LST 388

Author Robert  Von Der Osten with Barbara on Der Osten

Preface

ON A COLD, windy November day in 1984, I climbed out of a van full of photographers, stylists, and fashion models.  It was to be a photo shoot, and the location was Normandy on the northern coast of France.  Young and naïve, all I simply knew was that my Dad had been here as part of the US Navy during World War II.

  The details wouldn’t be revealed to me until ten years later, in 1994, when I volunteered to re-type my Dad’s WWII journals, after they had lovingly been compiled by him and my Mom.  From that point on, I was hooked on history as told by the people who experienced it.  Not a textbook, but an emotional, real connection to an event or events in history.

  Over the years, my Dad continued to add to his collection of war-related materials to one day turn into a book.  With every attendance at a US LST Association Annual Convention, at every new book that came out explaining events of WWII in a new way, and every newspaper or magazine article that related in any way to his experience aboard the USS LST-388 during WWII, the collection expanded.  It became a never-ending project.

Never-ending, that is, until now.

  In early 2016, at the age of 96, he began to ease off reading books about the war.  This is when he turned it all, his entire collection, over to me to continue, and to turn into this book you now hold in your hands.

  Combing through that collection, through the various versions of compiled journal entries, letters, articles, notes, photos, and postcards, I strived to compile it all into a book he could be proud of.  I located and read all the references he mentioned, from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Crusade in Europe, to naval historian Samuel L. Morison’s volumes on the war in North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, as well as France and Germany, to a 1944 issue of Popular Science Magazine. In addition, I read through months and months of Deck Logs for the USS LST-388, obtained from the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, in order to confirm dates and entries, and to fill in any existing gaps in the writings.

  Sadley, my Dad would not live to see this final version of his journals and collected documents, articles, and photos.  He passed away on December 3, 2016 at his home in Hayesville, North Carolina.  Just the previous week I had been by his side, lost in his enormous smile.  I knew then that he would not see this final version of his book.  Honoring my promise to him, I have continued and finally completed his book.

  I, along with my Dad, want to share what we all now know as history, on a more personal level.  May this book inspire you to share your own story, your own experience of history.  It really does matter.

Barbara von der Osten

June 18, 2017 (Father’s Day)