Saved from the Scrapyard

On a recent trip with Tom Anderson and Little Nick I ventured just across the river to Bettendorf, IA. to visit the last surviving LST still in operation.  LST (Landing Ship Tank) 325 was visiting the area over the Labor day weekend and we had a chance to walk thru the ship, take some photo's an talk to the volunteers who man and sail this magnificent survivor.

The 325 was launched in late 1942 as a landing ship capable of supplying troops, tanks, and war material to the front line battlefields and landing beaches. It was Uniquely designed to sail directly up onto a beach it where the bow doors would open and disgorge its cargo without the need to tie up to a pier. In addition it carried two shore boats,  smaller versions of itself  that could carry a company of men or a single jeep to the beach.

In 1943 and under the command of  Clifford Mosier she participated in the invasions of  Salerno, Sicily and Gela in the North Africa campaign and kept the front line troops well supplied with ammunition, vehicles and fresh replacements to carry the war to the Germans. She was also part of the armada that invaded Normandy during D-Day and carried 59 vehicles, 30 officers and 396 enlisted men on her first trip alone. Over the next nine months the 325 carried men, equipment and ammunition to help the allies successfully drive the enemy out of France.

After the war she was mothballed until 1951 when she was briefly reactivated to help build radar outposts along the Canadian seaboard as part of "Operation Sunac" and then was finally struck from the naval register in 1961. In 1964 the 325 was transferred to the Royal Greek navy where she served as "RHS Syros" from 1964 to 1999 when she was finally decommissioned for the last time and sent to the scrap yard.

Her story, however, doesn't end there. In the year 2000 a group of retired American military men found her in the scrap yard and was determined to save this piece of American history. They acquired the ship and despite being 58 years old and having gone thru a world war it required only minor repairs for them to sail her back to the states under her own power.

Today she's a living museum based in  Evansville, Indiana and has the distinction of being the Last operable LST in the country. Several still exist as static displays or have been repurposed as ferries, cargo ships, etc but the 325 is the last one still configured as a ww 2 warship. Many thanks to my faithful minion Lil Nick for taking the interior photo's for me!

I got to meet Honest Abe

On a recent outing I ran across a rift in time, a tear in the space time continuum. One moment we were in 2018 and the next minute we were in a civil war encampment complete with Cavalry patrols, U.S. Grant and even Abraham Lincoln.  We spied sutlers stores, food establishments and a pretty girl even fed me! 

While I was there I talked with an artillery crew and discussed the distances a cannon ball could be lobbed (Over a Mile!).  This must have been near the end of the war as the union forces looked well clothed and fed whilst a few of the rebels looks thin and their clothing threadbare. Every so often 2018 reappeared in the form of tourists and shuttle buses and what the soldiers thought of their showing up I couldn't speculate on.

As I wandered around the camp I could hear sporadic gunfire out in the woods and I could just imagine what it must have really like back then to hear gunshots off in the woods and never knowing who was shooting at whom, whether the enemy was winning or losing. Whether they were getting closer and might be a danger or farther away.  While this re-enactment is over there are more coming up yet this year, one next month right here in Princeton. I plan to attend. Will you?