E.J. Nutter Center

The 30^th Annual Military Vehicles Preservation Association Convention was held in Dayton, Ohio on June 21 through June 24, 2006.  The MVPA mission is “To provide an international organization for military vehicle enthusiasts, historians, preservationists and collectors interested in the acquisition, restoration, preservation, safe operation and public education of historic military transport.

Thoughts went back to Boston and the LCVP and I could picture Ron and Ralph having fun in this vehicle! On this particular afternoon, I could feel the emotions flooding through those who were being ‘transported’ for the first time since Vietnam.

Gunny and his rides 

Here are several recent pictures taken by Ken Frank (Blue Crew member).

Left to Right Ken Frank, Bill Rutledge, Raine Rutledge, Doug Leib, Jim Lieb	Hard at work chipping and priming
Doug Leib taking picture 16	Left to Right Sherry Witt, Fred Johnson, Bill Rutledge, Jim Leib, Raine Rutledge, Ken Frank
The newly painted cloverleafs	Detail of a painted clover leaf
The crew with the crane chipped and primed

During the last few weeks a lot of work has been accomplished. It started with Boats, Chip Lanham and Jerry Howe. It ended with Ken Frank, Bill and Raine Rutledge, Sherry Witt and Fred Johnson, Bob Willard, and Doug and James Leib.

Here are some before, midway and almost done shots:

Notice the Crane in the above photo?  Here’s a before shot and below is a better shot of the after.

Just a bit more on the deck and she will be like new.

Here is one of the clover leafs that has been prepared for the final coat. Each of these had to be vacuumed, primed, painted gray on the inside and yellow on the outside.

That’s our newest Gator Gal standing with the brush.

Here is what it looks like today:

Jerry Howe did this just before he left. Free Hand!

Here is a shot of the deck in progress down in the mess hall area.

And here is the finished product.

Misc. little touchups:

This doesn’t seem like much but it is a high traffic area and painting it had to be timed just right or else it may never have been painted. A few months ago, there was a rusty hole where the plate now is.

Here are Some of the players.

                      Fred Leib                                                      Doug Leib

Raine Rutledge and Sherry Witt

Ken Frank

Fred Johnson

Sherry Witt  Our latest Gator Gal

I’m sorry I didn’t get any photos of Jerry, Chip, Bob Willard, or Bill Rutledge that came out decent and we all know what Boats looks like so why risk breaking my camera.  Whoops, now I’m in for it.

We recently had to replace some air tanks in the engine room and the decision was made to place the new tanks in the starboard shaft alley. It required a lot of work. Airlines had to replaced. Holes had to be cut in the bulkhead so the pipe could go through. Just getting the tanks in position was an ordeal.  They were lowered down through the access ladder shaft that drops down, two decks, from the starboard crew quarters to the shaft alley. Then they were hoisted up to a handy platform that keeps the tanks up and out of the way.

Of Course, this caused another small problem… In order to check on the tanks, someone would have to leave the engine room, walk up to the mess area, then down the passageway to the crew section and then down the ladder to shaft alley. Or, they would have to climb the ladder up from the engine room to the crew quarters, move down one compartment and then climb down the shaft alley ladder. And it had to be done in reverse to get back. You know what is coming don’t you?

Right! A new hatch was needed in the bulkhead from the engine room to the starboard shaft alley!

We had the fire department with about 20 of their guys down on the ship with all of their equipment at 10:00 AM. This was a twofold operation, it was a training exercise for the fire department and since the cutting was right over part of the engine room bilge with all of the flammable materials that float around in it, they also served as a fire watch. They sprayed foam in the bilge and they monitored the air quality.

Every thing was going along just fine until the Battalion Chief, Cliff Weaver, informed us that he may have to shut down the tank deck if the air quality got too bad. We had 60 kids coming on board at the time and another 80 an hour behind them, and they were on a schedule. That fact was pointed out to the Chief and it turned out that he had a schedule too, and of course there was the safety issue, which had priority.

The hatch outline had been ground into the paint and the cutting was started.