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This page was last updated 06 JAN 05, 2230Z |
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| PROPOSED ITINERARY FOR VOYAGE
2005 NOW POSTED!
25 December 2004 The proposed itinerary for Voyage 2005 (East Coast Celebrations) is now posted on the website (click here). PLEASE keep in mind that this itinerary is still subject to review and revision. If you make personal plans based upon this schedule, you will be wise to allow yourself some flexibility and latitude. We'll be looking forward to seeing you there!
Means: All personnel assigned to this ship are to return immediately .... The 2005 East Coast Cruise Crew Application Packets will be put into the mail on Monday, 27 DEC 2004. 2004 East Coast Cruise crewmembers have the “first right of refusal” for a shipboard cruise billet. Keep an eye out for the packet in the mail. Crewmembers or volunteers desiring to make application for the 2005
cruise who were not originally scheduled during 2004, please send me your
mailing address by email and a packet will be forwarded to you with instructions.
My email address is: bkaupas@msn.com.
~ Bill Kaupas
MERRY CHRISTMAS
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| HOLIDAY PICTURE PARTY
Posted 15 December 2004 Shown at
right:
Chip Lanham tells Cliff Dunaway, "Now watch this drive!" |
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Would the guy with the pretty pink towel please 'fess up?
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| TWO ITEMS TODAY, 03 DECEMBER
2004:
- PROGRESS REPORT FROM GARY LYON - SUGGESTION FOR VOLUNTEERS
PROGRESS REPORT FROM GARY LYON It has been a very good month on the LST 325. We accomplished several projects down below and some very good jobs on the deck. Bob Ostrander and Chuck Frawley work every day on the mailings, while Rosemary does a great job handling the office and guests. We had a great couple, Bill and Raine Rutledge, who brought along their son. That is one big lad. He could take on any job I asked. A special thanks goes to Paul Przyborski, the owner of Nearwoods Safe and Lock, for a donation of 24 heavy duty padlocks which are all keyed alike for all the hatches. There is a different key for every compartment that you have to make three trips to open. Crewmember Larry Johnson was responsible for soliciting the gift. Paul Holler came back to complete his 80-plus hours. He is one of the few snowbirds here. He worked with Bob Willard cleaning the sounding tubs and resealing tank covers, which is a very tough job. Lee Allen, Ken Frank and Jim Spence worked all over the ship. I am sorry to say that they left a few days after I got here, and somehow their registration cards disappeared. If they are reading this, please send us new ones. It's bad if you work hard for more than 80 hours, and there's no record of it. Phillip Katheimen worked on needleguns and cleaning compartments. Ray Rappold was here for a month and worked about 10 hours a day on all kinds of projects. Two people (I think from Texas) named Jack and Judy McKinley were here also before Nov. 1, and worked every long day on needle guns on the deck lockers and engine room hatches, and they look like new now. Again I have no records. Please send them! Of course Bill Arras worked every day from 0700 till 1600 on all of his own projects. Bill asked me to wire the two fire pumps in the engine rooms first. I ordered $200 worth of wire and various parts, and the first thing I did was to call my chief welder from Alabama, Dan Toole. He was there the next morning at 0700. Dan is cut from the same mold as Bill Arras. He can do absolutely anything I ask. Welding, cutting, rigging equipment, installing pumps and motors, heavy equipment operation of any type. I think I'm the only one who knows how many hundreds of dollars Dan has given this ship without any records or tax records. He just loves this ship ... period. We installed the wire through the deck to each pump and I connected the switch and controller and the pump ran perfect. These are 3-phase 480-volt 30-hp AC motors that draw only 40 amps, in comparison to the 30-hp DC motors at 110 amps. Much cheaper to operate. We then moved to the tank deck and secured a large portable air compressor next to the DC converter, and Dan welded it to the deck. We have a 2-inch steam line that runs the length of the ship on the starboard side which wasn't being used, and removed part of it and converted it into an air line to the bow with four connection points for air hoses, for use with needle guns, etc., and installed an air line through the deck forward to eliminate dragging a hose from the rear of the tank deck. Dan welded 12 steel brackets on the starboard side to accommodate heavy pipes and wires better and safer. Paul Holler and Dan removed old steam pipes and heaters in the engine rooms to make room for additional equipment. Paul did a lot of heavy work with piping, along with Bill Rutledge. I'm not wealthy enough to have one of those strange cameras you hold two feet in front of you for about two or three minutes to take a picture. How can a camera cost so much and be so slow? My little throwaway is 10 times faster. Unfortunately I didn't take 27 pictures, so Bob Willard will send some in. Everybody worked very hard and accomplished a great deal. This last week it was just Bill and me, so things were pretty quiet. Five or six visitors was all each week. No snowbirds. I went to Gulf Shores twice and it's empty. Not one building is open and won't be for a long time. The wind and water blew all the utilities out of the buildings. 80% of the homes from Gulf Shores through Pensacola have blue plastic roofs. They will not get new roofs for as long as a year. We will not have any snowbird helpers or visitors this year. The main road along Gulf Shores looks somewhat like Minnesota roads in the winter. The sand banks are six to eight feet high everywhere. All white sand. The wind at times in that area was as high as 220 mph at the base. The naval station was heavily damaged. Vance Barnes lives in Orange Beach, which was hit the hardest. I have not been able to find him. We went to look for him, but the police would not let us into that area. Larry Johnson lost over a hundred trees, along with damage to his house and barn. Roe Karstetter lost almost all of the shingles on his house and barn, and lost 28 pine trees of his wind break. I told him they worked, they broke the wind. Over 500 people from the Minnesota Club and 3,000 from Michigan will be going elsewhere. Over 9,000 people lost their jobs for a year or more. The first estimate of costs is over $11 billion. It will take more than a year just to haul all the debris away. The ship looks great. The last trip to the shipyard really did the job on the hull to clean the rust off. They must have turned up the air pressure some. The crews' quarters look nice with the fresh paint. Some new and smaller lockers help. I don't know who the crew will be on the next trip, so we didn't do anything in that area. Gayle and I are going to southern Florida next week to look for a home for the winter months. Seven men from our Sailing Crew live down there. Good luck and best regards to all, ~ Gary Lyon
Click on any of
the images
Pictures courtesy of Bob Willard, Ken Frank and Ron Maranto
SUGGESTION FOR VOLUNTEERS
Chipping and painting with modern tools is a lot more fun than it was with the traditional chipping hammers and brushes, and it is satisfying to see nice paintwork where there was mostly rust. We all want the ship to look nice when we come into a port. But if the ship can't leave port this May, thousands of people on the Atlantic coast will be disappointed. Not just us. So here is a suggestion for volunteers who plan to work on the ship when it reopens after 10 January. When you get on board, ask Bill Arras or whoever is coordinating the work effort, "Can you assign me to work on any of the jobs that must be completed before the ship can get underway?" But be sure you have brought some work clothes with you, and do not be surprised if the job you get is a bit dirty. If the job you get is something you have never done before, Bill Arras can give you good direction and can probably supply the tools you need. Without Bill and his tools and the wealth of knowledge he possesses, many of us could not have accomplished nearly as much as we have so far. ~ Bob Willard |
Gayle & Gary Lyon
"Little" Bill Rutledge getting
into the job.
Ken Frank drove from New
Ken after a day of productive
One of the infamous tank
access holes
Ray Rappold refurbishing
a sounding tube
Jack McKinley, along with his wife ...
... Judy McKinley, enjoyed
working in
We all took a break to enjoy
Bob Willard wears these unseamanlike
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The air compressor shown
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One of the hatch covers that
Bob,
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Through these hatch covers
you can
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James Edwards, Bill Arras
and
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Capt. Jornlin removing one
of the 'coon
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The Skipper looks a bit chagrined
after he
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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! |
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The Story of LST-325 by Dave Bronson |
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Landing Ship Tank by Michael Smith |
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that the article has picturesArchives:
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All contents of this website are Copyright © 2001-2005
The
USS LST Ship Memorial, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Please email the WebSkipper
with comments, corrections or suggestions.
