De Soto County (LST 1171) - Naval Cruise Book

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, , C?-X 'sr 'i flf Ni Q' ksw 'Qgv,i1 .Q M s 'f..5'fbrf5f w . N X I8 Q When De Soto County visited the Pennsylvania port, 11' was docked near another warrior, Perry's Niagara. Post of the Corps KANSAS.CITY INLAND CRUISE af grae F IT HADN'T been for a U. S. Navy' ship-the ' which was on -landlocked play less than 100 yards a De Soto County CLST 1171? have been visiting a foreign it tied up at the public dock Pa., this summer. The De Soto was Cstill is, as matter of factj on a goodwill the Great Lake, and Erie was 19 ports on the '1:zowdy list. city will be visited early thas. then the 'LT' will rock d Atlantic Coat to her Little Crak, home, from whence she began tour last June. The 511715 was impressive used alongside the dock, with a of hundred Ez-lelandexs Cthafs they prder to be mllecD quietly tEIdE1i.D.g the ojtion. Baide lake Stillldl she looked large to challenge the entire Padic with a Eotilla or tvro of the Fleet tossed in baicla. And up. YVhy, those Whofve been the De Soto during amphib would hardly have known the stef! She looked like a what with hs hawses, boom blocis, painted her ceilirged with white canvas, plus 'fas- xls:mdhe.fgraypaic1tbe:eftaf needle- scratches. These greaxd cable to be seem . . . 'wizcfve been aboard LSTs k -L improbahle :has somcis! ' Izzsteacl. fnsewapartoi thecfew lined up at attention, a Navy band non-avid music and eral of festhity about the You coulclzft have called it 1 yeas go, that 'fi into the same bay. The ' have Ei lsakcate joyous wovlci have begun to .f The sip vas ie ..:e'd been Olive: Halfd ,Islip when he defeated a Iliff to Sir. the Battle of Lake 1813. If it hacE:z't Exe: fa: mat victory, Ei?-5 well 5 Ohio, TURN PAGE I9 . 1

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.V Navy Ship To Stop Ai -Clayton - The tank landing ship U.S.S. DeSoto County, will arrive at Clayton at 3, p. m. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 'lor a three- day visit. Tours ot the vessel and exhibits can be made by the pub- lic. The DeSoto County was- at Og- densburg on June 15 and 16 on the first leg of an 18 port Great Lakes seaway tour. The vessel will be stopping at Clayton en route to her home port of Little Creek, Va. The 7,800-ton, 442-foot long SNP is CH-l'I'.Ying an eight-inch, self-propelld howeitizer, an.'M-48 Clayton medium tank, a tracked la vehicle, a 106 mm. recollless on the mule vehicle, and deadly, tank-killing Ontos. The DeSoto County will be to public tours from 10 a to 9 p. m. on Sept. 3. A navy-marine corps team conduct demonstrations. T will include an underwater c olition team, a four-man ka group demonstrating hand to l cogdfat wg other demonstfafiofis- -During the stopover of the U.S.S. DeSoto County, a tank-landing ship,: co 001 dims of .naVY'maYme avy underwater demolition team gave a demonstration. Shown is the rps an ng Opeffmffns and the or getting into a fast boat. The DeSoto County, at Clayton two days,1 Second Mime division Chorus sailed this morning for virginia. 1 are expected to be other high- lights of the visit. proximately l2 n tack. Four4Maril which mounts a fire 'I0 miles. Th of 242 mile-s an. obstacle.--tOfficia ts Planned b swe 0 Cla ton , ,.,,,,,,, RECEIVED BY COMMANDER-Dr. Edward Witthohn -Times Stat? Photo left 241 Clinton street was received aboard the tank landing ship, U.S.S. DeSoto County Thursday by Lieut. Cmdr. H. D. Mann, jr., commanding ofticer. The local osteopath left with the ship today for Little Creek, Va. He was originally scheduled to sail from home port in Vir- ginia to Clayton but missed the boat due to a mix-up Navy Ship To Be Open-To Public f At Clayton Thursday, September 3 The navy ship, U.S.S. Desoto County, arrived at Clayton at 3 p.m. Wednesday, it was announc- ed tdday by Lieut. Cmdr. John H. Dunroe, commander of the Watertown naval reserve training center. The vessel will be open to public tours from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, September 3. There will be a number of public demonstrations b y specialised navy and marine corps training teams. ' The visit to Clayton will be the last stop before the DeSoto Coun- ty heads for Montreal, Que., and then returns to her home base at Little Creek, Va. The ship has been on a three-month tour of the St. Lawrence seaway and the- Great Lakes. LST Leaves North Clayton, Sept. 4. - The landing ship tank, U.S.S. De- Soto County, left here this mornin for its home base in After Clayton Sta Soto County sailed him by mistake. Dr. hohn will disembark at Little Creek, Va. -Timex Stuff Photo IN ACTION Corporal Frank Poilluecl dlsposei l Official Navy Marine Corps Photo E Virginia after a successful two-day stopover, during which thousands of visitors inspected the craft. The vessel, which arrived from the Great Lakes Wednesday, will carry as a special guest Dr. Edward Witthohn, 241 Clinton street, Watertown, who was SUP' posed to make the trip from Virginia to Clayton, but WHS not informed and the De- g P , . LST-A total of 12,881 persons visited the landing ship tank, U.S.S. marine corps teams demon-iounty, during her stopover at Clayton. 'The ship, at the village Wednesday strated many skills. ,and Thursday, left for home port in Norfolk,Va., this morning. E E. Durin the sto over navy The 12,881 persons who visited the DeSota County during her stop at C.ayton by Sgt T N Bland, lr. were more than six times them Last page population of the community. to 425 943. All had to pass over a single '. an wa The visit at Clay pper' Lleut' Cmdr' ' gomgbrdyught the total Great Mann 9XP1'9SSed Lakes tours attendance force witht theuwarm, 592 LST-Page 3 ie and sincere recep- received here. He said 'iClayton isthe smallest with the biggest heart was visited. The peo- , of the Great Lakes area made every sailor and feel new pride in the of his country, Com- Mann concluded. The landing ship tank, part, the amphibious arm of the, will pass through Eisen- lock, Massena, some- after 2:30 this after-I The ship has been on a good' tour of the Great Lakes It will return to Nor- Va., where the United States amphibious forces are a b sed. The ship had earlier ed to include a stay at 1 al in its itinerary, but will go directly to Nor- KARATE DEMONSTRATION-A four-man karate dem- onstration group from the marine corps exhibited skills for visitors aboard the U.S.S. DeSoto County at Clayton Thursday. The ship, en route from the Great Lakes to

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' ' ' 1.-.ef-:Q---- . .. .. -.f,........i.,.... --. -. ,., Marine karate feam, aboard ihe De Sofo, needed a police and rebuilt, a job which any time at all because of state of preservation. entire original keel was usable, planking. rest of 1913, the brig was the lakes and put on dis- part of the centennial celebra- the Niagara was brought to Erie, where she's been since. nt, the flagship sits on in rf- 11 H1 En roufe fo fhe the De Sofa seven Sf. Lawrence locks. fo use her gangways, Soto had fo make an Erie TV show on fime. The Second Division chorus also had a packed schedule, which Included a performance af a convalescence home. as she did back in 1813. But, then, Erie has preserved much of its history. The house where Perry stayed and the tavern in which he met with his shipbuilders and officers have been preserved. Markers indicate where the ships were built and, of course there's the monument where they were later sunk. In Erie, a sense of heritage is strong. Also the sense of Erie- .uu p...!L..s!yc.c ..o.....c-.1 as wc, 'WH V up the gangway.J But that was why the 1171 there, to get acquainted. De Soto's 32-month cruise beg last June, when PhibLant authorit decided to duplicate 1959's inla cruise, in miniature. The idea wa Pofffay, by displays rather than la ings, the potential of the Navy-Mar Corps team. The choice of an LST ' r a c S I this purpose was sound: a Ts di-af shallow enough to enable dock rather than anchoring out. Besi' what type of 'Gator ship better in the Navy-Marine relationshij cates Aboard LSTs, as we all know, the as ciation, by necessity, is closer than any other type ship, save a sub, wh is really a boat and not a ship, ai how. The 98 Marines who were to m: the cruise reported aboard a few we early, to help prepare the De Soto, tl the Cflllipment was placed, final d. of paint added, and it was: . We off to meet the public and We theirs. As the 1171 steamed up the East seaboard, then into the Gulf of Lawrence, an advance team motored the cities which were to be visited. Lt Richard Stack, from the ISO office? of Force Troops, Lejeune, and LtCdr Russell Harney, from CinCLant Fleet, practically lived out of a car all last summer. They would pull into a city three or four days prior to the T's arrival, and immediately contact re- cruiters andfor I-I staffers, the folk who knew other folk in the community. In Erie, the advance team worked, A si-lfns iii Ellli' A Icontinued from page 251 Cruiser Theater, first perfected for and still used at, the World's Fair. De Soto carries the only other one in operation today. Cine-Globe has a cupped screen, a few yards in front of which the audi- ence stands. With views of subs sub- merging, jets landing on a carrier, Marines hurtling out of amtracs and such . . .the audience feels it is in the action. Better than training films, any day. There were other displays not quite so static. The gangway had hardly touched the dock, at 4:50 p.m., before three men in pyjamas leaped off. Well, they weren't wearing pyjamas, really. It just looked 'that way at first glance. What they actually had on was traditional judo 'garb. The three Marines were part of a karate team, Cordinarily, there were four-Cpls Glenn Premru, Earl Chris- teon and Frank Poilluci, plus LCpl Garland Aaron-but Poilluci was on emergency leavej and this particular karate team had 10 minutes before it was to appear on a live TV show. A police escort got them there on time, and experience before TV cameras negated the lack of immediate prepara- tion. That'was but the first of many move-let's-get-there appearances, for the karate team as well as the other groups. A 25-man chorus, from the Second Divvy, made five appearances during the visitg two at hospitals, two more on TV shows and a solo at a park concert. A Navy band, formed just before the ship left Norfolk, had almost as rigorous a schedule. The ship's softball team played a local one and created all sorts of good will. It lost . . . but the odds had been slightly stacked. Seems the Erie soft- ball team had beaten everybody for counties around and, like always, the ship's team hadn't had practice oppor- tunities. It's difficult to hold batting practice while afloat . . . especially on an LST! It's also difficult to fly a helicopter off a T's deck while tied to a dock, but the bright orange Navy ASW chopper rotored on and off repeatedly, carrying a 10-man UDT team which gave dem- onstrations in the bay, just beyond the pier. First, the fiipper-foots leaped out of the 'copter as it hovered about 15 feet in the air, the jumps placed at in is 1 I l the De Soto County was af Erie, a helicopfer rotored back and forfh, carrying l underwater demolifion feams which puf on demonstrations near fhe dock seemed to hang back. Finally, the Lawrence was a riddled hulk, her decks covered with blood and all of her guns out of commission. Only one piece of equipment remained intactg a under fire for years, and had lost an arm at the seafight of Trafalgar. If experience alone judged battles, Perry had no business challenging the Queen of the Seas. 1 .v Q' . swf'-. . . 'ij-, ,la l 01, 1 RNN4 lv The lasf nighf of Erie, a local brewery invited fhe ship's company and embarked froops fo a rafhskeller feasf. about 100-yard intervals so that the UDT-ers would be strung out. Then, the frogmen's high-powered retrieving boat churned down the line, hooping the swimmers aboard. While that bit of action was oohing and ahhing the crowd, the helo flew back to the ship and picked up two more UDT-ers, who were carried high above the bay so they could parachute, showing another method of UDT delivery. The chopper then demonstrated how men are rescued from water Cby horsecollar and winchj, and the crowds drifted back to line up at the gangway, wait- ing to get aboard. Not all the demonstrating was done by the ship and embarked troops. The city of Erie demonstrated its hospi- tality with receptions for the officers and an entire evening in a rathskeller for the crew-compliments of a local brewery. And the sea stories which were woven? The brine was flyin' in all directions! There were, of course, scores of Erielanders who'd sailed on 'Gator ships, either during World War II or the Korean fracas. A few of them rode the De Soto from Buffalo, the last port visited, to Erie . . . and there was much, Now, when I was on an LST back in .... None of them had ever been aboard the De Soto before, because she's prac- tically an infant. The 1171 has been E is witn PhibLant only since 1958, theg year she was commissioned. But, young or no, her crew members could' x keep up with the loudest I remember: 1 whens, 'cause De Soto has logged ay few miles in six years. . It goes without saying: she's been, to the Med and the Carib a few times. As a matter of fact, the 1171 was the only 'Gator ship to take part in the Gitmo evacuation during the last Cuban crisis. She carried 92 depend- ents back to Norfolk, then loaded Marines aboard and headed back for, the troubled waters. I At Erie, the tale-swapping was inter- spersed with an occasional You sure make 'cm big nowadays . . . references to the De Soto's size. Most Marines who've seen LSTs as part of amphibious squadrons certainly! never considered LSTs to be big ships. But, the fact is, those built in De Soto's time displace five times the tonnage as' those built in WW II! And tied up close to the Niagara, the De Soto looked like an Empire Statei building, leveled out and fitted withi guns. The 1171 was almost four times, the size of Perry's flagship. Which leads to another comparison. Fully loaded, crew and embarked troops, the De Soto can easily carry 854 men. That's almost twice as many men as Perry had in his entire fleet when he won the Battle of Lake Erie.