[1][7] Buckeye State was launched on 24 July 1920, sponsored by Mrs HB Miller, wife of Assistant Manager of Construction, Emergency Fleet Corporation, Philadelphia.

[6] Buckeye State was severely damaged by fire in June 1921 with a repair contract let to Standard Shipbuilding, Shooters Island, New York for $19,000.

[15][note 1] President Taft was allocated to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in August 1922 to begin operation in September out of San Francisco.

[16] The USSB, citing "faulty construction," undertook refurbishment of twenty-three of the 535s including President Taft which was to have a boiler and engine overhaul at Moore Drydock Company, Oakland, California.

[8] Dollar placed President Taft on its trans Pacific service and added Los Angeles to the ports visited on return voyages before arrival back at San Francisco in 1927.

[29] Captain M. C. Cochrane, 35, died aboard on 9 September 1927 after a sudden and short illness and was buried at sea by his request before the ship reached Seattle.

[35][38][39][note 3] The convoy departing Hawaii consisted of four transports and three freighters with the escort augmented by the sub-chaser USS Niagara:[40] Transports: Freighters: The convoy was taking a southern route, avoiding the Japanese Mandated Islands in the central Pacific, due to approach the Philippines via Port Moresby, New Guinea.

[40] At Suva additional weapons were extracted from ship's cargo with Holbrook's Army Ordnance men finding their 75-mm ammunition and improvising sights and mounts for use of their artillery as deck guns.

[43] The ships assigned the task of taking the convoy's redistributed cargoes, including assembled aircraft, north on 28 December.

[45][46] Japanese advances in the Netherlands Indies isolated the Philippines and pushed the defending forces into Bataan and plans were changed.

[46][47] Holbrook was ordered to put into Darwin, being built up as an advanced air base and port, where on arrival 5 January 1942 the troops debarked and supplies were unloaded.

[48][note 5] The commanding general, USAFIA, notified superiors he was retaining Holbrook in Australia along with a number of other large vessels.

[35][47] The ship departed Fremantle on 22 February in convoy MS.5 escorted by USS Phoenix that was bound for Colombo, Ceylon with troops and supplies eventually destined for India and Burma.

[55][56] The convoy onward to Australia, now composed of Holbrook, Félix Roussel and Duntroon escorted by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Chitral, now had to pass through dangerous waters in which Japanese fleets might be operating; submarines were being sighted in Australian waters and the German auxiliary cruiser Thor was in the area.

[57] During the voyage Félix Roussel had picked up the distress signal of Nankin reporting a raider and aircraft, then "abandoning ship" with silence thereafter.

[35] The end of the war resulted in that conversion being halted August 1945 and the ship being completed as a troopship in January 1946, with the name Willard A. Holbrook restored.