Warship to arrive in Moline this afternoon

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By Doug Schorpp | Thursday, August 28, 2008 10:39 AM CDT | () comments

The USS LST 325 Ship Memorial now is expected to make its arrival in Moline this afternoon, its captain, Robert Jornlin, said this morning.

It was supposed to cruise past Burlington, Iowa, on its way to Moline on Wednesday, but the vessel was forced to dock Tuesday night in Burlington while waiting for the channel to be dredged near Oquawka, Ill. He said Wednesday that he hoped to arrive Friday in Moline and be open for public tours Saturday along the Ben Butterworth Parkway, near the Celebration Belle riverboat.

But he said the warship was able to be escorted through the affected channel earlier today. Shortly before 10 a.m. today, he said they were moving through Lock and Dam 17 near New Boston, Ill.

“We’ve been through the locks,” he said. “We got some special treatment. We got escorted through a narrow spot.”

He said once it arrives, “the Coast Guard doesn’t want us to board after 5 p.m.” So, he said his crew will set up and be ready to open to the public Friday morning. The Moline visit will last through Tuesday.

Cost for tours is $10 per adult and $5 per child under 17 years old, free for under 6 years; $20 for a family ticket. All proceeds will be used for further ship restoration and maintenance. It is open to the public daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We will go to Clinton as planned on Wednesday,” Jornlin said. It will be open there Thursday through Sept. 8 at the riverfront landing where the former riverboat casino was docked.

The ship will travel past the Quad-Cities again on its way to Fort Madison, Iowa, where it will be open for tours Sept. 10-14. The LST is scheduled to return Sept. 18 to its home port in Evansville, Ind.

The ship and tows were forced to stand by after the the river was closed to large vessels Saturday, said Bill Gretten, a Mississippi River operations manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He said the river closed after a tow got stuck near Oquawka, located 63 river miles downriver from Lock and Dam 15 in the Quad-Cities. As of Wednesday morning, he knew of at least 27 tows that were parked upriver and downriver from Lock and Dam 18 near Oquawka, Ill., waiting for the river to reopen.

A smaller Corps dredging crane continues to clear a wider path in the affected area.

The Landing Ship Tank, or LST, is an amphibious vessel designed to land battle-ready tanks, troops and supplies directly onto enemy shores.

This particular LST was commissioned in 1942 and originally was known as LST-325 during World War II, and USNS LST-325 during its Arctic operations in the 1950s. Later, the ship was called L-144 (A/G Syros) after the U.S. Navy discontinued its service, and the ship was transferred to the Greek navy.

The ship was launched for the first time Oct. 27, 1942, from Philadelphia, participating in the invasions at Sicily and Italy. On June 6, 1944, it became part of the largest armada in history by participating in the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach.

LST-325 was decommissioned in 1946 and sent to Greece in 1964. The ship was acquired in 2000 for restoration by volunteers involved with USS LST Ship Memorial Inc., made up of retired military members. They paid their way to Greece, made the necessary repairs to the ship and sailed it back to the U.S., arriving in January 2001.

Doug Schorpp can be contacted at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com.