Tuesday, September 11, 2007

LST-325 Visits Peoria

I know, it's a bit late as the USS LST-325 has already left Peoria, but, I thought I'd post anyway.

The ship was docked here in Peoria from about August 22nd - September 5th (give or take a day). Originally, it was going to be here for a week, but, rains up North caused the Illinois River to rise past flood stage, so, we got to enjoy the LST-325 for a little longer.
LST 325
A shot I took from the walkway just North of the Murray Baker Bridge.

Background Information Taken from http://www.lstmemorial.org:
"This LST (Landing Ship, Tank) is an amphibious vessel designed to land battle-ready tanks, troops and supplies directly onto enemy shores. Ships of this type proved to be enormously useful during times of war and peace both. This particular LST was originally known as LST-325 during the Second World War, USNS LST-325 during its arctic operations in the 1950's, and later L-144 (A/G Syros) while it was in the service of the Greek Navy."
While in Peoria, over 21,000 people visited/toured the ship.

While I'm not a Navy buff or anything, it was neat to see this ship and I got to take quite a few shots during my 2 visits.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tim,

I came across your blog while googling for information on the LST-325's visit to Peoria. I'm the managing editor at Central Illinois Business Publishers...we publish four local magazines in the area. (See our website at peoriamagazines.com.)

I was wondering if you might allow us to use a photo of yours for our next issue of Peoria Progress magazine.

If you're interested, please email me back at jwright [at] peoriamagazines.com.

Thanks, and have a great day!