USS President Jackson, a 16,000 ton transport, was built at Newport News, Virginia, in 1939-40 for commercial employment. The Navy acquired her in June 1941, converted her to a transport and placed her in commission in January 1942. She worked up on the west coast and went to the South Pacific in July 1942. In early August, she took part in the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, landing her Marines on the latter Island. During the rest of 1942 and into 1943, she supported the long and difficult Guadalcanal campaign, bringing in fresh troops and supplies and evacuating casualties. In February 1943, the month the Japanese evacuated Guadalcanal, she was reclassified as an attack transport and given the new hull number APA-18.

During the rest of 1943 and into 1944, President Jackson took part in the Allied onslaught up the Solomons chain and beyond, landing troops on Rendova, Bougainville, Emirau Island and New Britain. She was hit by a Japanese bomb in November 1943, but it did not explode, so damage was slight. In mid-1944, the ship moved into the central Pacific to participate in the invasion of Guam. Her next major operation was the amphibious assault at Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. A month later, while putting Marines ashore on Iwo Jima, she was hit by a small coastal artillery shell. President Jackson performed logistics missions for the rest of the World War II and beyond. Her Pacific Fleet service, which included tours of duty in the Far East, lasted nearly to the end of the 1940s.

In October 1949, President Jackson was assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service as T-APA-18. She continued to perform passenger-carrying duties in the Pacific, with a brief return to the amphibious warfare role during the Inchon Invasion in September 1950. President Jackson was placed out of service at San Francisco, California, in July 1955. Transferred to Maritime Administration custody in 1958, she remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet until sold for scrapping in 1973.