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The vessel is to become a traveling museum.
By JORGE SANCHEZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 22, 2001
INVERNESS -- It took six months of hard work in a foreign land to fix up a rust-bucket WWII amphibious landing ship for a tough trip across the Atlantic, but John Calvin wasn't about to pass up the opportunity.
Calvin and other retired sailors traveled to Greece in August to begin the lengthy process of renovating a D-day warship known as an LST (landing ship/tank). After using parts from two landing craft to make one seaworthy ship, the crew left Greece on Dec. 12 and arrived Jan. 10 in Mobile, Ala., to a tumultuous welcome. A crowd of about 7,000 people greeted the ship as it pulled into Mobile.
Calvin was honored Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Karen Thurman, who presented him with an American flag that flew over the nation's Capitol and a plaque of appreciation. Thurman's father was a tailgunner aboard a bomber during WWII.
"Your story just touched everybody," Thurman told Calvin.
The journey took its toll on Calvin, a 74-year-old retired Navy man who lives in Citrus Springs with his wife, June. A few days before the end of the voyage, he came down with laryngitis.
During the six months away from home, he lost 21 pounds. His clothes still don't fit right.
"It was rough," he said. "The cook that was supposed to be with us didn't come and his replacement was only a baker, and he had no real experience as a chef and the food was pretty lousy. But in another way, it was good. A lot of guys lost their stomachs and we worked out muscles we hadn't used in ages."
Renovating the ship and bringing it back to the United States is just part of a more ambitious program. Calvin said plans are to make the ship, one of about 1,000 LSTs built in the war, into an traveling museum. The effort will cost another $2-million.
"We're going to sail it up the Mississippi River, then up the Atlantic coastline and then up the Pacific coastline, making stops along the way," Calvin said. "We want every living soldier who was ever aboard one of them to be able to take their family on it and let them see what it was all about."
Various museums will lend tanks, trucks and other items to equip the LST with a full load, Calvin said.
The LST was the workhorse of the amphibious invasion force. Nearly 100 yards long, it was capable of carrying tanks below deck, 2.5-ton trucks known as "deuce and a halves" topside and about 600 fully equipped combat troops. The big ship was nimble, however, drawing only 6 feet of water in the front and 9 in the back. A large hatch at the front dropped open to allow rapid deployment of the cargo.
"The destroyers and the aircraft carriers get all the notice, but without these, the invasion would have never succeeded," Calvin said.
Calvin served as part of the D-day invasion force aboard the same LST-325 which he helped bring back from Greece. A career Navy man who enlisted in 1943, he also served in amphibious action during the Korean War before retiring as a chief motor machinist's mate. The fighting sailor earned eight battle stars, a Purple Heart and a presidential unit citation.
The LST-325 was acquired by the Greek Navy after World War II and was decommissioned in 1995. Congress authorized the transfer of the ship to the United States in 1999. A U.S. crew arrived in Greece in August to begin the task of getting the ship seaworthy. Some parts of the LST were so rusty that replacements from another LST were used. But the ship held its own against the Atlantic for the return trip.
Calvin is proud to have brought his old warship back home to serve out its final tour of duty as an educational piece.
"I had a lot of doubts. I never thought our dream would come true, but it sure did," he said.