The LST was designed by the Navy in WW-2. It is a ship that can carry tanks and/or troops to battle.
It is a flat bottom boat that can navigate right up to a shore, open its large square bow down onto a beach to release tanks or soldiers.
The naval LST operators that traveled from larger ships to enemy shores called them Large Slow Targets. The operators delivered tanks or troops onto unfriendly shores.
Once a soldier left an LST his danger wasn’t over, but he wasn’t repeating the same dangerous operation that the LST drivers did.
I was on an empty LST from Naval Station Subic Bay out to the USS Enterprise. The flat bottom LST was empty, so it bobbed like a cork, rolled right then left all the way. The bunk I slept in had a seatbelt style strap to hold you in bed instead of tossing you out and onto the deck. It took 4 days to get close to the shores of Vietnam. A helicopter picked me up and put me on the deck of a modern supply ship for a few hours. From there I was on another helicopter to the flight deck of the Enterprise.
Now here I am an 81 year old LST; on the sidewalk or the street. I am a large slow target. This morning I was walking home from Aldi’s; when I looked behind me there were 2 young men going the same way as I was. They weren’t a threat, but it made me think they could have been. I feel like I could take on one young man with my cane, but two would be tough.
Brother Bill
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