âOh GOd, yOur sea is sO larGe and my ship is sO smallâ

More documents

Recommendations

Info

where my father stood a million years ago to have his picturetaken, too. My son wore the same hat his grandfather wore. Istood at the wheel in the pilothouse where Bud Hoseck wouldstand a watch at the helm. I did not look for dust.Feeling both intensely alone and intensely scrutinized, Iclimbed to the conning tower and looked out over the well deck tothe gigantic power winch on the bow and beyond to the bay. Isaid a prayer, nothing in particular, just a sort of offering to thegods of war, fathers and memory.In the years since 2001, 1091 has become a museum mooredin downtown Eureka, a tourist attraction. It serves meals cookedin the galley and ladled onto mess trays. It has a dues-payingmembership association. LCIs are prospering, it turns out:Another one, 713, is being restored in Portland, Ore.“I brought the original commissioning pennant,” I said toCaptain Ralph.“Let’s run it up,” he said.It’s faded now, a long thin thing with seven stars and twostripes, red and white. With rare exceptions, one flies from themast of every American warship, a Navy ritual. This one flewwhen the ship powered out of the yard in Michigan.We hoisted it, along with the American flag. Symbolically oreven technically, the pennant meant the ship was my father’s, orso I chose to interpret Navy regulations at that moment.It’s not even past.I saluted. I took a picture.Dad, I hope you know.14 | ELSIE ITEM | October 2011
d-day remembrancesA presentation made by Ralph Langenheim, LCI(L) 551 at a local D-Day CelebrationThe Crew of the 551. Engineering Officer Ralph Langenheim is the first officer to the left.I would like to tell you about the sensations I felt crossing in the night from England’s coast to Normandy in LCI(L) 551 with 225men--the Navy crew and the troops who were to land at Utah Beach.I don’t remember the weather but the sea was calm. It was dark. We were in a large convoy with maybe as many as 100 dieselpoweredlanding craft, so there was a subdued roar of engines that sort of undercut everything. It was, as I said, dark, and we wereapprehensive, of course, about what we were getting into. I don’t particularly remember being afraid. As we proceeded you had thesense of large forces and large events taking place which might, or might not, be part of our destiny.I remember the roar of many planes flying overhead towards the beaches. Some of them may have been the paratroopers that landedat St. Lo: some might have been bombers softening up the beach--but none of these could be seen. And, for that matter, no lightswere showing on the ships except a small blue stern light which we were following--the ship ahead in our formation. But you had thefeeling that you were moving into something large and quite foreboding.Eventually, we began to hear the distant sound and flash of explosions, bombs shelling the beach. As we kept approaching, we gotthe smell of explosives and finally, of course, with the approach of dawn, you began to see things around you--the seascape wasfilled with ships, mostly landing craft, but also transports, gunnery support ships, and so on. As we approached Utah beach, wepassed a sunken destroyer--we later learned she had hit a mine. A mangled, bloody, body floated by, the only sign of carnage thatcame to our attention during the entire landing. We anchored off shore awaiting our turn to land. That came in late afternoon.October 2011 | ELSIE ITEM | 15
Page 1 and 2: OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THEUSS LANDI
Page 3 and 4: a Word from thepresident/editorOur
Page 5 and 6: next year - Charleston!After length
Page 7 and 8: hopped out of the jeep and ran insi
Page 10 and 11: The lasT lCiA son discovers his fat
Page 12 and 13: quoted Tennyson in pencil:My marine
Page 16 and 17: The troops, most of whom were seasi
Page 18 and 19: A Thought fromChaplain Mike Gattonl
Page 20 and 21: Thanks to Chaplain mike!At the reun
Page 23 and 24: The story of an underage lCierByChe
Page 25 and 26: your uss lCi association needs your
Page 27 and 28: your Officers and Board of director

âOh GOd, yOur sea is sO larGe and my ship is sO smallâ

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?

âOh GOd, yOur sea is sO larGe and my ship is sO smallâ