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Most of these vessels never saw actual naval service and were transferred at launch to the Army for operation by the Corps of Engineers in port rehabilitation. Their inclusion among USN vessels is for most only a technicality of their sponsorship during construction. Only two, USNS ''Sagitta'' (T-AK-87) and USNS Vela (AK-89) returned to USN. Some never even fulfilled the port rehabilitation duty as delays in conversion pushed their activation beyond a useful date. For details of the rather confused history of the port repair ships see United States Army in World War II - The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment - Chapter XVII - Preparing to Reconstruct Ports.
In official documents these ships are always "Engineer port repair ships" as the ships operated entirely under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with combat engineer crews. Transportation Corps was responsible for obtaining the ships, Army modifications in shipyards and ship operating crew training but not operation. The use of U.S. Army Transport (USAT) is never indicated, though no explicit designation is given. Many ships not designated U.S.A.T. simply carried U. S. Army (name/number). Photos and official text do not support the "USAPRS" prefix, though it is a handy usage distinction. Palmeira (talk) 18:06, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
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