St. Mihiel was a troopship built for the United States Shipping Board by the American International Shipbuilding Corporation at Hog Island, Pennsylvania.

[1][4][note 2] The design was for either a troopship or later use as a passenger/cargo ship with a contracted seventy vessels of the type with fifty-eight cancelled and only twelve built.

[2] The ship was launched 19 November 1919 with completion and delivery to the USSB in October 1920 with United States Official Number 220739.

[3] In April 1935 the ship was returned to service for the transport of 287 Midwestern farm families on relief during the depression to Alaska to establish a new life.

[3] On 22 July 1941 the ship was transferred to the Navy, classed as a transport with hull number AP-32, and commissioned as USS St. Mihiel the same day.

In July 1942, she transported the wreckage of the Akutan Zero to San Diego, which became first flyable Zero fighter acquired by the United States during the war.