 She returned home at war’s end with five battle stars to her credit.The steel-hulled, single-screw cargo vessel was laid down as SS "Excelsior" under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 589) on 23 July 1942 at Sparrow's Point, Maryland, by the Bethlehem Sparrow's Point Shipyard; renamed "Windsor" and classified a transport, AP-100, on 5 October 1942; launched on 28 December 1942; sponsored by Miss Patricia Moreell, the daughter of Rear Admiral Ben Moreell, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks; reclassified an attack transport, APA-55, on 16 June 1943; and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 17 June 1943, Commander D. C. Woodward in command.