|
LST 912 Cold War Movements
Mediterranean cruise in company with USS Montague (AKA-98) Sept. 1948-Feb. 1949
Ports of call:
(Probably Morehead City, NC, to pick up Marines and equipment from Camp Lejeune)
Tangier, Morocco
Oran
Algiers
Bizerte
Malta
Tripoli (see note **)
Athens, Greece (port of Piraeus)
Marseille, France
(Probably Morehead City, NC, to return Marines and equipment to Camp Lejeune)
** En route to Piraeus, Greece, after leaving Tripoli, LST-912 and Montague encountered a gale with 40-foot waves, according to radioman Bill Reed.
Steel plating of 912’s main deck split down the middle, separated a full inch. On the tank deck, the chains turnbuckled to four M-24 Sherman tanks gave way due to
flexing of the ship’s hull. Two Marines were seriously hurt when caught between the skewing tanks. The tank deck cracked open in many places and took on two feet of
water. Water pumps couldn’t keep up. Sailors were injured, some seriously, by swinging watertight doors -- their dogs had vibrated loose. Others were injured, some
seriously, when thrown from bunks. Chains holding up tiers of bunks came loose, spilling entire tiers to the deck. 912 underwent repairs (much welding) during ten days
in Piraeus.
Labrador trip summer 1950 (North Korea invaded South Korea while 912 was on this voyage)
Ports of call:
(Probably Morehead City, NC, to pick up Marines and equipment from Camp Lejeune)
Goose Bay, Labrador
(Probably Morehead City, NC, to return Marines and equipment to Camp Lejeune)
Ship maintenance at Portsmouth, VA, Navy Yard summer 1951
Included radio teletype equipment installed in radio shack and other radio upgrades
LANTFLEX 52 Oct.-Nov. 1951
"First major Atlantic Fleet exercise since the Korean war outbreak," according to The Gator, newspaper of the Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet
Ports of call:
Morehead City, NC, to pick up Marines and equipment from Camp Lejeune
Mock assault of Onslow Beach, Camp Lejeune (following rehearsal at Vieques Island, Puerto Rico)
Potomac River trip to Quantico, VA, Feb. 1952
For training of Marine officer candidates
TRAEX April-June 1952
Ports of call:
Morehead City, NC, to pick up Marines and equipment from Camp LeJeune
Vieques Island, PR, April-May
Roosevelt Roads, PR, May
Charlotte Amelie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, May
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June
Martineque Island (this may have been where bow doors were damaged during a docking mishap)
Morehead City, NC, to return Marines and equipment to Camp Lejeune, late June
Operation BLUE JAY July-August 1952
Ports of call:
?? to pick up supplies to take to Thule, Greenland
Brushed iceberg in Baffin Bay, damaging starboard screw, which was taken out of service
Thule, to offload supplies and pick up Army Engineers who had helped build Thule Air Base
Boston, to off-load Army Engineers picked up at Thule
(Probably Portsmouth, VA, Navy Yard to repair starboard screw and bow doors)
Kennebec River trip to Bath, Maine, November 1952
Delivered plank crew to Bath Iron Works for commissioning of USS LST-1156
LANTPHIBEX March-April 1953
Ports of call:
(Probably Morehead City, NC, to pick up Marines and equipment from Camp Lejeune)
"Invade" Vieques Island, PR
Curacao, Netherlands West Indies
La Guaira, Venezuela (liberty in Caracas)
(Probably Morehead City, NC, to return Marines and equipment to Camp Lejeune)
|