White Marsh was laid down on 7 April 1943 at Oakland, California, by the Moore Dry Dock Company; launched on 19 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. William C. Wise, the wife of Col.
Following voyage repairs, she loaded cargo and passengers; got underway for Hawaii; arrived back in Oahu on 28 July; and remained there until 12 August, preparing for the invasion of the Palau Islands.
Staged through Guadalcanal where she participated in amphibious rehearsals, White Marsh arrived off Angaur on 16 September and, after disembarking the 710th Tank Battalion, again started repair work on damaged landing craft.
The next day, she returned to sea, bound for Finschhafen, located farther down the northern coast of New Guinea opposite the island of New Britain.
The ship embarked troops, loaded cargo at Finschhafen, resumed her voyage, and arrived at Manus Island on 2 October.
White Marsh disembarked her troops and unloaded her cargo there on 20 October, the day of the initial landings on Leyte, and departed the island that same afternoon, bound for New Guinea.
The dock landing ship reached Hollandia on 24 October, loaded troops, and then steamed to Biak Island on the 29th.
During November and December, White Marsh continued to make reinforcement and resupply voyages between New Guinea and Leyte to support the campaign to liberate the southern Philippines.
En route to Leyte, White Marsh's unit suffered a kamikaze attack which resulted in severe damage and considerable casualties on board Du Page.
The dock landing ship, however, arrived unscathed at Leyte on 13 January, but soon returned to sea as an element of TG 78.2, bound for Wakde Island.
On 27 February, she departed Guadalcanal, bound for the Russell Islands to conduct amphibious training there with elements of the 1st Marine Division.
Throughout her two-month stay at Okinawa, enemy air activity was heavy, but White Marsh only engaged Japanese aircraft on three occasions – on 6, 12, and 15 April – and claimed hits on two of the attackers.
She put into Ominato Ko on 11 September and reported for duty with the logistic support group assigned to the Northern Japan Occupation Force, which she served as a small craft repair ship and a floating boat pool until 25 November when she departed Japan to return to the United States.
From there, she moved on, via the Panama Canal, to New Orleans for a brief tour of duty with the Atlantic Fleet before being decommissioned at Norfolk in March 1946 and beginning over four and one-half years in reserve there.
On 8 November 1950 – as a part of the Navy's expansion of its active forces to enable it to meet its increased demands during the Korean War — White Marsh was placed back in commission.
In the summer of 1953, White Marsh sailed with a task group of transport ships carrying cranes and other equipment to Labrador and Greenland, Operation Bluenose.
Off Labrador, en route to Thule, Greenland, the waters were full of huge chunks of ice flowing out of the North Atlantic.
Ashland departed on 10 July 1953, escorted by the United States Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Westwind (WAGB-281) and then an additional ice breaker, USS Atka (AGB-3), but due to an immense ice pack, did not arrive to join White Marsh at harbor in Saglek Bay until 21 July.
White Marsh was finally in a condition to righted late 24 July, the remainder of the equipment was then transferred to Ashland.
"[1] In January 1954, White Marsh's home port was changed to San Diego, California; and the ship was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet.