Good News From Mobile March 15, 2003 We are on the downhill side in regard to repairs on the proud ole girl. Seven new ladders that would make steel workers proud. Each one custom made at different angles. Dan Toole, Ken and Anna Adams are the best welders money could buy. We just received a Miller 210 wire feed welder from The Sheetmetal Workers Union Local No. 218 from Springfield, Illinois. We thank you brothers and sisters very much. We have the machine down on the tank deck, which is a 200 ft. long by 30 ft. wide area, which is the heart of the ship. This steel room carries 20 Sherman tanks and all other forms of equipment. The welder was loaded with 10-lb. roll of wire and was being used to build another ladder. We also have a new Hobart Handler 175 welder, a gift from two men. Earl Oaks from Tennessee came aboard last week and wanted the toughest job we had, to see if he could handle it. I gave him our biggest, baddest needle gun with a 3 inch wide chisel, and turned him loose. If he could have stayed longer, he would have had half the tank deck done by April. Boy, can that man work. The only bad thing is the noise, those needle guns are loud. Frank and Pat Paralle from Albany, NY, came back and painted the first coat on the starboard head. That is a big job. The prep time is longer than the painting. On the second coat we will try to spray it on. This project has been a complete remodel job. All the old had to be removed and repairs made before any new could be installed. We averaged five to six people per day for three weeks on this project. Needless to say, this was much more involved than anyone imagined. Our plumbers returned last week to complete their project. Without those guys and our Gold Crew plumber Dom Perruso, we would be using wash bowls and the European style toilets. On March 12, Gay Radrud and Jim Threlkeld returned one last time to see the water flow through all the pipes on all three decks. Everything worked perfectly. Now we will install a 40 gal. water heater in officer country, so they will look and smell as good as us. They drove 140 miles just to make sure everything was done before heading to Minnesota next week. We are finishing the new arrangements of bunks in the starboard crew's compartment. The old chief's lounge forward has been remodeled into living quarters for the crew. We will have ten additional bunks in that area. The new mattresses have arrived, and the sheets and blankets that we brought home from Greece will be laundered soon. The starboard side will hold about 38 men very comfortably. We really need help to get the area painted and ready by May 1. All the major electrical work was completed last Saturday. For all you "electricians," we have a 150 amp. 480 volt 3 phase shore power supply to a main switch on top deck. We have a 150 amp. 2/0 armored cable through the deck to a 400 amp. 480 volt 3 phase transfer switch on the bulkhead of the tank deck. The power is then divided to 1-200 amp switch to a 400 amp inverter to 120/240 volt DC power supply. This is connected by 3 -500 mcm cut through the deck to the main switch board in the auxiliary engine room to supply the ship with original DC power. All circuits on the ship are still original throughout the ship. All motors and lighting everywhere, except the tank deck, are all still DC. All distribution panels are still intact and power the ship as always. The galley is DC and all heavy motors still operate perfectly on DC. We have installed a new 150 amp. 480 volt 3 phase AC alternator in place of one of the three 400 amp. DC generators in the aux. engine room and is connected by three 2/0 armored cable to transfer switch. The purpose of a transfer switch is to hand transfer from shore power to ship power instantly. The AC power is also connected to two 100 amp. 3 ph. 480 volt disconnects. One feeds a 40 kw transformer to a 150 amp. 30 circuit 240 volt 3 ph. panel that supplies power to 3 -4 ton central air conditioners and our automatic sewage treatment plant. This panel will also supply a filter transformer to equipment(radar, radios, navigation and gyros). The second 100 amp. switch supplies 480 volts to a 112 kw. transformer to a 200 amp. 40 circuit 3 ph. panel for distribution to 4-60 amp. power panels. These panels provide 120 volt outlets plus 7 - 240 volt welder outlets. Seven 175 watt mercury vapor lights have been installed in the tank deck for safe movement of visitors and crew. We are installing emergency lighting in all areas for safe movement of visitors. Every circuit is connected by new required armored cable from New Orleans, custom ordered and manufactured. No company can provide this wire in Mobile, so we have to pay a premium to comply with regulations. We received a gift of a $10,000 150 kw 480 volt diesel portable generator that will be installed in the AC gen. room above the galley. This generator will be connected with a 150 amp. cable to the main deck disconnect. For all you "non-electricians," the above means that we are 95% electrically compliant. We now have four generators after having only two very tired generators when we came home. Don Chapman told me to make the system idiot proof. If we do that, we won't be called Power Distribution Engineers anymore. Equipment Rental Co. from Mobile will be here next week to remove the entire tripod mast structure. Equipment Rental Co. came to the ship last January 2002 with a brand new 40 ton crane and 5 men and did more lifting in and out of the tank deck than we could have done in 3 weeks. They helped us clean tons of junk out of the tank deck. When they finished after working six hours I asked the owner to send me a bill, as I gulped. He only said it's on us, you guys earned it. He said call anytime. I gave him six or seven hats to show some appreciation. On this next job he said no charge. Just thanks for coming to Mobile. That work was worth about $3,000 to the LST. This was the start of a wonderful relationship. Bill Arras is designing a new mast just like what was on the ship when it was built. Bill is designing this one to fold down to the rear of the ship, and will lay on the after gun tub. We have to stay under 48 ft. to go under the bridges up stream. Pictures will follow as work continues. We could really use about 20 general laborers. No special skills needed, just the desire to help the ship. We need things painted, and people that will clean and help repair the bunks in all compartments. We are now down to 8 to 10 workers. Five people are leaving next week and now we really need help. Instead of only coming down here to spend only 40 hours to get the blue badge, you can stay longer and really help us. It doesn't do any good now to say I only want to work 80 hrs. to sail up the river. You should try 6 months, 8 hrs. a day, 6 days a week. Do you know this is the first US Navy warship to sail up the Mississippi since 1946? Even if you don't get to sail with us, meet us somewhere along the river with your kids and show them the ship you helped bring up the river. There are going to be thousands of wet eyes when this ole ship comes home to the midwest cornfield shipyards. A very interesting article appeared in the latest Scuttlebutt on page 57. Our cook Joe Sadlier returned to Greece to thank them for their help getting us home. The last paragraph stated that the U.S. Navy installed a complete modern galley and provided some communications equipment. Also General Motors is providing a complete overhaul of the main engines. That would be fabulous, except the US Navy didn't give us a soup bowl, let alone a new galley. The Blue Crew would like a clarification where they were all that time. We worked a couple hundred hours and didn't see one sailor. Please get the story straight. Don Lockas of the Gold Crew arrived Monday, along with Charles Clark from Illinois, Ken and Betty Knight, Pat Johnston and Mary Lou Hatin, all Blue Crew people from Surprise, AZ, to help paint and clean the ole girl for the trip. All six of those people were here last January working. Unfortunately the last five have to leave next week. We really need help, we would even take a skinny Rocky Hill minus his speedo. ~ Gary Lyon