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The A-J Remembers: Henry Klein sailed the Pacific Ocean in an LST | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

World War II was high adventure for Henry Klein. He was a 17-year-old sailor who had learned how to cook at Luby’s Cafeteria in downtown Lubbock, and he was tall. He remembers that he was, in fact, the biggest sailor on LST 803. In retrospect — after 70 years has softened some of the sharp…

World War II was high adventure for Henry Klein.

He was a 17-year-old sailor who had learned how to cook at Luby’s Cafeteria in downtown Lubbock, and he was tall.

He remembers that he was, in fact, the biggest sailor on LST 803.

In retrospect — after 70 years has softened some of the sharp edges of war — Klein shares his memories with an ability to see lighter moments in the context of mortal conflict with a determined enemy. They are the memories of a wide-eyed sailor witnessing scenes that he can still see at age 90.

via lubbockonline.com

The US built about 1000 LSTs during World War II, and each one required a crew of about 115 men. Coupled with the vast numbers of other ships built, that meant a heck of a lot of the fleet would be manned by very young men who had never so much as seen salt water before. They were worlds away from the Old Salts of the interwar years. But while they may not have been quite as steeped in the traditions of the service as the battleship sailors, they performed sterling service in very trying circumstances.

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Responses to “The A-J Remembers: Henry Klein sailed the Pacific Ocean in an LST | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal”

  1. Navy davy

    My Dad was a BM2 he joined the crew of LST-649 at Seneca IL (The Prairie Shipyard) he was the oldest 32, they sailed it down the river thru the canal and spent the duration of the War in West Pac knowing they would go home only after they won the War. He is in the crew picture posted a few years ago by the son of the ships Engineering Officer. http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/16idx.htm

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  2. Tennessee Budd

    You might–or then again, might not–be surprised how many young sailors have never before seen salt water, my younger self among them. I’d guess a good half the men I served with were from landlocked states. I’d never seen an ocean or flown in an airplane (like the late Mr. Carlin, I refuse to fly ON them).
    Maybe it’s that the ocean is so foreign a concept to us; maybe we just want to get as far away from, & in as different an environment than, what we grew up in. I can’t tell you.

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