LST 920
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons, Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Combat Action - Second Row - Japanese Occupation, China Liberation, WW II Victory - Bottom Row - Pacific Theatre - 1 Star, European Theatre, American Theatre
July 4, 2009: This Independence Day I would like to reminisce on the spirit of patriotism and how it has changed over the years. I first felt its stirrings as a boy during the depression sitting around the radio listening to President Roosevelt's fireside chats, my family had lost all its savings in the bank failures, (no FDIC in those days), my father was one of the 25 percent unemployed. These weekly addresses by the President inspired us not to lose faith in our government even with all its failures. At my young age I could feel the charisma emanating from this aristocratic man of destiny, who would lead us out of hard times, and later guide us to victory in WWII.
After enlisting in the navy, I again felt the call of the flag, it was not the same as the high school auditorium meetings with the drum and bugle corps carrying the colors and the cheerleaders strutting their stuff. The naval ceremonies raising the flag at sunrise and taking it down at dusk, with much pomp and circumstance, gradually infused me and my fellow recruits with almost other-worldly physical effects. Standing at attention, giving a hand salute, with hundreds of other seamen, raised the hairs on my arms and ran a shiver of pride down my spine. Almost a star-spangled orgasm!
Fast-forward two and a half years, the war is over, I am stateside at the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, outside Okland California. Evenings on the Quad, as the bugler plays, and the flag is lowered, we mostly stand at attention and salute, the mostly is because some are in wheel chairs, others on crutches or wearing artifical limbs. I still get that shiver, feel that pride, I sense the others around me do too.
My fellow patients are mostly young marines, wounded in the fierce island campaigns in the Pacific. Oak knoll received the ill and wounded naval personnel from the Pacific on a temporary basis, just long enough for any emergency treatment needed, and then shipped them to a naval hospital nearest their home. Some of these men required a lot of "emergency treatment", head wounds took the longest, with all the skin grafts necessary to have them not appear ghoulish. The state of plastic surgery was still primitive in the 40's. Those with limb amputations, took some time to acclimate to their artificial replacements.
In those days, stateside travel by service men was almost exclusively by bus or train. At Oak Knoll, when ever there were enough patients ready to transfer to a home hospital a train was chartered for a coast-to-coast trip, California to New York, dropping patients off at points along the route. The men were excited and at the same time apprehensive about the trip, they spend the final days at Oak Knoll polishing their brass, shinning shoes, spiffing up their uniforms. I was scheduled for the full trip, California to New York by the train, then by bus to St. Albans Naval Hospital, a short distance from my home. 6 or 7 miserable days.
The train was hot, dirty and slow, no air conditioning of course, we did not have staterooms, but cars with bunks 3 high along each side, there was a dining car, food was lousy. These trains were known as (cattle cars) the ride was very rough, up, down and sideways motion all at once, no shock absorbers. As we traveled Cross-country, I couldn't help contrast this trip with 2 other train trips I had taken at the beginning of the war. At almost every station we were met by civilians, mostly women passing out coffee, cakes, soft-drinks, religious items, (pocket bibles, prayer books, St. Christopher medals) candy, and shaving supplies. There was none of that on this trip, we would pull into a mostly deserted station, a few marines would get off with their gear, be met by a bus or ambulance driver, look back and wave forlornly at us waving at them.
Our train proceed in this fashion from station to station, state to state, dropping off men along the way at all hours of day and night. I wonder how may trains have made this trip before us? More American service men lost their lives in WWII than in any subsequent wars. The number of wounded is harder to estimate, a wounded man in WWII was much more likely to die of his wounds than one in Iraq where evacuation by helicopter to field service hospitals were fast and meant the difference between life and death.
America was moving on. So were most of us, it was the right thing to do, but I feared for some of my train-mates. Would they be left behind? They had beaten the odds, survived grievous wounds with little medical care in the field, and many days passed before reaching a hospital.
A few months later I received an honorable discharge, and entered the rat race. I always remember that last train ride and those proud young men, raised during the great depression, inspired by a great president (F.D.R.) giving freely of their flesh and blood to protect America and build a better world for all men. That was the dream, the reality was something else. I am sickened when I think of how they have been betrayed by the phony patriots, with their label flag pins and cars with yellow ribbon decals. Bush told us to avenge 9/11 we should go shopping! Are they hanging shopping bags on their SUV's in Texas? That from the guy who couldn't find the right country to invade.The other draft dodger, with his numerous deferments, snipes at Obama as he fights to get us out of the mess these knaves created.
No more star-spangled orgasms for me!
booboisie;
"Narrow minded, truth censoring, mean spirited, ungenerous, envious, intolerant, bullying, trivally moral, falsely patriotic, family cheapening, flag cheapening, God cheapening, shallow, small, sanctimonious."
Henry Fairlie
Describing the delegates to the 1980 Republican convention.
June 26, 2009: Following the snot-nose incident, most respondents are against passing control of the LST 920 web site on to the next generation, and favor keeping the site in the hands of it's creator and current web master.
Applications for web master no longer accepted.
June 16, 2009: You can click on the above photo to get an enlarged image. See if you can find any buggers. I'm still so P.O. that a former member of 920 honor role would make such a crude comment. I have removed his name from the honor role and from these pages, but I will need to rant on for a while to get my BP down.
This photo is one of over a hundred owned by Shipfitter Ray Willis and donated to the web site by his step-son John Ross, when I look at their faces in the enlarged view, I think if they were fish, I would have to throw them back in, too young for keepers. That wasn't the opinion of the US Navy during WWII, with hundreds of new ships coming down the ways of shipyards throughout the nation, the need for men (or boys) to man them was critical. The navy was mostly a volunteer service at that time, and most of the volunteers looked like the innocents in this photo. In a month or so they would be sent to staging points like Camp Bradford, where they would be assigned to ship crews.
This boot camp, Great Lakes NTS, was the largest in the country. My boyhood friend, Bullet Kurgin, enlisted at 17 and was a boot at Great Lakes after which he was assigned as a fireman aboard a Destroyer. On 18 December 1944, his ship and 2 other Destroyers went down with all hands during a typhoon off the Philippines. It seems like a cruel death, below decks in the engine room, with the relentless sea searching you out, with boilers exploding while you and your mates fight to hold back the tide. We must have lost more than 500 snot-noses that black day. Not to worry, they kept coming, filling those hammocks in Great Lakes.
June 10, 2009: Web masters reply:
The majority of enlisted men on 920 were teenagers, my self included, of my 4 man gun crew we were all teenagers and I am proud to have served with them. After Pearl Harbor, it was common practice in my high school, for boys to enlist in the service upon reaching the minimum age requirement of 17. This degree of patriotism was evident across the nation. Never, in any of the following wars has such a huge number of young men volunteered in the defence of the nation. Read more below about the disgraceful comments made by this creep.
June 10, 2009: web master's swan song:
I had thought Obama's victory would have instilled me with new energy, instead I become more depressed as conditions remain the same or worse. How simple it was during our time in WWII. In two and a half years rally the nation, get all involved, and basically save the world. Now we are continually at war around the world, our troops stationed seemingly forever in Germany, Japan, Korea, Okinawa,Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., locked in positions we can never win. Billions of dollars needed at home in this recession going down the rat-hole.
Our generation seemed irresistible, defeat the Germans, Italians, and Japanese, in record time, return home, thousands of our number going to college on the GI bill, entering the workforce, building the nation to world prominence. Somewhere along the way we dropped the ball, allowing the lobbyists to make a mockery of "representative democracy". We raised our kids to become the narcissistic "Me generation", while the fanatics have raised theirs to be human bombs!
The LST 920 web site seems of little importance to me in our present environment, so I've searched for a more suitable successor, had to rule out the few remaining crew members, as being too ravaged by time and circumstance to be capable of the job. That just leaves family of crew members to choose from. I have only 1 major requirement for my successor and that is this must never become a VANITY web site but remain a true representation of LST 920 and it's crew. Alas, when I remember being sand-bagged by tales of non-existent silver stars, hair-raising midnight forays across the ocean with superman at the helm, my choices are quite limited.
My latest selection has been a dismal failure. He didn't meet any of the requirements, when I notified him of this, he made a vile reply which was an insult to all LST 920 enlisted men, as web master I am duty bound not to let this insult go unnoticed. Here is a partial quote:
"That photograph you sent of those kids bunked out in boot camp kind of tells it all. I am quite sure that it was not his ( Captain Schultz) first choice to go war with a bunch of snot nosed kids like you"
The photo he talks of is one of many I sent him at his request. I'm sure you are all familiar with it, the young men in their hammocks at boot camp, Great Lakes.
I apologize for thinking of making this man web master of 920. The Job is still open, here are the requirements:
The LST 920: was one of over a thousand LSTs build at shipyards throughout the nation during World War II. LST 920 was built at Bethlehem-Hingham yard. Top Speed was about 10-12 miles mph, so it seems amazing that 85, including the LST 920, served in both the European and Pacific Theaters of war. These ships usually had a crew of 110 enlisted men and 10 officers. During 920's active service, June 1944 to July 1946, over 200 served aboard. A small group of about 30 hardy souls took the long cruise from commissioning at Hingham, Mass. to decommissioning in San Francisco.
The officers: were all 90-day wonders none had ever been to sea before.
The Captain: was the oldest man aboard, a career regular navy man, he was a chief Quartermaster with about 16 years service when the war started. He was given a war-time commission as Lt. and command of LST 920. Captain Schultz commanded the 920 throughout the war, in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war. He molded a motley crew of civilians into first class seamen. All who served on 920 are indebted to this man for his seamanship and leadership that saw the 920 safely through 2 perilous war-years. He retired with 20 years service in April 1957, his final rank was Lieutenant Commander.
The enlisted men: were mostly very young enlistees or draftees, just out of boot camp or service school. Only 3 regular navy enlisted men with prior sea-duty were aboard.
The crew list: you see on the rignt-side navigation bar is a compilation of all muster sheets, June, 1944 through July, 1946. It contains the original crew aboard LST 920 and those who transferred on and off during her period of service. Ranks shown are relative to the period of service while on board LST 920 and may not be the actual rank obtained before departing the United States Navy.
All links to LST 920 Crew members are on the right hand side of the screen, text in Blue.
All off site links to LST's and related amphibious craft are on the right side, bottom, text in Black.
If you have an interest in the design, construction, and function of the LST, our off-site links have what you want! Beware, it may be difficult to return if you browse off site, bookmark the 920 site to accommodate a safe return.
After you have browsed the off-site links and become an expert in LST history, design, and function, it is now time to read Harry's Call.
The 920 was a microcosm of America at war. We were a motley crew of war time enlistees, draftees, and a few regular navy men. Our generation, in three years, defeated the Germans, the Japs, the Italians, saved central Europe, and the British Islands. Then most of us returned to civilian life and never looked back, except for a few old codgers like myself who lived long enough to have the luxury of free time to reminisce of those sea going days.
If man must go to war, he is fortunate if it is a just war, many of our later wars have been questionable at best, most especially the fiasco in Iraq, five years and three TRILLION dollars down the drain, 4,000+ men and women dead and tens of thousands with long-term physical and mental disorders and no resolution in sight. Each year we are given a different reason for being in Iraq. Bush and his puppet master, the instigators of the war were both draft dodgers during the Viet Nam war, and neither have any relatives serving in the present one. Contrast that with President Roosevelt, who had 3 sons serving in WWII. Many of our most respected politicians served with distinction in WWII, Bush's father as a decorated airman.
America was victorious, because almost everyone believed in the cause,and was involved, the young in the service, the women, old and infirm men in the shipyards and aircraft factories, they served as air raid wardens, USO hostesses, everyone lived with food, gas and clothing rationing, recycling was a fact of everyday life. The Draft spread the pain and suffering of war to every level of society equally. Every family had someone in service, and they keep the politicians honest. The incompetents running this show would not have survived 2 terms in office if a draft was in effect.
All was not perfect, Jim Crow still reigned supreme in the south, and in the U.S. Navy, the only rating a black man could hold on the LST 920 was stewards mate which was basically a servant for officers, serve their food, wash their clothes, etc.. 99% of men holding the stewards rating were black or Filipino or homosexual, sometimes 2 out of three. New York city, where I grew up in the 30's, the schools were integrated and public facilities were accessible to everyone. Not until my naval service in the south did I come across the segregated toilets, water fountains etc.. When we traveled in the south it was usually by train, all the stations had signs on the toilets and water fountains. A time I always remember is when a trainload of servicemen, of whom I was one, pulled into Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and being greeted by a bevy of gracious southern women serving us free coffee, sandwiches and home made cakes, then the inevitable trip to the rest room and those signs! We were equal opportunity haters in those days, West Coast Japanese American citizens who had lived and worked in this country for many years, were rounded up and relocated to concentration camps in the desert southwest. Many of them lost their homes, farms, businesses etc.. Then of course there were the homosexuals, who were considered deviates by the navy and not fit for enlistment. Don't ask, don't tell was and is the policy.
Happily, we've made improvements in the ensuing years, we'll probably have a black president come November, unfortunately, the previous white one leaves the country in such shape,( what was that old WWII acronym, FUBAR?) that the black man is screwed as usual. The American citizens of Japanese ancestry who were put in concentration camps in the Arizona desert, have received reparation payments for their lost property and an apology for their confinement. As for the homosexuals, we now elect congressmen who perform homosexual mating rituals in public rest rooms, you've come a long way baby?
It is almost sunrise and the ship is at "general quarters" as it is every sunrise and sunset when we are carrying troops into harm's way. My station is "gun captain" on the forward port side 40mm anti-aircraft gun. My 3-man gun crew and I are a mangy lot. Our supply of fresh water is limited; there is only salt water for showers and laundry. When we are not at this gun, we stand our regular watches, 4 hours on, 4 off. In between we have our duty stations. Four hours sleep a day, is the most we get! The heat below decks is oppressive; our crotches devoured by jungle rot, our stores of flour have become infested with weevils, so now we eat "raisin bread." We haven't been ashore for 4 months and then only to a lonely pacific island to drink beer and swim. None of this bothers us. We 4 are all teen-agers , as is 90% of Ships Company on LST-920. ....Ah! Sweet bird of youth.
