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This page was last updated: 09 OCT 01, 2100Z |
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This page was last updated: 09 OCT 01, 2100Z |
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Our primary contact for the ship is Mr. Earl Stone at 251-604-5492 (M-F, 10 am - 3 pm CDT only ... please!). The ship's general telephone number is 251-402-1225, which can take messages when unattended. Please limit your calls to normal business hours, and please don't call to chew the rag or to ask how things are going. Our Blue Crew are working very hard on board, and frivolous calls can only divert them from that work. It's certainly appropriate to call for visits or to volunteer for work. |
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For almost two weeks, the ship was open for tours from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm. More than 2500 people took the tour with huge crowds during the time of the LST Convention. We appreciate your interest and donations for the project. After all, this ship was brought back for ALL who served or rode on LST's at any time and to restore and become a museum for all to learn from and enjoy. We handed out information, sold souvenirs, and accepted memberships in the USS LST Ship Memorial to keep our restoration going forward. If you are interested in membership, write to Anna Koepp at PO Box 187, O'Fallon, IL 62269 OR email at "lst325ak@aol.com" OR call her at 618-632-7420 for information. Anna is our Community Affairs & Military Liaison volunteer and has done a great job! We also thank Linda Alvers and her crew which were there for three days of the convention promoting our project. As you all know, most of the work so far has been done by volunteers. We applaud their efforts. Our sincere thanks to ALL who helped us during these past several weeks. The list would be endless! The raffle went very well and we realized a good profit from that venture. The winner was not present so he won $500.00. An auction was held for the model and the winner bought it for $900.00. The winning bidder was Mrs. Slade Hooks from Mobile, Alabama, whom we understand is donating the model to the Maritime Museum in Mobile. (Her husband runs the terminal in Chickasaw where we are docking the ship now.) We sincerely thank Mrs. Hooks for her donation and are so indebted to Mr. Jerry Howe for his most generous contribution of the model of the LST 325. What a remarkable job he did!! A ceremony officially commissioning the LST 325 as the USS LST Ship Memorial was held on Friday, September 21st at 2:00 PM. It was an impressive ceremony with members of the original WWII crew of the LST 325 taking part as well as the Gold Crew and the Blue Crew. Captain Hal Pierce, who had a big part in getting us berthed in Mobile in the first place, gave the address. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and a large crowd enjoyed the patriotic ceremony which began on the docks and ended with the crews on the deck with a salute. The ship is now back in Chickasaw at Hook's Terminal and is open for visits from 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM week days only. We are all pretty exhausted from three weeks of constant activity, but it is a good feeling to have had so many have the opportunity to get aboard an LST again! After some rest, we will regroup and evaluate what we must do next. Our ultimate goal is still to be able to sail the ship under its own power, but it will take a lot of money and effort from our volunteer fundraising committee to make that happen. The Memorial board functions for the sole purpose of using the funds wisely to restore the LST 325 to its original WWII glory and making it into a museum honoring all who served. We hope to have a plaque on the ship listing all who died while serving on LST's. We have collected lots of memorabilia and awards and all will be displayed on the bulkheads or in display cases when work on the interior is completed and we have the time and money to get it done properly. I know you can't wait to see that happen. Neither can I. We will do it! We all have a world concern today after the horrors of September 11th in New York and Washington DC. Please pray with me for direction for our leaders and peace on earth once again. This is a war unlike any other we have fought. Fly your flags and show your pride in these United States. We are! ~ Capt. Bob Jornlin |
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As we proceeded to the Convention Center we passed the USS Gates and the entire ship's company manned the port rail and on command gave the LST-325 a hand salute which was returned by our crew. This was a wonderful thing for all of those young sailors to do. It gave us a very warm feeling and a few tears. From 17 September 2001 to 28 September 2001 we escorted more than 5,000 visitors through the ship. We are very proud of the fact that we did this without one accident. The Blue Crew worked 12 consecutive days, on duty 10 hours each day. I am very proud of this crew and can never thank them enough for their dedication and hard work aboard this ship. On 28 September 2001 we moved the ship up river, about 10 miles north of The Convention Center, to Hooks Terminal in Chickasaw, Alabama (our homeport). While at this location we will show the ship to visitors Monday through Friday, 10 am to 3 pm. The ranks of the Blue Crew are growing thin and if this problem persists we may have to reduce visiting hours. We have had several LST ship reunions in the area this past week. The 9th reunion crew of LST-307 paid us a visit this past week and presented the ship with a donation in the amount of $2,307.00 in memory of LST-307 Shipmates. This was a great morale booster for the Blue Crew. We need another 100 LST crews to perform like the 307. ~ Earl Stone, Skipper, Blue Crew |
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On Thursday, Oct. 11, I will be having a surgical procedure performed on my right shoulder. I'm assuming that it will be about two weeks or so before I'm able to resume my Internet activities (updating the website, corresponding via email, etc.). It would help me greatly if everyone would hold off sending pictures, progress reports, emails, etc. until the end of the month, unless something is particularly urgent. This will likely be my last posting for a while. I've gotten some nice convention pictures from Bob Flaugher, but I don't think I'll have time to post them. Today and tomorrow will be spent making sure everything's taken care of for the next couple of weeks. I'll try ... but no promises! Once I have both my hands again, I'll be making the Recommissioning Commemorative Covers available for mail order and for sale on the website. ~ The WebSkipper |
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. |
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Legend: 
with pictures 
Gold
Crew 
Blue Crew
Archives (click here for complete index to archives) : Archive for September 2001 (second half):
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All contents of this website are Copyright © 2001 by The
USS LST Ship Memorial, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Please email the WebSkipper
with comments, corrections or suggestions.
