The Next Big Trip

About a week ago, I received an email from the chief engineer on the LST 325, the last remaining WWII vintage ship of its type still outfitted as she was on June 6, 1944. He needed engineering crew for the trip along the Ohio River from Wheeling, West Virginia to Evansville, Indiana. I almost jumped out of my skin.

As many of you know from reading my past blogs (what do you mean you haven't read my past blogs), that my father served on the 325's sister ship, the LST 374 from the time they left American waters in 1942, until weeks after D-Day. Many was the time both ships were docked next to one another, and being a signalman, I'm sure my father knew the sailors on the 325. He may have even walked her decks. Although he never spoke of his time in the Navy, when he died my brother and I found 63 photographs of his shipmates in an old briefcase hidden in a trunk on his back deck. Of the few treasurers he saved in his life, it's clear that these photographs were precious. These men were precious. So, I wrote a book to honor him and his shipmates and donated the proceeds from the sale to the LST 325 Museum in Evansville. You can find the book here: Heroes All. If you prefer an audiobook, you can find it here (and if you're an Audible subscriber, it's free).

Back to the next big trip...I leave tomorrow morning to join the crew in Wheeling and for the next 10 days will work where engineering chief Jerry Wirth tells me to work, eat what the mess crew cooks, and sleep where the deck chief tells me to sleep. I'm taking a water bottle with a Brita filter, 1.2 lb backpacking sleeping bag, a flashlight, two pair of jeans, work gloves, lightweight joggers and a hoodie to sleep in, and a ball cap because I have super curly hair. My two eldest were both in the Navy and so I asked both for words of wisdom. My son cautioned me against hugging the generator as it would probably fry my pacemaker; my daughter suggested I check the coffee for a "sheen" as oil finds itself everywhere on a ship, hence the Brita...although I remind myself that as a child of the 50s/60s, I drank from a garden hose and made my share of mud pies. I probably don't need the Brita.

It's a big steel ship and so reception won't be great, but I'm going to try and post something at the close of every day. Cya tomorrow.