The second USS Kangaroo (IX-121), an Armadillo-class tanker designated an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the kangaroo, a family of herbivorous, leaping, marsupial mammals of Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent islands. Her keel was laid down as Paul Tulane under Maritime Commission contract (T. Z-ET1-S-C3) by Delta Shipbuilding Company, New Orleans, Louisiana, on 28 September 1943. She was renamed Kangaroo 27 October 1943, launched on 6 November 1943 sponsored by Mrs. Rufus C. Harris, acquired by the Navy on bareboat basis 17 December, and commissioned on 20 December with Lieutenant G. D. Lawson in command.