{"id":12696,"date":"2012-10-03T23:30:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T04:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=12696"},"modified":"2012-10-03T19:48:55","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T00:48:55","slug":"apsu-history-students-tour-world-war-ii-vessel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2012\/10\/03\/apsu-history-students-tour-world-war-ii-vessel\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU history students tour World War II vessel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – In early 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is alleged to have said, \u201cThe destinies of two great empires\u2026seemed to be tied up in some damned things called LSTs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referring to the amphibious vessels known as Landing Ship Tank that were used to transport tanks, armored vehicles, trucks and soldiers to major World War II invasion sites such as Sicily and Normandy. More than 1,000 ships were built, but Churchill complained that more were needed to win the war.<\/p>\n

\"APSU<\/a>

APSU faculty and history students stand on the deck of the World War II vessel the LST 325 with the ship\u2019s captain, Robert D. Jornlin. (Photo by Charles Booth\/APSU Staff).<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThese vessels were absolutely vital for everything the allies were trying to do in the Pacific theater and the European theater,\u201d Dr. David Snyder, Austin Peay State University associate professor of history, said.<\/p>\n

Late last month, a decommissioned ship known as the USS LST 325 made its way up the Cumberland River and docked at McGregor Park in Clarksville. It now serves as a floating memorial and museum, but during World War II, that same ship transported bulldozers, jeeps and tanks between England and the D-Day landing sites, making 44 round trips in support of the Normandy campaign.<\/p>\n

Its presence provided a rare opportunity for area residents to see a historic relic, so on a recent Friday afternoon, Snyder and a group of APSU history graduate and undergraduate students toured the old ship.<\/p>\n

\"LST-325<\/a>

LST-325 docked at Clarksville’s McGregor Park boat ramp.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe LST organization gave us a heavily discounted group rate, and the history department picked up the tab for all the students,\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n

The group began their tour in the ship\u2019s hold, where tanks and other heavy equipment were once stored. The cavernous space smelled of diesel fumes, allowing the students to experience what daily life was like for hundreds of young sailors during the war.<\/p>\n

[320left]From that storage space, the group then climbed a metal staircase to see the cramped mess hall and the captain\u2019s quarters. But as other visitors mulled around these tight spaces, taking pictures, the APSU students were ushered into some off-limits areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the captain to take us on tour, and we really got the VIP treatment,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cWe got to go into the radio room and the ward room, which they don\u2019t let people do. Not only did we have the attention of the captain, we got to see things others don\u2019t get to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the students made it back into the open air, they were able to take turns manning the vessel\u2019s defunct machine guns and get up-close views of the \u201cHiggins boat\u201d landing craft hanging from the side of the LST. Those crafts were used to transport troops to the beaches of Normandy, as seen in movies such as \u201cSaving Private Ryan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t get that many opportunities to see something like this here in Clarksville,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cBut as soon as we heard this Landing Ship Tank, or \u201clarge slow target,\u201d as the sailors dubbed them, was going to be here, we started organizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on LST325’s visit to Clarksville, see: LST-325 is Open for Tours at McGregor Park until Sunday at 5:00pm<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information on this visit, contact the APSU Department of History at 931.221.7919<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – In early 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is alleged to have said, \u201cThe destinies of two great empires\u2026seemed to be tied up in some damned things called LSTs.\u201d He was referring to the amphibious vessels known as Landing Ship Tank that were used to transport tanks, armored vehicles, trucks and soldiers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,4559,7207,262,825,613,7205,16458,1349,1244,16460,1241,16459,15949,16457,1239],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-3iM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12697,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696\/revisions\/12697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}