A lot keeps happening as the time flies by. It has been a month since my last report. Way too long, but late is better than never! We had a great party for the Evansville volunteers at our condo complex in December. Chris never parked a car, but Mike and I did!! Great turn out and everyone was given a nice picture of LST 325 on the day she arrived in Evansville, with the great downtown area in the background. Glenn was also given some shoe refresher (just for his one foot) as he stands around a lot! (For those of you who don't know, Glenn lost a leg from the knee down in a tractor accident a few years ago.) We kid him a lot and we get it back!

We have continued to have a lot of visitors come see the ship. Mike reported that Saturday, Jan. 28th, we had 80 LST fans tour the ship. As you may already know, we passed 6,000 visitors around the first of this month -- January. The heaters have been installed in the tank deck with three being operational. The thermostat is set at 45 degrees. The crew has worked on the leaks on the 01 level and tank deck and, although not 100% fixed, the ship is almost dry now. You do not need a raincoat inside when it rains anymore. The LCVPs are on the barge and are being worked on. It is planned to have them sandblasted and painted, and placed back in the water come spring. The dock is almost complete. A roof has been installed on the gangways leading to the ship. This keeps the rain water from running down the gangway and into the office building. Sandy and Debbie have rearranged the office several times and I believe Sandy has it her way now! Souvenirs are selling well, as are memberships. We have moved all the memberships and donations to the LST Office in Evansville. Our newsletter will be out soon for our membership.

Several volunteers received the new "E" award. The "E" stands for excellence in service to the LST 325. It also stands for Evansville. Volunteers who have now worked for at least 300 hours on the ship in Evansville (some have worked a lot more) are eligible for this nice ribbon. We will add more "E's" at different levels. I had the honor of presenting these awards in person to five volunteers on January 25th - Pete Crasher, Jim Grayson, Larry Hahn, Tom Jake, and Glenn Morrison. Thanks guys for all your hard work! We also signed and mailed 20 new crew certificates made by Dianne Hill. This was for volunteers with 80 hours of service who also receive a nice name tag.

A Board meeting was held on Jan 9, 2006. We voted to change our by-laws and have Mr. George Rhenquist, a lawyer, look them over so they are correct for a nonprofit corporation. He is also looking at the possibility of changing our Corporation from Pennsylvania to Indiana. Two changes were voted on to the by-laws: 
1. Change the membership from three classes to one. Anyone interested in LST 325 can now join and be a voting member, serve on the board if elected, and hold an Office. Before only veterans who served on LSTs were eligible.
2. The directors will be elected for three year terms. These terms are staggered so only one-third of the directors will be up for reelection or replacement each year. The Board also voted to have two more directors added. Mr. Kenny Adams, Covington, OH, and Mr. Ron Bezouska, Lancaster, OH. This makes a total of 9 on the Memorial board. November 14, 2006, was the date set for the annual membership meeting in Evansville. IN. The Board also voted to sail the ship to Louisville, KY in April -- 17 to the 24th. This is for "Thunder Over Louisville." A special feature of that show this year is the Navy's "Blue Angels." The LST 325 will also go to "Tall Stacks" in Cincinnati, Ohio in October next fall. Dates we'll be gone from Evansville are Oct 1 to the 15th. In 2007 the Board voted to take the ship up the Illinois River as far as Henry, Illinois.

Mr. Frank Earley of the Massachusetts LST Chapter has worked hard to get the National LST Association to have a meeting with representatives from our Board as well as representatives from the 26 State Associations to talk about our differences. He had heard from 22 of the 26 state chapters who all wanted something done. Wisconsin, Ohio, and Massachusetts agreed to send representatives. We agreed to send three from our Board -- Mr. Leahy, Mr. Chapman. and Mr. Voges. We unanimously agreed to meet with hopes a compromise could be reached allowing us to put articles and ads in the "Scuttlebutt" and possibly schedule a joint convention in Evansville. This meeting would be held without either of the two Presidents in attendance. The deadline to answer was set by Mr. Earley to be January 1, 2006, so a meeting could be held in Ohio in January. The National, given several additional weeks of time to give an answer, finally did so last week. They said NO by a vote of 5 to 4! Mr. Earley also took some verbal abuse in trying to get the national to give him an answer. His only interest is for the many LST Veterans who are getting up in years and want this problem solved. The LST Association membership had voted in Philadelphia for the National to meet with the Memorial. We requested a meeting months ago, but received no response from the National. I and the Memorial have been blasted in the "Scuttlebutt" with untrue statements and false accusations for three years now.

Our Memorial memberships have increased rapidly and more plans for the future are being discussed. Our newsletter has had great reviews. We have plans to enlarge it with more pictures and pages making it even better we hope. Many LST and other ship reunions are planned for 2006 in Evansville and even some for 2007!! The Convention and Visitors bureau is handling most of these. We have brand new brochures, thanks to LetterKraft of Peru, Illinois who again donated these first class brochures. These now have a map to the ship, phone number and address of the ship, info on membership, donations, and hours of operation, and the Visitor Bureau's information for scheduling conventions and visits to the ship.

I hope 2006 is off to a good start for all of you. May the wind be always at your back!

Bob Jornlin, Capt. LST 325
President, USS LST MEMORIAL, INC.

A personal note from the WebSkipper:  I'd like to encourage absolutely anybody and everybody to provide material for this page.  By no means are submissions here restricted to just certain individuals.  The whole purpose of this website (and especially this particular page) is to share information about our LST Memorial with the entire community.  If you have any news to share at all, please just send me an email:  WebSkipper@LSTMemorial.Org -- all of us would be very appreciative, and we all want to know what's going on!