Following shakedown training along the U.S. West Coast, the transport departed San Francisco, on 23 November, bound for the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

After arriving at San Francisco, late that month, she moved north to Seattle, Washington, where she embarked almost 5000 troops to reinforce American units fighting on Okinawa.

Next she visited Saipan on 12 and 13 July, before getting underway on the latter day bound ultimately for the Panama Canal and the East Coast of the United States.

Admiral W. L. Capps entered port at Norfolk, Virginia, on 4 August and, while undergoing voyage repairs, received word at mid-month that hostilities in the Pacific had ended.

Between that time and mid-December, the ship made two more round-trip voyages to France and back, one to Le Havre and the other to Marseille, returning American servicemen home.

USNS General Hugh J. Gaffey (T-AP-121) spent almost two decades carrying men and material to American installations throughout the Far East and the Pacific Ocean.

On 4 November 1968, General Hugh J. Gaffey was transferred to the Maritime Administration on a temporary basis to be laid up with the National Defense Reserve Fleet facility at Suisun Bay, California.

The transport was sunk in RIMPAC 2000 EXERCISE as a missile target, 16 June 2000, position: 023° 35' 01.0" North, 159° 50' 00.2" West, depth: 2,730 fathoms This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.