LST-325 Visiting Pittsburgh-- Part 3

This is LST-325's first visit to Pittsburgh where many LSTs were made.  On its way up the Ohio River, it will pass Neville Island and Ambridge.  During the war, Dravo Corporation built 146 LSTs at the island and the American Bridge Corporation at Ambridge built another 119.  The ship's home base, at Evansville, Indiana, produced another 167; the reason the museum wnd base were placed there.

A town on the Illinois River, I think Seneca, also produced a lot of LSTs and has an LST celebration every year, but I can't think of the name of it right now.

The LST-325 was built, however, in Philadelphia.  Mr. Barish went there while it was still being painted and welded.  He said his life aboard the ship was pretty good, especially since his quarters were "second-best to the captain's."  He was in charge of 32 men in the "black gang" who kept the diesel engines going.

First military operation for the ship was to practice beach landings in North Africa and then they supported the invasion of Sicily where they delivered supplies and evacuated Italian prisoners of war.  They came under fire for the first time at Tunisia where four men were wounded during a Sept. 6, 1943 air raid.  A little more than a week later, four more crew memebers and four British soldiers were wounded in another air raid off Salerno, Italy.

Seeing the Elephant.  --GreGen