Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Gators come to Hannibal

In my morning reading of the Hannibal Courier Post I saw that the Gator Navy was coming to Hannibal. Having served on an LST from 1962 to 1964 it's an event I would have liked to been there for especially since there or no ships of this type currently in the Navy. It did bring back a lot of memories of the 23 countries I saw in the two years I was aboard. I worked on the bridge as a signalman communicating with other ships using flashing lights and flags.

This is LST 1162 the USS Wakiakum County. This is the ship I served on. It's 384 feet long, 55 feet wide and drew 17 feet of water. We traveled at the breakneck speed of 12 knots.


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