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LCVP, The Navy's
Handyman
 o you remember the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel) that was stowed, if I remember correctly, on the starboard wing of the well deck? I notice some of the older pictures show it on the Port wing. It was used for the "liberty boat" and other chores that came up from time to time. Did you ever wonder where they came from? Did the Navy dream these versatile little work horses up?
Last year a new museum, The National D-Day Museum, opened in New Orleans. It has been the dream for many years of Stephen Ambrose, - author, historian and the man who wrote the Dwight D. Eisenhower biography.
Why pick New Orleans for this new museum? True, it is the home town of Mr. Ambrose, but the main reason he wanted this museum to be in the Crescent City is the Higgins Boat factory, which was located on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. Andrew Higgins designed and built tens of thousands of "Higgins boats," also know as LCVPs. These little boats were used in all beach-landing invasions during World War II. According to Eisenhower, Higgins was "the man who won the war for us."
The National D-Day Museum is located in the old warehouse district of New Orleans, once an industrial part of town that has been revitalized and transformed into the cultural and arts center of the City. The |
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museum is located in a converted warehouse/brewery on the corner of Magazine Street and Andrew Higgins Drive, just off Lee Circle. It's only moments away from the French Quarter and Central Business District.
The museum entrance is the 22,500 square foot, four story high Louisiana Memorial Pavilion where you get the feeling you are entering an army encampment. There are large army tents, jeeps, and authentic Spitfire and Avenger air planes overhead, and , of course, a Higgins boat. This LCVP is a replica of a an original landing craft built by veterans and former Higgins employees.
Among the volunteer guides are WW II veterans. One of the guides is Marvin Perrett, who served as a U.S. Coast Guard coxswain during the invasion. Perrett wasn't only in
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Normandy. His ship was involved is several other landing in Southern France and in the Pacific, where he lost his boat at the invasion of Iwo Jima. It is a tribute to him and all other Higgins boat crews that the replica in the museum has the numbers of Perrett's boat, PA33-21, from the USS Bayfield (APA-33).
In September, 1943, when the United States Fifth Army landed at Salerno, Italy, and
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