DESTINATIONS

Comments About Website: (When E-mailing the addresses below, remove the X after the @ sign)

Hello, my name is Mark Fetch. I enjoyed reading your Web-Site on LST 745. My interest in the ship started when I was a little boy. You see my Aunt was the sponsor, she was my Dad's sister, her name was Ann Simon and my Uncle Paul was a superintendent at the Dravo ship yard on Neville Island. They had a painting that hung over the living room sofa of LST 745. When your only six years old it was quite an impressive site. My Aunt's grandchildren have the painting now. My Mother has photo's of the ship's christening, you don't see much of the ship only my Aunt and her sisters. My Aunt and Uncle passed away in the late 60's and early 70's and my father in 1982. It was nice reading the names and comments on your site it brought back some nice memories. Thank's Mark. My name is William Fromme. I recently obtained a 'poster' from my Grandmother of the ship my Grandfather served on in WW II, it is the LST 745. The photos on the poster are the same as posted on your website, so it appears you have the same one I do. My Grandfathers name is Robert Karl Shannon and he passed away in 1998. It appears that he served whth your father. Well, I really just wanted to say hello and thank you for creating the website to acknowledge those who served in WW II. My name is Joyce Gunderman, my father, Robert Karl Shannon, served in WWII aboard the LST 745. After looking at the pictures of his ship, I can fondly recall the many times my father and I would sit at our kitchen table and he would talk about life aboard his ship and his shipmates. I want to thank you for having this website to remember and to honor all the men and women that served in WWII. Just browsing old ships with friend of mine who was on LST-745. He is sitting here now. He recalls your Father. His name is Curt Davy, he was on the ship 1944-46. He was a skivy waver :-) Better known as a signalman. We are not sure what his rate was, it indicated MA. That throws us. Curt would like to know if you have any other names and addresses, especially snail mail addresses. He has no PC. If you will please send to me, I will print them out and send to Curt. Curt lives about 2 hr drive from here. We are both living in Ohio. My address is mailto:swabbie@wcoil.com My dad, Roger H deCourcy, passed away last week. He had always been close mouthed about details of his service in WWII. We did know he served on LST's and had joined his first one as a SF3 when it was being built in Pittsburgh in 1944. At some point he had broken his jaw and was shipped back to the Naval Hospital in New Orleans. He was then assigned to another LST. While going through his papers I found his Navpers 553 which listed the 745 as his original ship. There is also a letter from the First Lt. recommending him to his next duty station and a list of people who donated money for him (see 'Those who served' above). They are dated late June of 1944. My Dad had told of going down the Mississippi to sea, heading for the Panama Canal and ending up lost in Cuba. I never could figure out why the Navy would have sent a guy with a broken jaw all the way back from WESTPAC to NHNO for treatment. Your list of destinations of the 745 solved it. Based on the list and the dates on the papers I have it appears that the 745 was in New Orleans at the time he broke his jaw and was transferred. I am assuming that he joined his next ship from there and that was the one which got lost. We are sending for his service records and should get more information from them. In the meantime, I just want to say "Thanks" for putting the information you had out there. Attached are some photos I took of LST 393 about a year ago in Muskegon, MI. The ship had been donated to a museum by a sand company. The museum folded and the sand co got their ship back. I took the pictures through a fence with a long lens. I guess it is one of the few LST's left. Thanks Again, Harry deCourcy, Merrillville, IN I recently found your website after my grandfather visited D.C. for the WWII Memorial. My grandfather, Stanley Eisenmenger, served on the LST 745 in the South Pacific. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky. He asked me to email you to add his name to the list you have of those serving on the LST 745. If you need more information from me I’d be glad to talk with you. I can be reached at 502-550-4185. Natalie Tinsley Louisville, KY. My name is Gerry Tandberg. My father, LTJG Edwin Tandberg, also served on LST 745 as the Engineering Officer. It's my understanding he was aboard LST-745 for all campaigns in the Philippians. My father was 25 years old when I was born, during their landing at Leyte, Oct 1944. He took many black and white pictures and developed them aboard ship. Those photographs remain in a trunk at my sister’s house in Sacramento, CA, and have not been opened since 1993. I recall many of those photographs showing tanks and other vehicles in the ships hold, and some exiting the bow doors. Unfortunately, like so many men who survived battles of war, my father did not talk much about his WWII experiences. I tried to obtain information on the LST 745 crew members many years ago when my father was still alive. Unfortunately he died on his birthday, 12 Jan 1991. I also have a map showing all the campaigns LST 745 participated. It may have been hand drawn by my father drawn on a thick white paper then rolled up. I saw it unrolled about 50 years ago, and as I recall it was about 8” tall and about 18” long. I believe I will need to have it steamed open to avoid damage, if it can be found. My father was easy going, 5’11", very thin (they were all thin), probably would have been comfortable with the enlisted men, and one of few who had a camera, probably a simple box camera. Any LST 745 crew members still alive might remember the two Bulldog ships mascots that were thrown overboard by a disgruntled crewman when they were in the Philippians. I joined the Navy in 1962, but stayed only long enough to fulfill my military obligation. I’m a student of history, and have read many accounts of the war in the Pacific. To date, I’ve never seen pictures or any film showing LST 745, other than those taken by my father. One question: If the final Disposition of LST 745 was sold for scrap to Boston Metals, Co, Baltimore, MD. on 26 Sep 1947, how could it have participated at Inchon Landing during the Korean War in Aug 1950?

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3)
Bottom Row - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Medal (with Asia Clasp) - Philippine Liberation Medal