A group of Heritage residents gathered at the Marina to pay their respects to the ship.
The 4 AM group!	Part of the 8 AM group.	There were about 20 people by then.

The excitement started when she was first seen in the distance and grew as she came right by the Marina.

Here is a composite shot of LSM 45 just as she passed Heritage Marina.

The Tug acknowledged us by sounding its horn.

It was over much too quickly for most of us.

LSM stands for "Landing Ship - Medium". It was designed primarily to land equipment, such as tanks, on the beach but could carry troops as well. It had the classic front ramp that swung down to disembark its cargo during battle. You may want to read more about LSM 45. She was truly part of the 'Greatest Generation'.

T.D. Burns is an LSM sailor who provided us with the original schedule for LSM 45. Without his long hours of work we would never had seen her go by. You may want to read his experiences working with the restoration of LSM 45.

Your webmaster is in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. One of our boats on patrol took a picture of LSM 45 further up the ICW. It shows the Auxiliary Flag and the ship. What a Memorial Day memory.

Photos by: David Peterson, Auggie Fields and Forrest Meiere.

Three cheers to Doug Rohloff for alerting us to the actual time of arrival.
Without our esteemed Dockmaster, we would have been up a creek without an LSM.

Last, but not least, thanks to everyone who called with information on the LSM schedule. It was a crazy situation. Apologies to anyone who wanted last minute information and did not get it. I started at 3:45 AM and gave up about 7 AM. Doug's call came at 7:15 AM. Pat made most of the calls we were brave enough to make. By the time we got back to the marina, the ship was in sight. Whew!

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