LST 325

Today Beth and I toured a small piece of history.

In the past week, the USS LST 325 made a stop in Peoria for people to visit. This was the ship that in November of 2000, was sailed back from Greece over the Atlantic Ocean with a skeleton crew of WWII veterans. Their average age was 72. Thirteen days out of port and in the Mediterranean Sea, the LST 325 had to stop in Gibraltar for major repairs. By December 2000, the crew dwindled to 29. It arrived in Mobile, AL on January 10, 2001 after a 6,200 mile voyage.

The ship was only to be on display for 1 week, however with the recent rains, the Illinois River is now too high for it to clear the Murry Baker Bridge. It was scheduled for a stop in Henry, but I doubt it could make it under the bridge at Lacon. So it's here for an extended stay in Peoria.

LST stands for Landing Ship Tank and it is used for the transportation of troops, tanks and supplies right up onto enemy shorelines. This particular vessle was used on June 6, 1944 in Normandie on D-Day. In May of 1945, it headed back to the US to be modified with different equipment to launch and retreive observation aircraft. The LST 325 went on a shakedown cruise in August 1945 and was to later set sail for the Pacific for the war against Japan. However, the day before she was to head to the Pacific, Japan surrendered and the war had ended.

The LST 325 saw light duty after the war until the early 60's when she was transferred to Greece and then served in the Greek Navy until 1999.

The ship is still operated by volunteers who are veterans from all branches of the military... and many who appear to have served in WWII, Korea or Vietnam. They continue to make us proud to be Americans!

So you learn something new everyday.