Dave Skeahan's USS Skagit Photos

My name is Dave Skeahan, they call me Skeeter.

I served in the Navy aboard USS Skagit during the Korean War as an Engineman 3rd Class in the Boat Division.

I made two WestPac cruises between 1951 and 1953, and was aboard when the ship operated in Korean waters during "Operation Decoy", a feint landing at Kojo, and the building of POW camps at Yancho DO, and Pangam Do called Operation "Spread Out".

Below are some of my pictures, memorabilia and memories............

San Diego, Aug 1950

Boot Camp

Boot Camp, San Diego, Aug 1950

George Austin - Royce Painter - Ole Ronnington - "Bub" Skeahan

Tom Pendrak - Chuck Johnson

Administrative Remarks, First Cruise

Administrative Remarks, Second Cruise

Rarely Seen Photo of USS Skagit

Note: Full Compliment of 24 Boats, with LCVPs Inside The MIKE Boats

Thanksgiving Menu 1951

Docking In Pusan, April, 1951

In July 1952 we hauled supplies to build POW Camps

Bob Barraque, Ken Genn, Wilkerson

A Load of Lumber

Tom Koch Cox'n, Eddie Cook, Wilkerson

Me and Wilkerson with more lumber

Korean boys cleaning up rice from LCM

Korean boy cleaning up rice, Bob Parsons in boat.

In the Fall of 1952 we made the feint landing at Kojo, with 50 mph winds and high seas.

Kojo Korea, October 1952

Kojo Korea, October 1952

George Rateike Engineman 1st Class August 1951

Bob Parsons - Tom Koch

San Diego February 1953

Tug Boat, Pusan Korea April 1951

Army Boat, Koje Do Korea July 1952

Our LCVP picked up an Army General and brought him aboard

Pilot Boat, Pusan Korea April 1952

Kojo Korea, October 1952

Combat equipped Marines clamber down cargo nets into LCVPs for training

During an excersize in Pohang November 1952,

me and the driver were pinned when a hatch crew hoisted an Army truck before we were out of the well deck.

For our efforts at Kojo we were awarded the Combat Action Ribbon

My Medals and Ribbons

Boot Camp 1950

The Following Are Some Of My Skagit Reunion Photos

Vince Butero AKA Shotgun Red

Unknown Don
Byrnes Orville
Crawford

Plank Owner CMDR Orville Crawford, Chaplain

St. Peters Chapel Mare Island Vallejo, California Sept. 2000

"THE SPIRIT SHIP” is an Art Tribute dedicated to the workers of Mare Island Naval Shipyard marking the closure of the Shipyard in 1996.
The sculpture by William Wareham has a “dog tag” for many of the ships built and repaired on Mare Island.

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There Is A Poetry In Ships' Names

It can still be heard in the quiet watches of the night..., when mist obscures the waterfront and foghorns call mournfully through the darkness. Out across the bay, blinking lights mark the channel down which Navy ships have sailed for a hundred years, and bells sound a knell for those that never came back. There is no quiet Arlington for ships; their bones rust in unknown lands beneath the sea.

The names that entered history in minutes filled with fire and thunder are soon forgotten, except in long hours of the night when the bells call the roll of missing ships.

--- Fletcher Pratt

Plankowners

Walter
Norman Libby
Lanning Tom
MaGaha Orville
Crawford Don
Byrnes Jerry
Gaughan Ken
Munro

Zeke and Barbra Forlina - Marlene and Toni Manca

Mary and Phil Alongi

Sacramento, California Sept. 2000

Ralph Hedemark - Virginia and Ralph Ianni - Ed "Jim" Beam

Sacramento, California Sept. 2000

Ralph Ianni

Sacramento, California Sept. 2000

Paul Gonneville - Libby and Marilyn Lanning

Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky Sept. 1997

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San Diego Reunion 1992

George Rateike

Jim Harless - George Rateike - Don Vogan

Philadelphia 1995 Plank Owners

Front: Harris, Lanning, Hoffman, McGaha, Parker, Geis

Back: Gonneville, Brewin, Ferrari, Kennedy, Thompson, Gaughan, Nichols, Rohdes, Busta, Leidenberger ================================================================

See ya at the next reunion

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