From the October 2014 Naval History Magazine "A Strange Building's Important Purpose" by Henry J. Rausch Jr, USN (retired).
He was visiting his son in the Army stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, a few years ago and saw that Fort Knox was just a few hours away, so visited.
While there he saw a sign that said "LST Building." He was a former LSD crewman and knew that LST was a U.S. Navy ship classified as Landing Ship Tank, LST. What would a ship be doing at a landlocked Army base?
This "LST Building" was not a real ship, but a full-scale model of a Navy LST which the Army built to train truck and tank drivers how to back into a real LST. This way they would be facing out, the correct direction for beach landing offloading.
After All, You Don't Want to Back Into a Battle. --GreGen
My Cooter's History Blog has become about 80% World War II anyway, so I figured to start a blog specific to it, especially since we're commemorating its 70th anniversary and we are quickly losing this "Greatest Generation." The quote is taken from Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Curre, who was on the USS Tennessee that day. He died Dec. 7, 2011, seventy years to the day. His photo is below at right.
Friday, August 5, 2016
What's With "The LST Building" at Fort Knox?
Labels:
Army,
Fort Campbell,
Fort Knox,
Kentucky,
LSTs,
tanks,
training camps,
trucks
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