Dubois County Museum hosts talk on LST 325 this Saturday
On Saturday, June 4, Cory Burdette, the Museum Operations Coordinator of the LST-325 ported in Evansville, Indiana, will speak at the Dubois County Museum, at 1:30 p.m. about the history and role of this Landing Ship Tank utilized by the United States Navy and its long history in Evansville. Burdette will present video and other media on the LST-325.
His presentation is part of the Summer Lecture Series “Let’s Talk” program. Admission will be charged for the event. Admission to the museum is $5 for adults, $3 for high school students, $2 for middle and elementary students and those under four years old are free.
Information for the following about the LST-325 was taken from Wikipedia.
USS LST-325 is a decommissioned tank landing ship of the United States Navy, now docked in Evansville, Indiana, USA. Like many of her class, she was not named and is properly referred to by her hull designation (LSTs in service after July 1955 were named after U.S. counties and parishes).
Fitting that the program at the museum would be offered so close to the Anniversary of the Normandy Landings at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, because the LST-325 was part of the largest armada in history in 1944. She carried 59 vehicles, 30 officers and a total of 396 enlisted men on that first trip. On her first trip back to England from France, LST-325 transported 38 casualties back to a friendly port. Over the next nine months, Navy records show LST-325 made more than 40 trips across the English Channel, carrying thousands of men and pieces of equipment needed by troops to successfully complete the liberation of Europe. The ship continued to run supply trips between England and France before returning to the United States in May 1945.
The ship was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2009 The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on 24 June 2009 and the listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service’s weekly list of 2 July 2009.
During World War II, the Evansville riverfront was transformed into a 45-acre shipyard to produce LSTs. At its peak, the Evansville Shipyard employed a workforce of over 19,000 and completed two of these massive ships per week, becoming the largest inland producer of LSTs in the US. Although the Evansville Shipyard was originally contracted to build 24 ships, the city would eventually produce 167 LSTs and 35 other vessels. LST-325 is now homeported in Evansville as a memorial museum to LSTs and the city’s war effort. In 2018, plans were announced to relocate LST-325 from its Marina Pointe location to Riverfront Park across from Tropicana Evansville, a spot previously occupied by the casino’s riverboat, which retired in 2017 when the casino was allowed to move onshore. On 13 June 2020, LST-325 moved to its new port on Riverside Drive in Evansville
