"The Elsie Item" - USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association

to deliver a massive barrage on the beach and immediately inlandabout five minutes before the troops actually waded ashoreand, also, to supply fire support close in for as long as the troopswere on or near the beach.Those ofus who did our LCI sailing in the Atlantic may neverhave heard ofLCS(L)'s as they only saw service late in the Pacificwar. The first ofthe 130 ships in the class, LCS(L) I, wascommissioned in June, 1944, and the last commissioned inMarch,1945.Reiley begins with an extensive account ofwhy, where and howLCS(L)'s were invented, constructed, manned and placed in service.Those ofyou who trained at Solomons will enjoy his frankstories about the place and its "notorious" commanding officerwho, by the way, went on to command LCS Flotilla 4 in hissame inimitable style. Appropriately, most ofthe book reviewsthe combat history of the LCS(L)'s in the Philippines, Borneo,Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Viet Nam.Ship's action reports, other original documents, and eye witnessaccounts supply the information. The last part of the text tellsthe post-war story of LCS(L)'s serving in the French, Taiwanese,Japanese, Viet Namese, Philippine, Italian, Greek, Koreanand Thai Navies and the Ryukyuan Coast Guard. One ship remainedin service in the Thai Navy at the time the book waswritten; the fates of each of the others; lost in action, wrecked,sunk as gunfire targets, blown up at Eniwetok, cannibalized forparts, or scrapped,; are listed in the appendix, Nine ships weresent to the French in Indo China and fought in the Red Riverand Mekong deltas until South Vietnam collapsed. Then severalofthem escaped to the Philippines.Adntiral Sabin's Seasickness Story Gets to Hank Henderson's Wife! Way up north - as far north as you can get in Minnesota - sitsWarroad, MN, on the shores ofLake ofthe Woods. It sthe homeofa great story-teller, Hank Henderson, ofLCI (R) 765. lfyou'reon the internet youjust have to hook up with his great stories onHank shared with me the following:by Hank HendersonI received the December Elsie Item in the mail today and, ofcourse, started reading it immediately. My wife, Virginia, wasacross the office at her desk trying to "fix" her desk lamp. (Ittook a second trip to the hardware store and about two hours toget the job done)Now, Virginia has heard much about LCIs as she was the maininstrument in locating almost all ofthe LCI(R) 765 crew in 1983and inviting them to Warroad for their first ever reunion and tocelebrate the 40 th anniversary of commissioning. She has attendedevery reunion of the 765 since that first one in June of1984 and has done much to help keep the crew in contact. Thispast fall she and I made the reunion ofVaughn Hampton's LCI(G)450. She also lived through scrounging for data for the twovolumes ofLCI history.Virginia edited and has read my book No Flag for My Coffinwhich in its 554 pages includes a two year cruise on the 765. Iassumed that she had heard all ofthe BS possible about the ELSIEITEMS.Deck logs from all 130 ships commissioned, numerous actionreports, interviews with nine veterans, many letters and memoirs,five unpublished ship's histories and numerous publishedworks supplied information for the book.However - that was not the case. As I read Admiral Sabin'saccount ofhis first trip across the Atlantic Ocean on his flagshipLCI, I just had to read aloud for Ginny's benefit and to relieveher stress of trying to repair her lamp.LCI Association members will enjoy the many sea stories andthe new perspective on actions involving LCIs ofdiverse types.The comprehensive review of action reports, though more detailedand repetitive than most of us will appreciate, nonethelessis a valuable historic compilation. I was especially interestedin the extensive reports describing combat on the RadarPicket Stations during the Kamikaze attacks at Okinawa.As I neared the end she more or less exploded with,"I have enough stress with this damn lamp. Listening to thatAdmiral's story I am just about to throw up. I don't need to hearabout people being sea sick all over the deck!"Now this is from a gal whose best friends are wives ofLCI sailorsand who has been listening to and reading LCI sea stories ofbattles, typhoons, Chinese fiascos, ad nauseam. She also holdsa Coast Guard Master Mariners license and has spent manymonths on both sail and power commercial vessels as Officer inCommand and has ridden out her share ofvicious sea storms.18