USS War Hawk (AP-168) was a La Salle-class transport and troopship of the United States Navy, built at the Moore Dry Dock Company in Oakland, California in 1942.

At Pearl Harbor War Hawk joined the 5th Fleet Amphibious Force and after training, left for her part in "Operation Forager", the liberation of the Marianas Islands.

War Hawk arrived at Saipan on 15 June 1944 and landed elements of the 2nd Marine Division on the southwestern shore of the island.

On 23 June 1944 War Hawk headed back to Pearl Harbor where she picked up elements of the United States Army's 77th Infantry and returned to the Marianas.

She left Pearl Harbor carrying elements of the Army's 96th Infantry Division and headed for Yap Island, in the Carolines.

It was during this phase of the war that General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore at Red Beach and issued his famous "I have returned" speech to the people of the Philippines.

In the evening of 21 October 1944, War Hawk was maneuvering through Leyte Gulf and rammed the battleship USS Tennessee near the stern.

One of the more interesting pieces of cargo that War Hawk landed at Leyte was a Piper Cub artillery spotting aircraft.

It left Pearl Harbor loaded onto the deck of War Hawk (with its wings removed) and was put ashore by an LCM.

At 04:10 on the morning of 10 January 1945, War Hawk was anchored in Lingayen Gulf where she was attacked in the dark by a Shinyo suicide boat.

(Commander Thompson's official Action Report filed on 18 January 1945 states that 23 people were missing and unaccounted for 20 minutes after the explosion.

With the ship dead in the water, the crew struggled to keep her afloat, restore power and fight off continuing Japanese air attacks throughout the day.

By 11 January, the hole had been buttressed and partial power had been restored, and War Hawk began a long, slow journey back to Leyte Gulf.

Once in Leyte Gulf, further and more permanent repairs were made to the ship, enabling her to sail to Manus in the Admiralty Islands for further dry dock work.

She made one more trip back to San Francisco for a load of naval replacements and headed for Eniwetok, Ulithi and Leyte Gulf.

While en route, she received word that the United States had dropped two atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese had agreed to an unconditional surrender.

She became the property of the Maritime Commission on 13 August after sailing to Olympia, Washington, and was eventually struck from the Navy List on 8 October 1946.