WWII landing craft will dock here in September

Some LSTs built at Neville Island
Monday, July 05, 2010
By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


A ship that delivered supplies to Normandy for the D-Day invasion will arrive in Pittsburgh in September and take on a different kind of cargo -- tourists.

LST 325 -- one of the Landing Ship, Tanks designed to float right onto enemy beaches and unload materiel through a pair of giant doors -- will dock near Heinz Field and be open for tours Sept. 2-6. Sept. 6 is Labor Day.

The ship still looks much as it did on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Even the anti-aircraft guns are intact, Bob Jornlin, the captain, said.

Mr. Jornlin, a Navy veteran who served on LSTs during the 1960s, was part of a nonprofit group that obtained the ship from Greece a decade ago and sailed it 6,500 miles to Mobile, Ala., a voyage that attracted international publicity.

"A lot of people said we couldn't do it," he said.

After extensive restoration, LST 325 is a "ship museum" in Evansville, Ind. Mr. Jornlin and a crew of about 40 -- including farmers, firefighters and veterans -- take the ship out twice a year.

This is the ship's first visit to Pittsburgh, a city with deep connections to LSTs.


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