Veteran’s Day, A Real Holiday.
Photo courtesy of the Algonac-Clay Township Historical Society
Of all the holidays out there, and there is no shortage, just put holidays on your calendar app, and dang! And of course many are more narrow than others and thats fine. Heck, even Christmas is a holiday time that many in the world do not celebrate. Many of of our holidays actually originate around harvest times. Yup. BUT, todays man made holiday is universal in my mind. A true nod, salute, to the people that serve for us all. Folks that are there for our safety, our needs, and our freedom. TO me, one day seems so inadequate. So it is with deep respect and thanks, I say Thank you. Happy Veterans Day.
I will say both thank you and your welcome Matt. I greatly enjoyed my 21 years in th USCG. And the most satisfying times we’re running the search and rescue missions Picture is a model of the boat that I qualified as a coxswain on at Alexandria Bay NY
Syd your a River Rat
Thanks for your service! Your 41′ is newer, I ran 40 ftrs.
Well said Matt. We must all have deep and sincere gratitude for our men and women that served this great country in the military. Happy Veterans Day to all of them and THANK YOU!
Great stuff, thanks for posting!
I never intend to take away from the great contribution that Higgins made to the war effort, but every time I read this passage out of “Building Chris-Craft Inside the Factories” it make the hair on the back of my neck stand up and puts a pit in my stomach.
Thank you to ALL who have served in war time and peace time!!!!!
I would really like to read that. Can you post a link to a readable image?
World War II Landing Craft Design
“A few years ago, I got involved doing an Elderhostel course on wooden boats. There were about 40 students, and at the end of our course a gentleman asked “Why did the Chris-Craft landing craft perform so much better during the landing on Normandy Beach in World War II?”
I explained that even thought we were contracted to build the Higgins design, we could make changes to improve them. We changed the bottom design from propellers in tunnels to exterior propellers on a flat bottom. The change allowed the boats to ride higher, reduced construction time, and saved the government a lot of money.
The gentleman replied, “I owe my life to the good fortune of being in a Chris-Craft landing craft under heavy fire. All my buddies in the Higgins boats got hung up in deep water, where many of the guys were either shot or drowned”
The room went totally silent; you could have heard a pin drop.”
Christopher J. Smith
Quoted from page 62 Building Chris-Craft Inside The Factories
Anthony S. Mollica with Chris Smith
No matter the politics, our people in uniform and behind the scenes are our constant guardians.
Those that have passed before us, those that are among us, fought and are ever vigilant for our freedoms, like having the privilege to vote, must never be forgotten.
Thank you all.
Murdock, I could not agree more.
Which is exactly why every single citizen in this country should get off of their rear end and vote each and every time.
And which is also exactly why every single citizen should be vigilant and stand strong against pathetic little orange skinned men that want to take all of those freedoms away so that he can satisfy his narssasistic greedy desire to be dictator or king.
And which is why we all on both sides should be decrying the events of Jan 6th, and day in which many of our fellow citizens thought it best to soil our not perfect, but damn good system of government by a pathetic overthrow attempt.
We all need to stand side by side with those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that our freedoms stand strong and that every person’s life, liberty, happiness and viewpoints are respected and cherished.
Much appreciation to all who have served & to their families, whose contribution too often goes unrecognized. Thank you.
Sad for all those that paid the ultimate price. Thank you for laying down your life.
Thank you to all who have served and those who continue to serve to protect our country and freedom.
Happy Veterans Day, God Bless America
“This will remain the land of the free, so long as it is the home of the brave.”
thanks, Matt. I am attaching a photo of the lcvp on display at the ww 2 museum in New Orleans. (great museum to see if ever in n.o.) What interested me was how strongly built the hull sides were. of course for most of the boat there was no horizontal support above the bilge. This model also reflects the use of the metal bow ramp to exit the craft. The pilot had a fairly vunerable position toward the back of the landing craft, too.
CC also made landing craft and I have heard that they were made from plywood hull siding so that they could be repaired in the “field”.
We lived near the CC plant in Algonac where they made some of them and I witnessed them testing on some vacant land near our cottage, driving a Jeep off and back on. I don’t know why because it would have been after WW2 in the late 40s.
Many times I’ve had the honor and privilege to run the Currahee 10k with Army veterans and active soldiers to commemorate the Paratroop Infantry Regiments of the 101st Airborne who trained there at Camp Toccoa. If you’ve seen HBOs Band of Brothers series you know these soldiers ran Currahee Mtn regularly in training with and without full packs before parachuting into Normandy at night before the D Day Invasion. One year I witnessed one of those veterans climb Currahee one last time as the last remaining member of his company in honor of his fallen brothers. Now in his late 80’s, he started at dawn on crutches making it to the most strenuous section that required the best athletes to slow to a crawl. He turned around and hours later finished his descent. At the finish after all awards had been made, I walked back up the trail with others who joined him as he struggled to complete the 6 mile trip. I got the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for his service. It was the most moving experience I’ve ever had.
Served my time in Search & Rescue at Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River, aka “Graveyard of the Pacific”. This where Coasties train the run the boats in the heavy surf.
Some years ago, went to the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, walked into a display room to see the 44 ftr we had at the Cape. This is how you know you are old!
I would SINCERELY like to thank ALL who served so we could be free………THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Of all the thousands of those boats manufactured so few, if any still existant.