USS Admiral E. W. Eberle (AP-123) was laid down on 15 February 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 681) by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Alameda, California; launched on 14 June 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Earl Warren, the wife of the Governor of California who later became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court; and acquired by the Navy and commissioned on 24 January 1945.

Admiral E. W. Eberle returned to Leyte on 13 April to pick up Army personnel; then sailed, via Ulithi, for the west coast of the United States and reached San Pedro, CA, on 2 May.

At Le Havre, Admiral E. W. Eberle embarked over 4,000 homeward-bound troops whom she put ashore upon her arrival at Norfolk on 6 July.

General Simon B. Buckner continued operations in the Pacific until 15 February 1955, when she departed San Francisco, bound for New York City.

Departing New York on 11 August 1965, she returned to the west coast, arriving at Long Beach on the 27th to assist in the movement of troops and equipment to southeast Asia.

Returning to the west coast in August 1966, General Simon B. Buckner was once again pressed into service to carry war material to Vietnam.

Following her return to San Francisco on 16 October, she continued to support American operations in southeast Asia until President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization program decreased the Navy's need for transports.