"We just received our notice from IRS about the refund, and my wife said, 'Why don't we pass this on to the LST Memorial Fund -- it's something we didn't expect, so we can do without it.'  I thought it was a great idea -- maybe others could do the same.  Do you think the LST people would respond?"

That sounds terrific!  Simply endorse the back of your check:  "Make payable to 'USS LST SHIP MEMORIAL FUND'" and send it to:  USS LST SHIP MEMORIAL FUND, c/o American Savings Bank, P.O. Box 627, Danville, IL 61834.  If only just a handful of people accepted this challenge, it would make a HUGE difference!

I took a ride to see what progress has been made on the 325.  As I reported from my last trip, the LCVPs are on the dock.  Some of the metal plates on the hull have been chipped.  Time has not allowed all of the plates to be chipped simply because the LCVPs have to be put back on the ship before going into drydock on the 20th of this month.  They are mainly trying to get all of them painted.  The barnacles were removed off the bottom and the engines were placed on the dock. 

I had the pleasure of meeting some new Blue Crew members.  For one, Frank Larsen. Though he was not an LST sailor, he did serve on three destroyers during WWII.  Numbers 750, 508, and 258.  Frank was a great help in painting and cleaning up. 

Ad Mumford put his trade to work and did a great job.  His expertise is in paints.  He had all of the metal on the boat primed in no time.  If it hadn't been for the rain he would have never stopped.  Ad served with the Coast Guard on the LST 327.

Paul Hannie was a Navy PBY pilot.  He puts time in just about everything.  Helps on the ship, and LCVPs and takes visitors on tours.   It happened that today 6 Coast Guardsmen came by today on an unofficial visit for a tour. 

Vance and Calvin and Pearl were there as usual.  While Vance and Calvin worked on the boat, Pearl kept herself busy doing chores on the ship.  She can find many things to do and she does them well.

Howard Buhl served on the LST 494 during WWII.  Helen LaMore came with Howard and brought her sewing machine with her and sewed the tank deck floor covers.  Helen LaMore is the mother of Terry LaMore who is the "Chairman of Finance Relations" for BP Oil.

Charlie and Jean Marking were there also.  Charlie served on LST 758.  One of the air pumps wouldn't produce air, so he took it apart and got it working again, then he put it to work.  While Charlie helped with the LCVP, Jean joined Pearl and Helen in making up the bunks in the officers' staterooms.  Jean was also busy scraping on the boats for two days.

The bilge cleaning began this week.  I climbed down the ladder to the main to see what was going on.  There were 4 men full of oil in the bilges doing the removal of oil and washing down, a job you couldn't pay me enough to do.  Hats off to them.   The job should take about 6 days to to clean all the bilges. 

More good news:   Mobile Fire Chief, S. W. Downing, came with 2 of his men to look the ship over.  The chief said he is going to try to get the City of Mobile to declare the convention a 'Special Event.'  If that happens, the city will provide us with a firefighting crew aboard the ship during the convention and also provide each of the tour guides with radios.  Paramedics will be stationed aboard ship, and if the ship docks near the convention center, it will be 3 minutes away from fire emergency equipment, fire boats, etc.  Chief Downing is going to give the Blue Crew a crash course in emergency evacuation and first aid.   He also told Mr. Stone that when the ship is moved to the dry dock, he will see to it that there will be firefighters aboard and we will be escorted by the fire boat.  He assured Mr. Stone that if the city declines the request, he would have firefighters aboard as volunteers.

Well, I would say it was a very fruitful day.  I plan on being aboard on the 20th when the ship goes to drydock.  Until then, if you are unable the come to Chickasaw to help ready the ship for the convention, consider digging deep into your pockets and sending whatever size donation that you can.  You will be glad you did when you come aboard at convention time.

     ~ Ron Maranto
 

[Ed. note:  Donations may be made online or sent in by snail-mail.  Please see our Donation Page for complete details.]

This posting may be viewed at the following location:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1177204627

It was decided to offer the very first such opportunity on auction service eBay because of its high level of visibility to the public, and to test its viability as a fundraising medium.  Further opportunities (at various levels of sponsorship) will be made available later in the year.

HTM files are web pages; GIF, JPG and TIF files are images; and PDF files are in Adobe Acrobat document format.  All can be printed at home or at your local printshop.  Printshops PREFER the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files.  Following is a listing of a few of our files that aren't quite so well-known or widely distributed.  If put to proper use, they could well help generate funds for our restoration project.

Thanks for all the support you've given, and continue to give.  Please email me if I can be of any help.

     ~ The WebSkipper

http://www.LSTMemorial.org/funds/b0418out.pdf
 
 
 
 
 
 

http://www.LSTMemorial.org/funds/b0418in.pdf
 

http://www.LSTMemorial.org/funds/postera.jpg
Medium resolution.  File size: 292,774 bytes.
 

http://www.LSTMemorial.org/funds/postera.tif
High resolution.  File size: 922,444 bytes.

http://www.LSTMemorial.org/funds/posterc.pdf
File size: 110,293 bytes.  (11x14" format.)

This may sound corny but when I bring up LST Memorial and read daily how so many men (and wives that let them go work ) work so hard on our old ship, I honestly get choked up inside.  I was the only outsider that is now a LST believer.  I was following the ship's progress on the Internet in September 2000 when they asked for help.  I'm an old DC electrician from LSD 19 -- USS Comstock -- during then Korean police action, and thought it would be fun to sail one more time.  My loving wife said go ahead and ask, so I did, and Mr. Jornlin said how fast can you get here.  I told him I didn't know anything about LST's, he said we will teach you with on the job training.  The rest is history and I really grew to love that old girl.  Meeting so many guys that could work incredibly hard every day in that heat and filth was an inspiration to anyone.  I went back in April to help work on the no. 2 generator and sure wish I lived closer. 

I live in the middle of Minnesota and it's quite a jaunt to Mobile.  I can't thank all of you enough for your hard work.  It will really be a thrill to step aboard in September to see how much has changed.  You gentlemen really have what is called "sweat equity" in LST 325.  You all really deserve a big medal of some kind. 

Thank you all for your work.

     ~ Gary Lyon

 
Apparently, Mr. Earley received a number of inquiries in response to his article posted on 03 AUG.  He would now like to share the following:

    In any case, let me suggest to any LST organization members who follow this website that conducting a drive similar to ours is no big deal. The bond that holds LST veterans together is the same in Massachusetts as it is in any 
other part of the country. In addition to the fact that we all served on one or more of these 'beautiful' ships many years ago, we now have the opportunity to give a second life to a memorial brought back from obscurity by 28 of our bravest shipmates. What better way is there to remember our departed comrades, and to preserve our own wartime contributions for future generations then by doing our best to restore this important relic.

    Professional fund raisers will tell you that if you get 20% of any group to respond to a drive you are successful. Well, I certainly am not a professional fund raiser, but when you are talking LSTers who are in the twilight of life, and the cause is as close to their hearts as the LST 325, you can count on this percentage to triple!

    Now, this is what we did. We estimated what we could afford by multiplying our membership of 365 active members and surviving spouses by a suggested donation of $15, or more if they could afford it. This amounted to about $5500. We rounded it up to $6000. We asked Capt. Jornlin what he thought we could take on as a project. He identified the critical need for the Rectifier. We sent out a flyer. The rest is history. In two months we sent a check to the Memorial Fund for $6000. We asked Captain Jornlin if we could attach a plaque to the rectifier identifying our Chapter as the donor and to dedicate it to our late Treasurer. When you visit the ship look for our piece of the pie on the port side of the tank deck.

    If anyone wants to contact me about this I will be happy to help in getting your drive going, and to share with you a bonus I enjoyed during our campaign - the many letters and notes of support accompanying the donations from the men, and especially from our (growing) core of surviving spouses who sent what they could in memory of their husbands. And, incidentally, one of our donors was the US LST 808 Association, whose annual convention will be 
held in Mobile in May of next year.

Frank Earley LST 923
621 High St. Walpole, MA 02081
1(508)668-5226
rfearl621@aol.com

A visit to the ship was made on 27 July 2001 for the purpose of surveying the existing radio room space and topside antennas to determine the extent of the restoration effort that will be required.  The survey was conducted by MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System) members Rene Stiegler (Mobile AL), Bob Wilder (Theodore AL) and Fred Chapman (Fredericksburg VA).  It was determined that the communications facilities and antennas were greatly modified and enlarged from the original 1942 WWII configuration to meet 1960's period communication requirements.  This included expanding the radio room space, adding many more HF - VHF - UHF radio equipment and antennas, radio teletype facilities, receiver - transmitter - teletypewriter antenna, switchboards, crypto equipments and a crypto vault.  It was noted that a glass-enclosed Pilot House had been added atop the WWII wheelhouse and a tripod-type mast structure replaced the WWII stick mast. 

Ongoing efforts to obtain the exact radio room space size and equipment layout -- in order to replicate the WWII configuration as much as possible -- are continuing by visits to the Washington Navy Yard Archives and searching for former LST-325 radiomen (and radiomen on other LST's constructed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at the same time) to provide more detailed information for this effort.  Space for a WWII radio museum is being planned to include radios as used for communications with the landing forces and other service communications coordination. 

Any former radiomen that have information to provide should contact Fred Chapman at 205 Goldvein Drive, Fredericksburg, VA 22407 or e-mail to NNN0PPE@navymars.org.  A work list has been developed and will be available from Rene Stiegler, who is local to the ship in Mobile AL and will assist in coordinating the volunteer effort for the radio room restoration.  Volunteers willing to assist in the restoration effort should contact Rene Stiegler (phone: (334) 460-0180, or e-mail to Rene@shipcom.com). 

The required WWII-type radio equipment (many voluntarily donated) that were on LST's have been located, and arrangements are being made to obtain and ship them to Mobile for ship installation.  The initial efforts will include the repair of the radio room air-conditioning unit (installed during the 1960's ship activation) to provide a more pleasant working condition, then rip-out of all existing unneeded radio system components and cables.  Additional information will be provided as the restoration effort continues.

     ~ Fred Chapman

Charles Thomas (shown at work here
on LST 325's sister ship LST 311), has
been consulted on the radio room 
restoration project.  After VE Day, 
Mr. Thomas served on LST 1110 
in the Pacific Theatre.

A typical LST radio room
arrangement in WWII.

---

[Ed. note:  Mr. Chapman has been 
spearheading a special radio room 
project for several months now.  His 
dedication and perseverance
deserve the appreciation and thanks 
of all of us.  His name will certainly 
be prominent in an upcoming feature 
story devoted to the radio room 
restoration.  In the meanwhile, please 
know that Mr. Chapman has been -- 
and will continue to be -- hard at 
work on this project.  Many thanks to
you, sir!]

"Dear Webskipper,

"On May 31 of this year I emailed you that our Massachusetts LST Chapter had initiated a program we called, "Adopt an LST 325 Project."  Our goal was to solicit donations from our membership toward the cost of the rectifier, now installed and in use on the ship. 

"Today, Aug. 3, a check in the amount of $6,000 is on its way to Captain Jornlin, who recommended this high priority item when he attended our Chapter's May meeting."

     ~ Frank Earley, Recording Secretary
 

[Ed. note:  On behalf of The USS LST Ship Memorial, many thanks to Mr. Earley and the Massachusetts LST Chapter for their donation, dedication and hard work.  Please remember that the ship is scheduled to go into drydock on Aug. 20, and there's much work to be done.  The bottom line is that the more money we have, the more we can get accomplished.  If we can get everything done the first time around, we can eliminate the need for an additional drydocking in the future.  That will ultimately save us a lot of money.  Please help out with this effort NOW, by making a donation.  That can be easily done by going to the donation page -- THANKS!]

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!

Click here for directions to the ship.

Legend: 

Archives:

Archive for July 2001:

• 04 JUL 01 - A Salute to the Blue Crew
• 12 JUL 01 - Update from Earl Stone
• 12 JUL 01 - Raffle Ticket Promotional Posters Available
• 12 JUL 01 - Update from Louis Iacona
• 14 JUL 01 - Airshow Report by Anna Koepp
• 15 JUL 01 - Update from Michael Smith
• 18 JUL 01 - Update from Ron Maranto
• 21 JUL 01 - Update from The WebSkipper
• 23 JUL 01 - Update from Earl Stone
• 26 JUL 01 - Progress Report from Pat Johnston
• 26 JUL 01 - A Couple of Interesting Donations
• 30 JUL 01 - Update from Ron Maranto

• 02 JUN 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith
• 02 JUN 01 - Donation Information from Frank Earley
• 02 JUN 01 - Urgent Message from The WebSkipper
• 06 JUN 01 - Update from Capt. Bob Jornlin
• 07 JUN 01 - Brookley Center Pictures from Barbara Maranto
• 09 JUN 01 - Progress Report from Jim Bartlett
• 12 JUN 01 - Progress Report from Walt McBride and Jennings Hoke
• 16 JUN 01 - Progress Report from Ron Maranto
• 17 JUN 01 - Special Project: Radio Room from The WebSkipper
• 19 JUN 01 - Special Project: Radio Room Update from The WebSkipper
• 23 JUN 01 -Two Progress Reports from Michael Smith, 19 JUN and 22 JUN
• 24 JUN 01 - Update from Linda Gunjak
• 26 JUN 01 - Bulletin from The WebSkipper
• 29 JUN 01 - Progress Report from Ron Maranto
• 30 JUN 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith

• 01 MAY 01 - Progress Report from Walt McBride and Jennings Hoke
• 05 MAY 01 - Crew Pictures from Ron Maranto
• 05 MAY 01 - Sponsor Contact Information from Walt McBride and Jennings Hoke
• 08 MAY 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 
• 14 MAY 01 - Editorial Correction re Discounted Lodging
• 14 MAY 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 
• 16 MAY 01 - Update from Capt. Jornlin
• 18 MAY 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 
• 21 MAY 01 - Update from Michael Smith 
• 21 MAY 01 - Progress Report from Walt McBride and Jennings Hoke
• 24 MAY 01 - Additional Information Concerning Reduced Rates
• 26 MAY 01 - Even More Information on Reduced Rates
• 27 MAY 01 - Two Progress Reports from Michael Smith, 22 MAY and 25 MAY 
• 31 MAY 01 - Update from Walt McBride and Jennings Hoke

• 02 APR 01 - Progress Report from the Blue Crew
• 07 APR 01 - Report from Capt. Jornlin on the Board of Directors Meeting Held 30 MAR 01
• 11 APR 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 
• 15 APR 01 - Progress Report from the Blue Crew
• 16 APR 01 - Update from Capt. Jornlin
• 21 APR 01 - Progress Report from Ron Maranto 
• 24 APR 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 
• 26 APR 01 - Progress Report from Ron Maranto 
• 26 APR 01 - Update from Linda Gunjak
• 27 APR 01 - Two Editorial Corrections
• 28 APR 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 

• 18 MAR 01 - Progress Report from the Blue Crew
• 25 MAR 01 - Progress Report from the Blue Crew
• 27 MAR 01 - Progress Report from Michael Smith 

• 23 FEB 01 - Message from Capt. Jornlin about the Voyage and the Wish List for the Ship
• 23 FEB 01 - LST-325 Ship Repair List by Priority, for Static Display by September
• 23 FEB 01 - Second phase: Get Ship Running