Most WWII relics sit behind velvet ropes. Not this one. The USS LCI-713 floats in the Willamette River, smelling of diesel oil and old steel. Built in 1944 by George Lawley & Sons in Massachusetts, this 158-foot flat-bottomed beast had one brutal task. It shoved its bow onto enemy sand. Then, 200 infantrymen charged down the side ramps into the gunfire. The crew fought through the Pacific. They hit Sansapor, Morotai, and Mindanao. Imagine cramming into tight, sweaty bunks below deck while the quad-diesel engines rattled your teeth. The steel hull was only a quarter-inch thick, meaning shrapnel sliced right through it.
After the Allied victory, the Navy did not need thousands of cheap landing craft anymore. Most were scrapped or scuttled, but the 713 found a second life in the Pacific Northwest. It became a commercial tugboat on the Columbia River. Local loggers used it for decades. Actually, this grueling work is exactly what saved it from the scrap heap. By the time historians took notice, almost every other Landing Craft Infantry (Large) had vanished. Today, it is one of only two remaining LCI(L)s in the United States still in its original configuration. Volunteers with the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum are currently restoring it. They spend weekends scraping rust, sourcing vintage parts, and rebuilding the massive engines. It is a grueling, dirty job. But they want people to stand on the deck and feel the raw, unpolished history of the amphibious war.
