USS Gunston Hall, a 4490-ton Ashland class dock landing ship, was built at Oakland, California. Commissioned in November 1943, she served in the Pacific during World War II, participating in amphibious landings at Kwajalein, Emirau, Hollandia, Guam, Peleliu, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In 1946, she supported the Bikini atomic bomb tests. Out of commission between July 1947 and March 1949, she then took part in arctic operations and other Pacific fleet activities.

The outbreak of the Korean War brought Gunston Hall to the Western Pacific. During September and October 1950, she took part in the Inchon and Wonsan operations and remained active in the Korean area until the end of the conflict in mid-1953. For nearly seventeen years thereafter, Gunston Hall made regular deployments to Asian waters and occasional voyages to the Arctic. In 1955, she supported the resettlement of refugees from North to South Vietnam under Operation "Passage to Freedom". She cruised to the Caribbean during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the Fall of 1962. From 1964 into 1970, Gunston Hall was a frequent participant in Vietnam War operations. Decommissioned in May 1970, she was transferred to Argentina, in whose Navy she served under the name Candido de Lasala until disposed of in 1981.