Latest news with #LSTs
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
81 years later, LST 393 pays tribute to ‘humongous effort' of D-Day
MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — The USS LST 393 Veterans Museum in Muskegon is paying tribute to the lives lost in the D-Day Invasion. The museum hopes to help visitors better appreciate the scale of the D-Day invasion and its importance. 'D-Day was one of the most anticipated events of World War II. All of the Allied nations knew it was coming, but they didn't know exactly when and exactly where,' John Stephenson, a museum board member, said. 'It took a world to defeat the enemies of freedom and that's what they did. It was a humongous effort.' Muskegon event to commemorate D-Day with ship tours, reenactment The offensive began 81 years ago Friday in Normandy, France. The LST 393 was one of many ships in the waters off Omaha Beach and served a crucial role. It landed on the third day of the invasion, June 9, 1944. 'An LST like this one, LST 393, they built 1,051 of these in three years during the war. LST means Landing Ship Tank. To its sailors, it meant 'large slow target.' But it was designed and very successfully performed the job of bringing heavy equipment,' Stephenson said. 'D-Day was supposed to happen in May, but they held it back a month because they didn't have enough LSTs.' Twenty-eight tanks were loaded through giant doors on the bow of the flat-bottom ship. 'It could carry anything. Trucks, bulldozers, artillery, you name it, to a defended shore,' Stephenson said. The LST 393 served for many years after the war as a car freighter. Only two similar LSTs remain in a military configuration. D-Day veterans return to Normandy for 81st anniversary The museum is planning a variety of events to mark the 81st anniversary, including a screening of the D-Day episode of the Band of Brothers mini-series inside the ship at 8 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, an event will honor Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient James McCloughan. World War II reenactors will demonstrate tactics used. 'Historic airplanes will attack the ship and the reenactors will defend it,' Stephenson said. A flyover is planned as part of Air Raid Muskegon around 12:45 p.m. 'We want people to remember, and we want people to experience a little bit what went on during D-Day,' Stephenson said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
West Loch Disaster remembrance planned
The Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum and the Defense POW /MIA Accounting Agency will host a remembrance ceremony Wednesday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl honoring the anniversary of the deadly 1944 West Loch Disaster. On May 21, 1944, service members were working on several vessels docked at West Loch loading weapons and supplies to support Operation Forager, the invasion of the Japanese-occupied Mariana Islands. At 3 :08 p.m. something caused an explosion aboard LST-353 near its bow. The blast killed serv icemen on board and rained burning debris on nearby vessels. The debris ignited fuel and munitions stored on their decks, setting off an explosive chain reaction. By the time the smoke cleared, explosions and debris had destroyed six LSTs, killing at least 163 people and injuring 396—though some historians suspect shoddy record-keeping by Army officials in a rush to keep Operation Forager on track could have as many as 100 more uncounted. More than half of the soldiers were Black troops from the 29th Chemical Decontamination Unit. The handling of the West Loch disaster and its aftermath would in time contribute to calls for the desegregation of the U.S. military after World War II. Many of the dead were buried at Punchbowl as unknowns, where they rested for decades. But in 2024 the DPAA exhumed the remains of the unknowns in an effort to identify them based on a mix of DNA testing and historical research. According to a media release by the Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum, speakers at the event will talk about an emerging DPAA partnership with the Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum to engage with people who may be related to the West Loch dead to collect additional DNA to support efforts to identify the remains. The ceremony will be at 2-3 p.m. Wednesday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, 2177 Puowaina Drive.
