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NEWS BRIEFS
Man visits LST 325 that he served on during WWII
The USS LST 325 makes its way through South Point on the Ohio River.
HUNTINGTON -- Robert McClellan's stories sound like something from a Steven Spielberg war film.
"The sky was lit up red from tracer bullets. Most of us were in our teens and were scared to death. We called upon the Lord for our safety."
The only difference between Spielberg's and McClellan's accounts of war is that McClellan's are first-hand.
In June 1944, when McClellan was just 18 years old, the LST 325 carried the Huntington native to a smaller Landing Ship Infantry boat that would take the boys to their next mission.
McClellan and the battalion were on their way to Normandy, France.
The battalion was to construct three miles of pipelines to supply fresh water for U.S. troops, a mission that was deemed a necessity of vast importance by Dwight Eisenhower, who, at the time, was the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. The battalion was ordered to stay on the boat until after U.S. troops stormed the beaches.
So, the battalion of mostly teenagers waited for days on the ship while enemy gunfire criss-crossed over them while they tried to sleep at night.
After constructing the lines, McClellan found himself sleeping in a French castle, secretly packing up and shipping a superior officer's Rolls-Royce from England to France and doing a few other things he said he didn't wish to talk about.
More than 60 years have gone by since McClellan returned from war. He has long since married and raised a family of his own.
Even after all of those years and memories, he still couldn't help but think about what it would be like to be back on the USS LST 325.
He had the chance to find out last month, and took full advantage of a visit to the LST 325 when it passed by Huntington via the Ohio River on the first leg of a tour that includes Wheeling, W.Va., Pittsburgh, and Marietta, Ohio.
"It was exciting to see the ship again and to shake the captain's hand," he said. "I applaud the effort to bring the ship to communities and back to America."
After carrying troops and supplies between England and France in WWII and prior to dropping anchor at its home port in Evansville, Ind., the LST 325 spent very little time in the country that originally commissioned her.
The USS LST Ship Memorial website said the ship was used to assist building radar outposts along the arctic shores of Canada and Greenland in the 1950s.
In the 1960s she became the RHS Syros L-144 in Greece's Hellenic Navy as a part of the grant-in-aid program and stayed there until 2000.
That year, McClellan said, The USS Ship Memorial Inc. acquired the ship and a group of retired military men paid their own way to Greece and sailed the newly re-christened LST 325 back across the Atlantic to the U.S. for the final time.
A 55-man crew now sails the restored ship throughout the country while it acts as a museum and a memorial to the soldiers who served on it, like Robert McClellan.
McClellan's wife, Linda, who accompanied him during his visit to the ship, said seeing the ship served dual purposes to her.
"It's bringing history to life. Each generation needs a greater understanding of what so many people have went through to keep our country great," Linda McClellan said. "At the same time, as a mom, I was thinking about how it must have felt for all of those mothers to send their babies away.
"After all of these years of stories, it also helped me to see what my husband went through instead of just hearing about it."
Robert McClellan said he plans on going to see the ship again during its journey back to Indiana. The LST 325 will be making port in Marietta, Ohio, for one week beginning Wednesday. It should be returning through the Huntington area along the Ohio River on Wednesday, Sept. 15.
He said LST 325 Captain Bob Jornlin even made him a special offer.
"He said if I wanted to sleep on the deck of the ship, he'd give me a pillow to make me more comfortable this time around," Robert McClellan said. "I appreciate the offer, but I think a good visit will be just fine."
For more information about the LST 325 call 812-435-8678 or visit www.lstmemorial.org.
