I got to do something I've wanted to do for a long time.

[Adam_W]

A couple weeks ago, I was down in Evensville, IN, and I got to tour an actual WWII Navy warship. LST 325 is a "Landing Ship, Tank", which was used to offload soldiers, tanks and other vehicles onto beaches during invasions. The ship is moored on the Ohio river and is fully operational. This particular ship was used in the Normandy invasion, and the invasion of Sicily (where my ancestors are from). She is one of only two LSTs remaining in the United States, and the only one that is still operational. I've been interested in ships for as long as I can remember, and I've always wanted to see one up close. Of course I have to add the 

Oh, the first picture is only the rear half of the ship. She is about as long as a football field.

[Adam_W]

More pics

[jbeany]

Very nice!

I've been on the USS Silversides, the Navy sub in Muskegon Michigan - very interesting to see what the submariners lived in, and even more fun watching the claustraphobics on tour scrambling to get back out!

[Willis]

If you ever get to the Carolina coast see the battleship USS North Carolina in Wilmington, NC. And in Charleston, SC there is the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and a WW2 submarine (not for the claustrophobic!). On the hanger deck of the Yorktown there is the US Medal of Honor Museum. All sights well worth seeing!

 

[Adam_W]

Oh, I'd love to see one of the preserved battleships! The LST is a little over 300 ft long. An Iowa class battleship is about three times that long, and tens of thousands of tons heavier. I did have a little bit of an issue on the LST, however. Navy warships certainly weren't designed for people who need to walk with a cane  . It must have been an interesting sight seeing me hobble up and down those steep stairs/ladders. But I did it, and I enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, if I can secure reliable transportation to and from Evensville regularly, I'm going to see about volunteering on the ship. The entire crew is made up of volunteers to give tours, do maintenance, and to actually sail the ship on tours along various rivers. They're out on a five week memorial tour right now in fact. It would be interesting though, if I volunteered as part of the "sailing" crew, because my dialysis machine would need to come along with me. Could be interesting doing a treatment on a nearly 70 year old Navy warship. I would do it, though.

[paris]

I live in NC and both the battleships mentioned are worth seeing.  The Yorktown has a personal connection with us.  My brother-in-law's (a retired Lt.Col)   father was on the Yorktown.  He was a young pilot who took the last flight off the deck while in the Pacific Ocean.  He was shot down by the Japanese and wasn't rescued.  The sad part is the war was declared over that day, but the men didn't know that yet.   He was the last pilot shot down in WWII  Howey Harrison has a picture and plaque on the Yorktown, is listed on a monument in Hawaii and has a VFW named for him.  He was a hero.    So it was nice to tour the battleship and see where he lived and have a connection with him. 

My husband is a huge WWII  junky and would tour anything, anywhere!    Another cool thing about the Yorktown is they have Boy Scout weekends where the boys sleep on the ship.  Wouldn't that be awesome?

[Willis]

I too had a connection to the Yorktown. My father is a ham radio operator and he spent thousands of hours during the Vietnam War relaying messages from servicemen back home to their families. That was just about the only way back then besides writing letters. (Letters? What are those?  )

Well, anyway, my Dad got to "know" one of the officers on the Yorktown via radio and one day we traveled to Oakland when they had come to their home port. We got an all-day private tour and visited the officer's mess and saw parts of the ship that even now are not open to the public. I was about 15 years old and the ship in Charleston harbor looks just the same as it did back then in the 60s.

 

[Adam_W]

Here are some pictures of the LST model that I got from the souvenir shop on the ship. Its not quite done yet, there will be a lot of miscellaneous details on deck, as well as various vehicles that were transported on the main deck. Sorry for the horrible quality. I no longer have a good still camera, so I recorded a video with my camcorder, then extracted the still photos from that. Speaking of video, I did a series of videos on board the ship that I will post on Youtube. They will be titled "My tour of LST 325"

[Rerun]

Very cool!  I find a real interest in WWII.  If you get a chance read Unbroken a fairly new book out.

[CebuShan]

It's kind of funny that you posted this. I have never been on an LST but I live out in the country right next to Seneca, IL where they built 157 LST's between 1942 & 1945. I have photos of the monument dedicated to the LST's (still haven't figured out how to post pics, though.)
My husband works where the old shipyards were. It is still referred to by the locals as the shipyards. Seneca has about 2000 people in it but at the shipyards peak, 11,000 people worked there. There are a number of people in town who remember what it was like. (They mostly say they were scared of so many people "invading" their town!)
The first LST was launched (with the traditional bottle of champagne) and went down the Illinois to the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. From there they went to Iwo Jima, Dutch New Guinea, southern Italy and the Normandy coast.
There was a ceremony when the monument was unveiled and I found out that one the gentlemen from our church had served aboard an LST. He was willing to talk about the ship but not his war experiences. Most of the veterans that I know are like that.
I'm glad you got to see one and get on board.

My experience with a ship was when a replica of the Nina (one of Columbus' ships) came to a nearby harbor. I was amazed at how small it was! No wonder they were so afraid of sailing off the end of the earth!   

[texasstyle]

Thanks for sharing those pictures, loved them. Back in about 1970 I was on the Mighty Mo and most recently the New Jersey just before they made into a museum. I could not believe the size of the marks left from the bullets all over the deck!  have also watched a couple of shows on cable about different war ships. they are quite impressive those ships.

[kitkatz]

I took a cruise for an afternoon on the Lane Victory out of Long Beach.