Built at Oregon Shipbuilding Corp. in Portland, Oregon the Liberty ship John Straub was launched on Nov. 27, 1943 and delivered to Alaska Steamship Company on Dec. 11, 1943. Her real owner, the War Shipping Administration, allocated her to the U.S. Army as a transport, only four months after delivery she was sunk.

Her last voyage took her from Seattle, Washington to the Aleutians with 25,000 barrels of diesel, 9,000 barrels of high octane aviation fuel and other supplies. She was bound for Attu Island and finally Shemya Island (where a new U.S.A.A.F. base had been built), but when she was 100 miles east of Dutch Harbor, Alaska a little after midnight on April 19, 1944 the ship exploded, broke in two and sank. Actually only the forward section sank (this within two minutes) while the stern stayed afloat for about 14 hours before going under.

The crew was reported to have numbered forty-one, the ship was also defensively armed and had a contingent of twenty-seven U.S. Navy Armed Guard making the total number on board sixty-eight. The explosion, fires and rapid sinking of the forward section took most of those on board to their death, only fifteen survivors (2 merchant crew and 13 Navy) were picked up in a lifeboat 9 hours later by FP-41 and landed at Cold Harbor, Alaska.

Initial reports indicated that the John Straub suffered an internal explosion, but later research showed that the ship had been the victim of a Japanese submarine, I-180 and Lt. Cdr. Hidenori Fujita. This was the only ship known to have been sunk by Fujita. There was no post war interview with him as I-180 was sunk a week later on on Apr. 26, 1944 by USS Gilmore DE-18, Fujita and all his men perished.