declared that six of the seven Army vessels, along with two under construction by the Maritime Commission, were to be assigned hull numbers and taken over by the Navy.

Also in January 1946 sister ship Cristobal was delivered to Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company and converted.

[8] James Parker was decommissioned on 25 February 1946 and transferred to the Maritime Administration, which returned the ship to her original owner.

The ship was laid up at Piraeus, Greece in 1979 for final disposition and in 1985 towed to Aliağa a town of İzmir Province, Turkey to be broken up and scrapped.