| abstract | - USS Burdo (APD-133) was a Crosley-class high speed transport of the United States Navy, named after Private Ronald A. Burdo (1920–1942), a Marine who was killed in action at Gavutu, during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Originally designated a Rudderow-class destroyer escort, DE-717, Burdo was re-designated as APD-133, a fast transport, on 17 July 1944, even before being laid down at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, in Bay City, Michigan. She was launched on 25 November 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Ida J. Botts, mother of Private Burdo. Builders trials before her pre-commissioning cruise were done in Lake Huron. After completion, Burdo sailed from the builder's yard at Bay City to Chicago, Illinois. From there, they went through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and down the Chicago River to Joliet, Illinois, where pontoons were attached to the ship so it could be pushed down the Des Plaines River, Illinois River, and Mississippi River as part of a barge train. After arriving at the Todd Johnson Shipyard in Algiers, Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the rest of the crew reported aboard, and Burdo was commissioned at New Orleans, on 2 June 1945, with Lieutenant Commander H. A. Hull, USNR, in command.
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