USS Golden City, a 7,440-ton La Salle-class transport built to the Maritime Commission's C2-S-B1 design, was completed at Oakland, California, in December 1943 as a freighter, converted to a troop transport, and commissioned in the Navy in May 1944. Skipping a formal period of shakedown training because of scheduling requirements, she arrived at Pearl Harbor in June. In July she delivered to Guam reserve troops for a Marine unit then helping to lead the assault on the island. After a period of training at Pearl Harbor, Golden City arrived off Leyte in the Philippines in October, in time to put ashore troops to help consolidate the successful assault there. After transporting reinforcing troops from New Guinea to the Philippines, she loaded more troops at New Guinea and put them ashore during the initial assault at Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. In late January she participated in landing operations at Zambales. She then carried out three troop-ferrying voyages, returning troops from islands in the Central Pacific to the West coast in April, July, and September 1945 and transporting replacement troops into the Pacific theater.

In October 1945, Golden City departed Pearl Harbor with troops to support U. S. postwar landings in China and Korea. She then performed two "Magic Carpet" voyages, returning veterans to the United States from the western Pacific. She arrived at Seattle after the second of these voyages in July 1946, was decommissioned and returned to the Maritime Commission in August, and was stricken from the Navy List in October. After a lengthy period of mercantile service, she was scrapped at Kaoshiung, Taiwan, in 1973.