LST crew completes voyage up Mississippi, Ohio rivers

[thedrifter]

August 21, 2003

LST crew completes voyage up Mississippi, Ohio rivers

Associated Press


MOBILE, Ala. ? A crew of Navy veterans who sailed the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in a World War II vessel have completed their 78-day journey, and along the way raised more than $500,000 to help preserve the warship.
The crew of 28 veterans returned to the vessel?s home port of Mobile Tuesday after the 3,150-mile fund-raising voyage. The money will go toward repairing and maintaining the ship, an LST-325, which is being restored to travel from port to port as a floating museum.

Captain Robert D. Jornlin, 64, of Earlville, Ill., said the experience was ?priceless.?

More than 70 people served as crew members at different times during the trip and gathered donations and sold souvenirs in the effort to preserve the vessel, which delivered troops to Normandy during the D-Day invasion.

?Veterans who served on LSTs and the widows of veterans who served on LSTs would come on the ship and shake your hand and thank you for bringing it to their city, ? Jornlin said.

The river journey began in Chickasaw, Ala., in early June and the crew visited towns including Vicksburg, Miss., Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis and New Orleans.

But the biggest crowds showed up in the Indiana towns of Evansville and Jeffersonville, where thousands of LSTs were built during World War II.

LSTs were designed to land on beaches and disgorge troops, vehicles and other equipment directly on shore.






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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.




The tug boat Mobile Power tows the World War II vessel LST-325 up the Mobile River, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003, with downtown Mobile, Ala., in the background. The ship, with its crew of World War II veterans, returned to Mobile, capping a successful 78-day voyage which raised $500,000 for its future as a museum vessel. ? Mike Kittrell / Mobile (Ala.) Register / AP

Sempers,

Roger