LST-325 Added to Historic Register

[Quarks]

LST-325, currently "home-ported" in Evansville, IN, has been added to the National Historic Register.

http://www.indystar.com/article/2009...toric+register

Information

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[Quarks]

Here are some links:

USS LST-325 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(yeah, I know it's Wiki, but still . . .)

The USS LST Ship Memorial (USS LST 325)

http://www.lstmemorial.org/history/default.htm

[Dave]

I worked with a guy who was salilor on an LST. 325 was sailed back from Greece by a vollenteer group of original WW11 crewman of LST's. He boarded at New Orleans and came up the Miss. river on 325. LST's were given away by the US after the war, to various countries. This one was as close to original as they (LST Vets group) could find. They had a deal for one in China but it fell thru. Imagine all those old farts bringing it back across the Atlantic!

[Quarks]

I worked with a guy who was salilor on an LST. 325 was sailed back from Greece by a vollenteer group of original WW11 crewman of LST's. He boarded at New Orleans and came up the Miss. river on 325. LST's were given away by the US after the war, to various countries. This one was as close to original as they (LST Vets group) could find. They had a deal for one in China but it fell thru. Imagine all those old farts bringing it back across the Atlantic!

The Coast Guard was very, very displeased with them for doing that.

[Dave]

Well, I don't think the coast guard has world wide authority and by the time they got back here "the deed was done"! I do remember reading that, tho.

A funny story about the building of these ships. They were built at several places, one was in Ill., a small town along what is now Rt. 80, west of Joliet, on the Ill. River. Chicago Bridge and Iron had the contract. (They build oil storage tanks for refineries, among other things). They put the ways (proper word?) at 90degree angle to river, two sets so they could work on 2 ships at once. So the ships were constructed parrallel with the river. Now the day came when they annouced the first one completed would be launched, in all the local papers. On the day hundreds of locals gathered on the river shore opposite the ship yard.
The ship came down the ways, side ways, and created a wave you could have surfed on. The people back stepping on the other side but not fast enough. Many were swept off their feet and all got muddy but no injuries. Needless to say, if any launch was watched again, it was from a more distant location!

[John Kepler]

If it's got a US flag hanging on it, is being driven by a Skipper with a US-issued license, or has a manifested cargo destined for a US port and/or owned by a US entity....then the US Coast Guard has jurisdiction ANYWHERE in the friggin' world!

The Cap of the LST knew he was risking his Ticket, but didn't really give a damn. What the Coasties had their panties most in a wad over was the age and lack of current sea experience in the crew, and that they were, IIRC, attempting to sail without a licensed Chief Engineer. The general fitness of a US-licensed crew is also the Coast Guard's responsibility.

Keep in mind....regardless of what you see on "Deadliest Catch", the Coasties are basically highly bureaucratized cops, not soldiers or sailors, and just LOVE sticking their noses into other peoples' business looking for revenue-generating "rule-breaking" that they can then write-up to justify their phony-baloney jobs...whether it makes a lick of sense or not!

[Youngblood]

LST-325, currently "home-ported" in Evansville, IN, has been added to the National Historic Register.

Excellent news, thanks for that.

I had an uncle who served on LST-625.

[John Kepler]

Excellent news, thanks for that.

I had an uncle who served on LST-625.

And my Grandpa built/bought his boat! LST-625 was built at CB&I's Seneca, IL shipyard, and my Grandpa was the US Navy BuShips Acceptance Inspector there!

[jon_norstog]

If it's got a US flag hanging on it, is being driven by a Skipper with a US-issued license, or has a manifested cargo destined for a US port and/or owned by a US entity....then the US Coast Guard has jurisdiction ANYWHERE in the friggin' world!

The Cap of the LST knew he was risking his Ticket, but didn't really give a damn. What the Coasties had their panties most in a wad over was the age and lack of current sea experience in the crew, and that they were, IIRC, attempting to sail without a licensed Chief Engineer. The general fitness of a US-licensed crew is also the Coast Guard's responsibility.

Keep in mind....regardless of what you see on "Deadliest Catch", the Coasties are basically highly bureaucratized cops, not soldiers or sailors, and just LOVE sticking their noses into other peoples' business looking for revenue-generating "rule-breaking" that they can then write-up to justify their phony-baloney jobs...whether it makes a lick of sense or not!

Well, John,

There's more than one CG - it was put together from the lighthouse service, revenue marine and the lifesaving service, over the years. I served in two of the Coast Guards - I was a blue water sailor on 3 different high endurance cutters, and spent about ten months at Bodega Bay lifeboat station. The cuttermen are **sailors**, that's all you can say. I did some things I'm pretty proud of during my enlistment.

there's been a lot of "mission creep" over the last 30 years, what with the war on drugs, immigration cases, etc. and the lifesaving and support to navigation missions have sort of moved to the back burner. Also, I think a lot of obnoxious habits may be rubbing off from other federal agencies, now that CG is part of Homeland "Security."

I was proud, though, during Katrina. The only federal agency that responded in real time to the emergency was CG. Everyone else, FEMA, the states, whoever, was waiting for someone to tell them what to do. The east coast District Commanders and Officers of the Watch started moving planes and crews down as soon as things started looking serious.

When you get the call you have to go out. They used to say "You gotta go out. You don't have to come back, but you gotta go out."


jn

[John Kepler]

Well, John,

There's more than one CG -

When you get the call you have to go out. They used to say "You gotta go out. You don't have to come back, but you gotta go out."


jn

We're all prisoners of our own experience, and it's obvious that CG does great, dangerous work....everywhere but on the Great Lakes!

Q: How many CG assets responded to the "Mayday" call from the SS Arthur M. Anderson concerning the "disappearance" of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10, 1975?

A: None. All the CG did was make radio calls to other commercial vessels having their own problems with the storm to respond and give aid. They did, the CG didn't!

Q: When did the FIRST USCG personnel arrive at the scene of the sinking?

A: 12 hours AFTER the vessel sank...an over-flight by a C-130! The first CG VESSEL didn't arrive until 25 hours AFTER the sinking, claiming that the lake was "too rough" to get there any sooner! The far less capable and equipped Canadian Coast Guard beat the USCG to the scene by 13 hours from the same starting point (Sault Ste. Marie). Stout fellows those Canucks! Nothing rotary for another day....seems their only helos were in the body and fender shop for "routine maintenance" in November, historically the most treacherous month on the Lakes, and when they were most likely to be needed! The longest you can expect to find live crew in survival suits and covered inflatable life-rafts in November on Lake Superior is 12 hours...by the time the Coasties got there, all they were going to find were corpsickles.

Q: What was the distance from the nearest CG Station to the wreck site?

A: 45 miles (USCGS Sault Ste. Marie), and it took'um over a day to make the trip!

Little known factoid: Of the available aids to navigation maintained by the USCG on the night of the sinking (ancient WW II-era RDF), NONE were functional! The only functioning RDF station on Western Lake Superior that night was ONE on the Canadian side of the lake...it requires a minimum of 2 to be of any use...to my personal knowledge, the USCG RDF station on Whitefish Point hadn't worked for at least 2 years prior to the sinking of the Fitz. Tough to avoid shoal-water with no radar and no functioning aids to navigation.

FWIW. The USCG had LORAN chains all over the flippin' world in 1975 (Guam, Wake, Marcus Island, the entire Aleutian Chain), and had had both coasts and the Gulf covered by the mid-1960's. The USCG didn't install ANY LORAN on the Great Lakes until 1976, when after the Fitzgerald disaster and the subsequent Coast Guard whitewash of the foundering, the Lake Carriers Association threatened to install a private LORAN chain and sue the CG in Federal Court for nonfeasance and dereliction of responsibility for failing to provide adequate aids to commercial navigation per their mandate!

Sorry to offend and I apologize for that...but even after 34 years....it still rankles. I lost friends on the Fitz.