Introduction

After enlisting in the U.S. Navy in September 1950, the author completed Electronics School and was assigned to USS LST 561.

Chapter 1 - Going Aboard

The first time for the author to be aboard a ship was on 23 Oct. 1951. Drawings and descriptions of compartments in the stern of the Landing Ship Tank are presented.

Chapter 2 - 01 Deck Operations

How the ship was controlled. The only "technical" chapter in the book describes howthe navigation, radar, and other operations were conducted.

Chapter 3 - Oakland to Hawaii

A nine day introduction to the gyrations of this flat-bottomed floating roller coaster.

Chapter 4 - Hawaii to Japan

After seventeen days of relentless motion, the LST arrives at Yokosuka, Japan.and into the aura of the Far East.

Chapter 5 - Yokosuka to Pusan, Korea

The voyage through the Shiminoseki Straits between Kyushu and Honshu to wartime Korea.

Chapter 6 - Pusan

Greetings from Korea included a corpse floating in the water by the bow of the ship as it was moored to a Pusan quay.

Chapter 7 - Pusan to Koje-do

The first of numerous trips to the island of Koje was made on 29 December 1951. This initial trip was to transport 600 North Korean prisoners of war.

Chapter 8 - Koje-do

The compounds on Koje contained more that 130,000 POWs, which was five times the number for which they were designed. Many photos of life on the island.

Chapter 9 - POW Operations

Numerous trips were made with prisoners of war between Koje-do and the Korean mainland. Some voyages were with as many as 2,000 POWs aboard.

Chapter 10 - Sasebo, Japan

A look into the Japan that was emerging from the disaster of World War II. Many color photos of this Kyushu seaport.

Chapter 11 - Prologue to 3/3/52

This chapter summerizes the war in Korea and describes the situation in the Haiju Bay area.

Chapter 12 - March 3, 1952

At 7:10 AM the LCPL of the ship left, never to return. A minute by minute account of what occurred this day with the loss of the boat and the twelve men aboard is detailed in the chapter.

Chapter 13 - Haeju-man Operations

The primary function of the LST was to control the movement of junks near the island of Taeyonp’yong-do.

Chapter 14 - Taeyonp'yong-do

This island was the base of guerrilla operations and the center of covert activities by the CIA in the Haeju-man area.

Chapter 15 - Apple Pie to Yokosuka

Apple Pie was the code word for Taeyonp’yong-do. Failure of the fresh-water distillery forced the ship to return to Japan for repairs.

Chapter 16 - Inch'on

Independence Day1952 and amphibious excercises with U.S. Marines at Sokcho-ri are featured in this chapter. Great color photos of the tracked vehicles (LVTs) are included.

Chapter 17 - Back to the USA

Mooring at San Diego on September 8, 1952 marked the end of a very busy tour of duty in the Far East.

Chapter 18 - Shipboard Life

The food, laundry, enertainment and what it was like living on an LST during the 1950s are described here.

Chapter 19 - West Coast Operations

Amphibious excercises involving pontoons and US Army troops from Washington (state) are displayed in this chapter.

Chapter 20 - San Francisco Bay

The ship traveled to the shipyard at Hunters Point for a well-deserved maintenance period.

Chapter 21 - Arctic Operations

Transporting material for construction of the DEW line took the LST through the pack ice of the Arctic.

Chapter 22 - Return to the Far East

Back to Japan and Korea with manuevers at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

Chapter 23 - The Last Months

The return to San Diego marked the end of the author’s very interesting thirty-three-months of travel aboard USS LST 561