LST (925) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 3 text:

A LITTLE BIT OF NON SENSE REcElvED 5 , ,mm 2139652 M NAVY U5PARTMEruT LIBRART 1 .J

Page 2 text:

,, I. A Q C014 Q D ZH 11579 X, - L uk C2

Page 4 text:

NO KIDDIN' ! Lies, more lies, and then statistics! But any way here are a few facts that may be of interest to some of us, and may seem quite unbelievable to others. The total ESTIMATED cost to the United States Government lthat's usl for the U.S.S. LST 925 comes to about 34,295,3l6.00. We arrive at that figure when we take into considera- tion the following items: To build the ship cost about 33,000,000, and to outfit her cost about 3l',000,000, so we started off with a pretty fair debt in the very beginningQ'fTheA cost of items requisitioned since commis- sioning totals around -3l75,000f'the cost of the food we atewas 343507, and the-A cost of feeding the army while it ' was . a b o a rd fwas 31l,3l4. Don't forget that we got Tbangedup a bit and that ran into a little pocket money. The-cost of 'availability and repairs runs about 335'0.,000, and the cost of anchoring, or .mooring in port plus the pilot's fees totaled about 32,500. Diesel fuel cost about 325,000, and training the crew was quite a little expenditure in itself-about 340,- 000. Then there are all of our pop guns to be considered and the dol- lars which they blasted away in smoke, about 350,000 would be a fair estimate of what the ammunition cost. And last, but by no means least on this debt side of the ledger, is the cost of paying everybody. A modest guess would be about 3l00,000. Now we come to the deduction side. This is really a rough estimate, but there is not too much to go on except the prices which were obtained after the last war. The equipment should bring about 3250,000 when sold, and thescrap value is another 3250,000, so that leaves a total net cost to Uncle Sam, of about 34,295,3l6, which is what we said at the first. Now if you take into consideration the fact that we landed two hundred and fifty- four officers and men, and that was our sum total of productive effort, then you can arrive at a cost of 3l6,- 9l0 per man it cost the Navy to land those Army men in Lingayen Gulf. Or, if you want to consider what the cost of this ship is to the average tax- payer, and you should for you are one of them, you can divide the sum total by 40,000,000 and arrive at a cost of about l0V2c each. Here are a few more items which may be of interest. The total number of rations fed to officers and enlisted men was 69,l03 and the number fed to the army was 7,530 Not many can guess within five of how many en- listed men have reported aboard for duty, but at present the figure stands at l63. We requisitioned over' 6,000 separate items of G-SK, used approxi- mately 403,7l4 gallons of fuel, and l,l79,374 gallons of fresh water. We also used 2,500 gallons of paint, a sizeable but understa dlable little fig- ure. Bender warmed aqnout 3,500 cans of beans: fried nearly 20,000 pounds of beef, and we ate around l5,000 eggs. We fired 25,000 rounds of am- munition, and the Conn Girls sent and received 6,300 messages. The censoring board chopped up 27,000 letters. . As we said at the start, these fig- ures are only approximately correct, so we can't quite say, Believe lt Cr Not, but they are close enough so that you can use them as the basis for a pretty good argument. IN MEMORIAM-William F. Shepley, loseph C. Follini