thedrifter
09-23-08, 08:30 AM
Museum vessel’s future may be at bottom of sea
Deal falls through with Ohio group to take ownership
September 23, 2008 - 12:29AM
JENNIFER HLAD
It carried U.S. Marines and sailors in the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, transported Greek sailors in the Mediterranean Sea and took a trip down the Mississippi River on its way from Omaha, Neb., to Camp Lejeune. Now, after sitting in Mile Hammock Bay for four years, Landing Ship Medium-45 may be headed to its final resting place.
The World War II-era landing craft was donated to the Museum of the Marine - then known as the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas - in 2004 for use as part of the museum. At the time, the museum was slated to be built near a planned hotel and conference center on the New River in downtown Jacksonville.
Bruce Gombar, chairman of the museum's board of directors, has been on the museum's board since the idea took root. He remembers when the board first heard that the ship, then docked in Omaha, was looking for a new museum home.
"There was a lot of consternation about it, but also a lot of excitement about it," Gombar said. "We knew there would be significant costs involved in bringing her up to museum quality. ... We reluctantly agreed to take it."
The man at the head of the nonprofit organization then controlling the ship, Rolf Ilsley, had already invested about half a million dollars to get the ship to the United States and make sure his organization, the Amphibious Ship Museum, could donate it to the local museum. In a phone interview Monday, he recalled his son, who is an attorney, asking if Ilsley wanted to put a clause in the agreement requiring the Museum of the Marine to include the ship in a museum by a certain date. Ilsley declined.
"If the Marines, using their best efforts, can't do something with it, no one can," said Ilsley, who served as a group staff engineering officer on three different LSMs during World War II.
A year later, the city's plans for the hotel and conference center dissolved, leaving the museum without a site. The museum researched a number of new sites - some on the water, some not - before settling on a site near the Beirut Memorial. But the landlocked site leaves the ship high and dry.
The LSM Association - which did not have control of the ship, Ilsley said - gave the museum a check for $39,000 for the ship's upkeep. But the museum has spent more than $60,000 since 2004 on repairs and maintenance, Gombar said. Repairing damage left by vandals alone has cost the museum more than $3,000, he said.
The ship cannot be moved to the new museum site, Gombar said, but if it could, the cost of moving it and getting it up to "museum quality" would cost more than building the museum itself.
The museum looked for an organization that would take control of the ship. Finally, they heard from an interested organization: The Last Patrol.
"We were, frankly, excited about it," Gombar said.
Two members of the organization traveled to North Carolina from Ohio to look at the ship and ensure it was stable enough to tow. John Nowakowski of The Last Patrol told The Daily News last week that the trip went well and they thought everything was "good to go."
Then, earlier this month, Nowakowski received an e-mail from Bill Ayers, acting executive director of the Museum of the Marine. The e-mail said the museum would no longer deal with The Last Patrol, and a letter explaining the reasons would arrive later.
"We thought this was all a done deal. And then, out of the blue, we get blindsided," Nowakowski said.
The letter has not yet been written, Ayers said. But he, Gombar and Ilsley said the reason they stopped dealing with The Last Patrol is that it became clear the organization cannot afford to take care of the ship as they've proposed.
"They indicated they did not have the money to pay for the fuel for the tugboat to take it away," Ilsley said. "They are very well-intentioned, but they are very unrealistic."
Nowakowski said they had worked out a deal with a tow operator to tow the ship to Norfolk to a temporary berthing space, where it could be kept for free indefinitely.
But Ilsley, Gombar and Ayers said they are convinced the ship would be scrapped if it was given to the organization.
"The Marines called me and talked with me about what to do with the ship, because they felt an obligation, not that I had any legal voice," Ilsley said. "I said let's be realistic. It doesn't have any good future home. Let's do the most dignified thing we can do with it. When they said they can make it into a fish reef, I said, ‘I wholly support that.'"
Gombar and Ayers said the museum has not yet decided exactly what they will do with the ship: either sell parts of it for scrap or donate it to an organization for use as an artificial reef. Regardless, Gombar said, there will be an appropriate ceremony beforehand so the men who served on the ship will get a chance to say goodbye.
Ilsley said he hopes some of the ship's parts will go to an LSM that has been converted into a salvage vessel and is operating in California, while the rest is donated as a reef.
And while he has spent roughly three-quarters of a million dollars of his personal funds on the ship, he said the cost was worth it for the reunion held in Omaha in 2004, when nearly 1,500 LSM veterans and their families went aboard.
"There were tears in the eyes of men," he said.
Ilsley told the members of the LSM Association about the plan at the group's annual reunion this year, and he said the vast majority understood it was the best thing to do.
"The Marines have gone beyond what they were obligated to do to take care of that ship," he said.
Ellie
Deal falls through with Ohio group to take ownership
September 23, 2008 - 12:29AM
JENNIFER HLAD
It carried U.S. Marines and sailors in the Battle of Okinawa in World War II, transported Greek sailors in the Mediterranean Sea and took a trip down the Mississippi River on its way from Omaha, Neb., to Camp Lejeune. Now, after sitting in Mile Hammock Bay for four years, Landing Ship Medium-45 may be headed to its final resting place.
The World War II-era landing craft was donated to the Museum of the Marine - then known as the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas - in 2004 for use as part of the museum. At the time, the museum was slated to be built near a planned hotel and conference center on the New River in downtown Jacksonville.
Bruce Gombar, chairman of the museum's board of directors, has been on the museum's board since the idea took root. He remembers when the board first heard that the ship, then docked in Omaha, was looking for a new museum home.
"There was a lot of consternation about it, but also a lot of excitement about it," Gombar said. "We knew there would be significant costs involved in bringing her up to museum quality. ... We reluctantly agreed to take it."
The man at the head of the nonprofit organization then controlling the ship, Rolf Ilsley, had already invested about half a million dollars to get the ship to the United States and make sure his organization, the Amphibious Ship Museum, could donate it to the local museum. In a phone interview Monday, he recalled his son, who is an attorney, asking if Ilsley wanted to put a clause in the agreement requiring the Museum of the Marine to include the ship in a museum by a certain date. Ilsley declined.
"If the Marines, using their best efforts, can't do something with it, no one can," said Ilsley, who served as a group staff engineering officer on three different LSMs during World War II.
A year later, the city's plans for the hotel and conference center dissolved, leaving the museum without a site. The museum researched a number of new sites - some on the water, some not - before settling on a site near the Beirut Memorial. But the landlocked site leaves the ship high and dry.
The LSM Association - which did not have control of the ship, Ilsley said - gave the museum a check for $39,000 for the ship's upkeep. But the museum has spent more than $60,000 since 2004 on repairs and maintenance, Gombar said. Repairing damage left by vandals alone has cost the museum more than $3,000, he said.
The ship cannot be moved to the new museum site, Gombar said, but if it could, the cost of moving it and getting it up to "museum quality" would cost more than building the museum itself.
The museum looked for an organization that would take control of the ship. Finally, they heard from an interested organization: The Last Patrol.
"We were, frankly, excited about it," Gombar said.
Two members of the organization traveled to North Carolina from Ohio to look at the ship and ensure it was stable enough to tow. John Nowakowski of The Last Patrol told The Daily News last week that the trip went well and they thought everything was "good to go."
Then, earlier this month, Nowakowski received an e-mail from Bill Ayers, acting executive director of the Museum of the Marine. The e-mail said the museum would no longer deal with The Last Patrol, and a letter explaining the reasons would arrive later.
"We thought this was all a done deal. And then, out of the blue, we get blindsided," Nowakowski said.
The letter has not yet been written, Ayers said. But he, Gombar and Ilsley said the reason they stopped dealing with The Last Patrol is that it became clear the organization cannot afford to take care of the ship as they've proposed.
"They indicated they did not have the money to pay for the fuel for the tugboat to take it away," Ilsley said. "They are very well-intentioned, but they are very unrealistic."
Nowakowski said they had worked out a deal with a tow operator to tow the ship to Norfolk to a temporary berthing space, where it could be kept for free indefinitely.
But Ilsley, Gombar and Ayers said they are convinced the ship would be scrapped if it was given to the organization.
"The Marines called me and talked with me about what to do with the ship, because they felt an obligation, not that I had any legal voice," Ilsley said. "I said let's be realistic. It doesn't have any good future home. Let's do the most dignified thing we can do with it. When they said they can make it into a fish reef, I said, ‘I wholly support that.'"
Gombar and Ayers said the museum has not yet decided exactly what they will do with the ship: either sell parts of it for scrap or donate it to an organization for use as an artificial reef. Regardless, Gombar said, there will be an appropriate ceremony beforehand so the men who served on the ship will get a chance to say goodbye.
Ilsley said he hopes some of the ship's parts will go to an LSM that has been converted into a salvage vessel and is operating in California, while the rest is donated as a reef.
And while he has spent roughly three-quarters of a million dollars of his personal funds on the ship, he said the cost was worth it for the reunion held in Omaha in 2004, when nearly 1,500 LSM veterans and their families went aboard.
"There were tears in the eyes of men," he said.
Ilsley told the members of the LSM Association about the plan at the group's annual reunion this year, and he said the vast majority understood it was the best thing to do.
"The Marines have gone beyond what they were obligated to do to take care of that ship," he said.
Ellie