USS Cape Johnson, a 5,668-ton Maritime Commission C1-B type cargo ship, was built at Wilmington, California, and entered civilian service in May 1943. She was designated in December 1943 for conversion to a troop transport and was taken over and commissioned by the Navy in June 1944. The transport was initially used to redistribute Army and Marine Corps forces between the Marianas and bases in the South Pacific. In November 1944 she arrived with a supply echelon off the assault areas at Leyte in the Philippines and then landed her troops at Samar. In January 1945 Cape Johnson landed troops in Lingayen Gulf during the initial assault on Luzon Island. In mid-February she arrived off Iwo Jima with Marine Corps troops and cargo, which she put ashore as needed through the end of March. The transport then returned to San Francisco and carried troops from there to Manila.

In mid-August 1945 Cape Johnson sailed from Manila to Pearl Harbor to load occupation troops, which she delivered to Japan at the end of September. The transport then carried out a series of transpacific crossings returning servicemen to the United States under Operation "Magic Carpet." She was decommissioned and returned to the Maritime Commission in July 1946. Placed in reserve, she was sold for scrapping in May 1963.