- Sporadic Email Problems, from the WebSkipper
  - Progress Report from Pat Perrella
  - Update from Kenny & Anna Adams
 

Sporadic Email Problems, from the WebSkipper

For the past several weeks, I've been experiencing problems with missing emails, both inbound and outbound.  Sometimes error messages are generated, sometimes not.  I am working with our website host to resolve these problems, but a solution has not yet been found.

My sincere apologies to all.  I hope nobody has taken offense that I "didn't bother" to answer email.  Please have patience, and hopefully we'll find a solution to the problem shortly.

     ~ Jim Anderson, WebSkipper

P.S.  Still looking for a WebSkipper striker .... (there's a lot of fame and glamor in this job!)
 

Progress Report from Pat Perrella

Even though the Mobile area was deluged with rain and the national weather reporters were referring to the region as "The Soggy South, spirits aboard LST-325 were not dampened one bit as work was proceeding as scheduled to help with overall preparations towards the 2004 cruise along the Atlantic coast.

The entire galley passageway was chipped to the bare metal while removing the tile that had been installed by the Greek Navy. After patches were repaired the deck received a fresh coat of paint. This work was done by the Illinois work crew of Bruce Voges, Tim Voges, Brian Moews and Kevin Cagle along with Dewey Taylor, FL and Dean Erickson, SD. This was noisy & dirty work but also music to the ears of the other "veterans" aboard (well, not the ladies who were trying to answer the phone!) Work like this really makes the ship feel & sound ALIVE! It also brought smiles to the faces of LST vets who visited during this time as it brought back memories for them of their "chipping" days aboard their ships.

Meanwhile down on the tank deck Dewey Taylor also showed his artistic talent while cleaning and repainting a ballast pump, fire flush pump and emergency fire pump. He also made the breeches buoy chair look brand new. 

     ~ Pat Perrella
 

Click on any image for an enlargement

Bruce Voges shows Brian Moews and Kevin Cagle from IL how  to braid a fender Dewey Taylor with his "Pin Up Pumps" Ron Maranto getting the "tough spots" on the tank deck Rosemary & Bob Ostrander manning the wardroom sales "Master of All Trades" Frank Perrella - one heckuva cook too, but he snores ...

Tim Voges is another who just doesn't stop! Dean Erickson from SD doing some fine chipping The Illinois Gang: Brian Moews, Bruce Voges, Tim Voges and Kevin Cagle Frank & Pat Perrella do absolutely top-notch work!

The Blue Crew gals voted these to be our CHIPPERDALES! Ain't they just sooooo cute? Jim Bartlett is looking good as a result of his Atkins diet! Dewey Taylor and Bruce Voges swabbing the tank deck Jan Erickson from SD taking a turn in the wardroom Pat Perrella is  sound asleep on the job ... I'm kidding, Pat, I'm kidding!!!!

Update from Kenny & Anna Adams Hi All, we got back to Ohio tonight, and we got the word on the ship Monday morning that drydock was backed up till mid-March. That will let us do our taxes and get some spring work done, and then go back and help get the ship ready for drydock. Mobile has been wet, wet, wet all of Feb. There have been lots of great people working. It seems like we start a project and then something else comes up and we move on to it. The neatest job was putting a 12-1/2 foot metal ladder [we cut out of the old mast] in a ballast tank, below the Gyro Room. If you recall, the Gyro Room has a 5 ft. ceiling - SO we had to cut the ladder in two and welded it back together in the hole that goes to the ballast tank. Jim Bartlett gave it his OK. Just wanted you to know all is well at the ship and here at home.      ~ Your Ship Mates, Kenny and Anna Adams

Anna & Kenny Adams continue to make the EverReady Bunny look downright anemic!   SURVEY QUESTION: Do they ever sleep?

  - Another Wonderful Contribution from James & Doris Edwards
  - Opening Available for WebSkipper Striker

ANOTHER WONDERFUL CONTRIBUTION FROM  JAMES & DORIS EDWARDS     James Edwards, LST-325 Gold Crew Engineering Officer and now XO, along with his gracious wife Doris, have given generously of their time and their money for quite a while now.  Several times, "special projects" have come up, and they've immediately said, "Oh, we'll take care of that!"   Most recently, they have procured a commercial-quality washer and dryer for LST-325.  Not only will this be a treasure while underway, but it will definitely come in handy while in port as well.     MANY THANKS TO THE DEVOTED EDWARDS FAMILY!

LST-325 XO James Edwards with the commercial washer and dryer donated to the ship. Doris Edwards making sure that the wardroom is presentable

OPENING AVAILABLE FOR WEBSKIPPER STRIKER

No, I don't figure on giving up the job anytime soon, at least not for a couple of years.  But.  First, I could use a helping hand on occasion.  Second, there will come a time when I will have to retire from this job, and I'd like to have someone well-qualified and in place to give the website keys to.  (No, they're quite different from bowdoor keys!)

Contrary to popular opinion, running a website is not hard work.  I will grant that it is tedious and boring!  At times, even a bit overwhelming.

But don't worry, I'll be glad to break someone in very gently. 

Someone with website experience would help, but I'm also willing to break someone in from scratch.  If you have any interest, please email me at WebSkipper@LSTMemorial.org.

     ~ Jim Anderson, WebSkipper

The last couple of weeks have produced a couple of victories for us.  First, the efforts of Bill Kaupas have resulted in the successful registration of our ship as a U.S. vessel.  Better than that, he got us registered as "LST-325!"  (We thought we were going to have to remain "M/V LST Ship Memorial.")  Bravo Zulu, Bill!

And thanks to our determined and dedicated radio crew, we have also been officially designated with our historical radio call sign, NWVC (these are the flags you see on the main page of the website).  This is quite an honor for us, since "N" designations are usually only given to active U.S. Navy ships.

Bob Wilder fills us in with more details on this:
 

Throughout WW2 most naval ships used a tactical call sign which changed with every mission so that the enemy did not know which ship was operating within a particular area.  As the war started to wind down ships were given unique call signs.  It was then that US LST-325 was issued the call sign of NWVC which signified that it was a US naval ship.  The call signs were granted by international treaty in the NAAA thru NZZZ grouping.  When the LST-325 converted to USNS LST-325 for service in the Arctic it retained the NWVC call sign.  Then in the Mid-1960's LST-325 was refitted at Norfolk and transferred to the Greek navy.  The NWVC call sign was dropped and a new international call sign in the SVxx grouping was assigned to the Greek ship recently known as the L-144 "Syros".  The NWVC call sign was changed to inactive status and not issued again to a US Naval vessel.   Through the efforts of "Bo" Lingfors, The Chief of The NAVY/US Marine Corps MARS program, the call sign has once again been issued to a U.S. flagged ship as an historical call sign.  LST-325 will once again be able to use the call sign NWVC while underway.  "Bo" Linfors is the former XO and later CO of LST-1032 which served in Vietnam.  Thanks "Bo" for your efforts.

Prior to the early 1900's ships at sea had to rely on flags to communicate between ships and between ships and shore.  With the invention of wireless a whole new procedure had to be formed.  At first ships that had wireless just made up a call sign with no regard for nationality of the ship.  It was soon realized that this was not going to work and nations got together devised a simple system of assigning call signs in blocks of letters divided by nations.  As an example, the UK had the groups MAAA thru MZZZ plus GAAA thru GZZZ, the US with WAAA-WZZZ and KAAA-KZZZ and later on AAAA-AEZZ and NAAA-NZZZ.  Some early call signs were Titanic, MGY and the first Queen Mary, GBTT which has now been assigned to the QM-II.

Along with assignment of call signs, other procedures changed.  When the Titanic went down the distress call was CQD which indicated a general call to any station and distress. In 1906 there were two distress call, one the CQD and the now familiar SOS.

In 1927, with more and more airplanes, the voice call sign of "MAYDAY" was instituted.

Now we get to the present assignment of the call sign in the NAAA to NZZZ block, Which is reserved for US Naval ships.  Even though many ships had Nxxx call signs assigned during WW2 and flew these calls on the flag staff, they many times used what were known as tactical call signs.  The purpose of the tactical call was to confuse the enemy as to which ships were actually present during an operation.  The LST-325 was assigned the Nxxx block call sign NWVC which it retained through out its career in the US Navy and with the civil fleet operating as USNS LST-325.  Once the ship was refitted and transferred to the Greek navy it no longer held NWVC but instead was issued a call sign in the SZxx block which indicated the L-144 Syros was a Greek ship.

When LST-325 was readied for its trip back to the states it was issued a license for operation of its radio equipment and it fell in a block of call signs assigned to recreational boaters.  The ship now could be known as WCW-6272.  We have come full circle with the Department of the Navy declaring NWVC as a historical call sign and once again assigning it to LST-325.  The ship will once again be flying the NWVC call letters from its mast on future trips.

A post script to this is that even the USS Constitution has a Nxxx call sign which is NAPJ and the USCG training ship "Eagle" is NRCB.  Some times while listening to A shortwave radio you might hear ships using call signs in the AAAA to AEZZ group.  These are ships of the US Army, such as Corps of Engineers dredges and patrol boats.

Hope this helps everyone understand the great importance of the LST-325 regaining It war time call sign for use from now on.  May the tides and winds be with you.

One final note.  If you are interested in the call signs of ships around the world, do a search on the Internet for "ACP-113 (AE)" and you will find a 217 page listing of all currently operating ships.

~ Bob Wilder, USAF (Ret)
       LST-325 Radio Crew

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.  Sitting here 2,000 miles away, I personally don't have a clue what's happening aboard the ship unless somebody tells me.  To date, I've posted absolutely every single tidbit of information that's come my way.  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!

Legend:

Archives:

Archive for January 2004:

• 28 JAN 04 - Report from Capt. Jornlin
• 25 JAN 04 - Update from Bill Kaupas
• 23 JAN 04 - Progress Report from Michael Smith
• 22 JAN 04 - Head for the Hills' (two articles)
• 08 JAN 04 - Crewmember Applications for 2004 Voyage Now Available
• 02 JAN 04 - A Terrific Donation from NCP Coatings, Inc.

• 18 DEC 03 - Update from "The Love Boat" from Pat Johnston and Mary Lou Hatin
• 09 DEC 03 - Captains's Update
• 01 DEC 03 - A Big Chiefs' Pow-Wow from Cal Ellison

• 25 NOV 03 - Greetings from an Overseas Mate!
• 24 NOV 03 - Holiday Ship Closure
• 24 NOV 03 - Commemorative LST 325 Tapes
• 11 NOV 03 - Progress Report from Bill Kaupas
• 02 NOV 03 - Progress Report from Bill Kaupas

CDR Jackson Carter was LST 325's Executive Officer before and during the voyage back from Greece.  In addition to his normal duties, he was an avid ham radio operator and enjoyed communicating during his down-time with other hams all over the world.  He also maintained a website for LST 325 which included all of his situation reports, as well as  many photographs showing the hard work done in Greece getting the ship seaworthy – that site is a must-see for anyone who hopes to understand what it took to bring this ship home.  Most importantly, Mr. Carter was one of the finest human beings one could ever hope to meet.  He passed away just five weeks after finally realizing his dream.  This website now carries on the work – and the dream – where he left off, and in his memory.  Thanks, Jack ... for being you.    Fair winds!

In Memoriam Jackson Carter