USS WASHTENAW COUNTY LST 1166
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U.S. NAVY DAYS
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The ship pictured above is near Portland, Oregon undergoing restoration.
After high school in 1957 I enlisted in the U.S.Navy. I was sent to San Diego Naval Training Command for boot camp and when they found out I played a trumpet for four-years in high school, I was made the Brigade Bugler for the base. While serving as Brigade Bugler, I had the honor of being the "color guard" bugler at a ceremony honoring Admiral Nimitz to name a street after him called "Nimitz Boulevard". After the ceremony the Admiral told me "you played very well, sailor", which was about the greatest experience in my short eighteen years to that date. After boot camp I was sent to the Naval Shipyard & Repair Facility located at Tocoma, Washington. It was a mothball and salvage yard for World War II aircraft carriers and destroyers. I was quickly assigned to "mess cooking" in the mess hall, which I wasn't ready for, as I was wanting to "sail the four seas and see the world". After a few months, I met a Yeoman that said he could possibly help me be reassigned a ship. After a few weeks, he told me that he had a reassignment to a Landing Ship Tank and I asked him what kind of ship it was and his reply was "kind of a ship that can beach itself and then back off the beach". "Yeh, OK send me to it!" I replied. When I reported aboard the USS Washtenaw County LST 1166, I was quickly told by the "Officer of the Deck" the Engineering Department (my rate was Machinist Mate) is full, so report to the Deck Force until there is an opening. I reported to the Deck Force and they said "stow your gear, change to dungarees and report topside". They put me on a "boatswains chair" and hoisted me and a paint bucket up the starboard exhaust stack (about 50' up from the main deck) to paint it! While painting I began to sway back and forth and after looking out on the San Diego harbor, I began to get sick and they said I actually turned green, so they brought me down to paint the top deck near the starboard railing. After a few weeks of painting, I replied to a notice on the ships bulletin board that said "Anyone that types on a typewriter, report to the ships office", so I did and was quickly made a Yeoman clerk typist there. When several months had passed, a notice was on the bulletin board �Boat Coxswain School � LCVP/LCM � Coronado Amphibious Base� So I inquired about it and found that it was a four-week course and shore duty could be every night. The next day I asked the Executive officer about going to it and he said, �go�. After graduation from the course I was told to �take personnel to the 57th Street pier and back � night duty�. It was OK for a couple of nights, but then my �night vision for range/distance� started acting up and I came in to the pier too fast and hit it going about 2 or 3 knots and a first class petty officer hurt his arm pretty bad, which really made me feel bad for him. The very next day I was �relieved� of boat duty and put back into the ships office. When we set under way for Pearl Harbor I was really excited, as it was the real �first voyage� at sea. The voyage took some three weeks, but I really liked it out at sea. When we set anchor in Pearl Harbor, I quickly signed up for a �gunnery school� which was very exciting for me (even though we didn�t use live rounds for practice). While at Pearl Harbor, I checked into �sick bay� for a skin problem and they sent me to the Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital, where I was told what the problem was and told that I �most likely picked it up from the voyage� and said I should go the San Diego Naval Hospital after returning to San Diego. After our return to San Diego, I signed up for a �radar navigation� course at Point Loma Naval Station and several months later was sent to the San Diego Naval Hospital and later discharged with a General Discharge under Honorable Conditions. That was my short lived Navy tour (1957-1959), but later I learned that the USS Washtenaw County LST 1166 went to Viet Nam by way of Cambodia and served as a Brown River Ship while there. The ship is now moored near Portland, Oregon and is undergoing restoration to be a floating Naval Museum.
