Posted on 08/16/2008 2:25:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
OH .... MY .... GOD!!!
My Dad, a WWII Navy Vet, always referred to them as “Those Purple-Pissin’ Jap Bastards!”.
I get the feeling this article is mixing up the original Higgins boats with all LCVPs. I was on ships (an LKA and an LST) that still carried papa boats up until the mid-90s. I think what they mean is only a dozen of the original Higgins boats remain. I find it very hard to believe that all of the LCVPs are gone too.
Never rode in one..
I did. Always tried to get forward as the puke was carried to the rear. As they said bobbing around and diesel fumes did you in, plus the Navy chow didn’t help. The first to puke started an epidemic. FWIW
I saw one of those sitting around at the Royal Navy museum in Portsmouth back in 2004. I was there checking out the museum on the day before the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Didn’t look like they were taking too much good care of the poor thing, either. What a shame.
I spent today at the WWII museum in New Orleans speaking with one of the WWII vets that reconstucted the landing craft on exhibit there. He stated the wood was a 7 layer mahogany plywood made in Greece.
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