- The USS LST-325 will be coming to Marietta on Thursday and will stay through Sunday. The ship served in World War II during D-Day and served during the Cold War. (Photo Provided)
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- A couple tours the USS LST 325 in Wheeling, W.Va., last week. The ship is headed for Marietta and will be at the Ohio River Levee and open for tours starting Thursday. (Photo by Derek Redd)
The USS LST-325 will be coming to Marietta on Thursday and will stay through Sunday. The ship served in World War II during D-Day and served during the Cold War. (Photo Provided)
MARIETTA — A ship that served in World War II during the D-Day operation is coming to Marietta Thursday.
LST Ship Memorial Inc. is bringing the USS Landing Ship Tank (LST) 325 to the Ohio River Levee in Marietta Thursday as part of its annual cruise, according to LST Ship Memorial Inc. Museum Operations Coordinator Cory Burdette .
The LST 325 came to Marietta on an LST Ship Memorial Inc. cruise about nine or 10 years ago, according to Burdette, and it will be returning Thursday and staying through Sunday.
The organization holds tours every year that include three or four stops and that have traveled up the Ohio and Mississippi rivers before, Burdette said. This year’s tour started Aug. 30 in Pittsburgh and is traveling to Wheeling and Marietta The ship will return to its Evansville, Ind., home on Sept. 18, he said.
Tours of the ship will be given from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Attendees will be able to take self-guided tours of the ship and see displays on the history of the ship. Volunteers will be available on the ship to answer questions and help guide people to different areas of the ship, according to Burdette.
A couple tours the USS LST 325 in Wheeling, W.Va., last week. The ship is headed for Marietta and will be at the Ohio River Levee and open for tours starting Thursday. (Photo by Derek Redd)
The LST 325 is 320 feet long, 50 feet wide and 65 feet tall from its bottom to the top of its communication tower, he said.
“The U.S. made 1,051 LSTs in World War II … LSTs were nicknamed the workhorses of the navy because of the variety of things they could carry,” Burdette said.
He said they carried tanks, trucks, amphibious trucks and sometimes even train cars and airplanes.
Burdette called LSTs “the unsung heroes of World War II.”
LSTs have a flat bottom that allows them to go directly on shore and have bow doors and ramps that allow vehicles to be driven off them, according to Burdette.
The LST 325 “was built in 1942 in Philadelphia,” Burdette said, and it “played a big role in D-Day.”
He said it made 40 trips over the English Channel carrying the wounded to England and carrying supplies and it also played a role in the invasions of Salerno, Italy, and Sicily.
The ship was decommissioned in 1946 and then recommissioned for the Distant Early Warning Line project for the Cold War, which was an early warning radar detection system, according to Burdette.
He said the ship was decommissioned in 1961 and then the Greek Navy entered into a contract with the U.S. to use the ship because it needed vessels. He said the ship served in the Greek navy from 1964 to 1999.
After the contract expired a group called the LST Association brought the LST 325 back to the U.S. via a two month journey covering approximately 6,000 miles, Burdette said.
LST Ship Memorial Inc.’s priority is to share history with people and they acquired the LST 325 in 2005 to be a museum, according to him.
“We do two things, we help share (information) for future generations and we help people reconnect with the past,” Burdette said.
The LST 325 is the “last fully functional” World War II configuration ship that is active in the United States, he said, and that means no features have been changed on the ship nor have any modern features been added.
There are a handful of LSTs operating overseas but the LST 325 is the only operating in the United States, he said.
Burdette believes the LST 325 and its tours help give people who had relatives serve on LSTs or manufacture them a chance to “walk the decks of history, it’s like walking a mile in their (relative’s) footsteps,” he said.
The LST 325 is special, according to Burdette.
“The fact that it’s living, it’s pretty much breathing … that’s special,” he said.
Events like the ship tour coming to Marietta have an economic impact and draw many people to the city of Marietta, according to Marietta-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Deana Clark.
“Well we’re expecting several thousand people to come to Marietta” over the four days the ship is in town, Clark said.
She said when visitors come to Marietta they eat in restaurants, stay in hotels, and visit other attractions in town.
“It’s a great thing for our city,” she said of the LST 325 coming to town.
She said visiting the ship is a great way to honor veterans and it is a great thing for students because it offers an opportunity for hands-on learning.
The CVB will be hosting an opening ceremony for the LST 325 at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to Clark. It will include a color guard presentation and three-round volley to honor the veterans that lost their lives aboard the ship, a CVB Facebook post said.
Mayor Joshua Schlicher will offer a welcome and the captain of the LST 325 will give a special address about the history of the ship, according to the post.
