Camp LeJuene North Carolina
LSM 45 Visit On February 1st and 2nd a group of LST 325 crew drove to Camp LeJuene North Carolina to visit the last remaining LSM, the LSM 45, to harvest as many parts as possible to help maintain the LST 325. The LSM 45 was also brought back from Greece with great intentions but has not had the luck that the 325 has. It was displayed in Omaha, Nebraska but fell into disrepair and then was acquired by the Museum of the Marine in Jacksonville, NC. Their plans changed and they were looking for someone to take it over and preserve it. They never found a viable new home. It has been sitting at a dock in Camp LeJuene for the last few years deteriorating. They now have someone who has agreed to take it and turn it into a barge. Ken Frank made arrangements with the Museum and Sgt Major Houle the keeper of the ship to give us access one last time to harvest whatever parts we wanted. A hearty group of crew including Kenny and Anna Adams, , Perry Ballinger, Ad Mumford, Tom Price, Chip Lanham, Ken Frank, Tom Diener, Dick Lucas and Allison Broomhall spent two dirty days aboard removing what we could and what we needed. We got a crews mess table and bench, lockers, gun racks, hydraulic pumps, engine room gauges, fuse panels, switches and switch panels, two great spotlights and various other items including a trough used in the crews head as a toilet and some radio insulators and wire. A few pictures show the crew and Sgt Major Houle (Missing Anna and Tom Diener) just before we started work and a few photos of the condition of the ship. Most of the work was performed in compartments that were cold, damp, and pitch black, and in some cases had a few inches of water on the deck. |
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