Monday, June 28, 2010

The LST Anchor

I was in Dixon, Illinois, from Tuesday to Saturday this past week and had the opportunity to see the petunias growing alongside the downtown roads (their Petunia Festival starts this week and they are called the Petunia City). In addition, the famous Lincoln Highway goes through the town which is why I was there because of the 2010 National Conference.

We visited President Ronald Reagan's Boyhood Home also.

Dixon has to have one of the most impressive Veterans Memorials anywhere in the US and they are constantly adding on to it. They already have a Cobra helicopter, a 155 mm Howitzer, used in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and a M-60 main battle tank used by US forces from the 50s to 80s. They just recently acquired a Korean War jet.

But, what I found the most interesting was a US Navy Lightweight Mark 2 anchor weighing in at 6,600 pounds (I'm not sure why they call that LIGHT).

They were used on small yard and patrol vessels as well as LST (Landing Ship Tanks or Large Slow Targets as some refer to them). Of interest, on LSTs, they were the stern anchor. As the ship approached the shore, the anchor was dropped. After unloading its tanks, vehicles and men, the LST would used its powerful wench to pull the ship off.

I talked with a friend at the Fox Lake American Legion who was in the Navy. he said that the Navy no longer uses LSTs.

Sure Got Me Interested in LSTs. --Cooter

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