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Archive Credit Information
Articles reprinted with permission from the book volume:
"Large Slow Target"
A History of the Landing Ship Tanks (LST) and The Men Who Sailed Them
by:
Mel Barger
With Contributions from
Veterans of LSTs
ARTICLES
 
ARCHIVE
The U.S. LST has a rich history. Learn more about the
background and history of these ships on this page.
The United States LST Association
Forming It Was The Right Idea At The Time
By Mel Barger, LST-555
Although much of the more difficult organizing work was done by others, I love to tell people that the United States LST Association was established in January 1985 in the living room of my home in Toledo.
It had really started the previous year when G. Wayne Hessemer, a retired Naval Reserve commander, organized an informal meeting of former LST sailors living in the Toledo area. He was skipper of LST-573, which had earned three battle stars for World War II Pacific landings, and he had gone on to command another landing ship in the Korean War. Others attending the first meeting were Don Kinney (LST-69), Bob Busch (LST-851), and Johnny Jarzeboski (LST-681)... Charlie Patton, his friend Cindy, & later Linda Gunjak became corresponding secretary...
The Genius Behind The LST
John C. Niedermair Was A Giant in the Field Of Naval Architecture
By Mel Barger, LST-555
When John C. Niedermair was chosen for a high national honor in 1956, it was noted that more than 8,000 ships had been built from designs originated under his guidance—a record that is never likely to be equaled. As Technical Director of Preliminary Ship Design at the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Ships, Niedermair had been responsible for the basic designs of battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, patrol and mine craft, and numerous auxiliaries. Yet, the great love of his life was the LST. “Worthy of particular mention is the part he played in the design of the LST,” a press notice said at the time of the award, terming the ship “in large measure the product of Mr. Niedermair’s originality and fine engineering judgment.” Although the LST...
The Second Pearl Harbor Disaster
LST Veterans Still Remember the West Loch Tragedy
By Mel Barger, LST-555

On 21 May 1989, fifteen former crew members of LST-69, along with their wives and guests, boarded a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in Honolulu for a day-long trip to West Loch, Pearl Harbor. It was a sunny day and a festive excursion, with children of the cutter’s crew joining a pleasant cruise that would include a buffet luncheon served on deck. But it was also a somber occasion, because the LST veterans were returning to the scene of a tragedy of forty-five years earlier, to the very day. Sometimes called the “second Pearl Harbor disaster,” this was the 21 May 1944 West Loch tragedy...

Leyte: MacArthur's Return
LST Veterans Still Remember the West Loch Tragedy
By Mel Barger, LST-555

When Japanese forces were closing in on key defensive positions in the Philippines in March 1942, General Douglas MacArthur was ordered out by President Roosevelt. His great promise to the Philippines, “I shall return,” was fulfilled two and one/half years later when soldiers of the U.S. Sixth Army came ashore at LeyteMacArthur, with his wife and young son, had left Corregidor in a PT boat. PT boats were with General MacArthur when he returned, but also in the background as he waded ashore were the blunt bows of LSTs, ships that had not yet been built when he left the Philippines in early 1942. More than 26 LSTs were at Leyte on D-Day, 20 October 1944, and within a few days they were joined by nearly 100 others. It was now an accepted...

   
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