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Oa iU woy to war ia this LST 6S2. Th*a« 

 ■hip* or* called th* bockbon* oi ia- 

 Toaiena. It wei^s about 2200 tona. car- 

 ri»a a maximum load of 500 to 600 tona. 



MOVIES FOR LST CREW 



ILUNOIS FARM BUREAU EQUIPS RECREATION ROOM 



CREW members of U.S.S. LST (Land- 

 ing Ship, Tank) 652 are enjoying 

 movies aboard ship these days as the re- 

 sult of cooperation of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association representing Farm 

 Bureau families of Illinois in sponsoring 

 recreational equipment for the ship. 



A recent letter from the commanding 

 officer states that the crew members used 

 the funds to purchase a movie projector 

 and screen. This will mean many hours 

 of pleasant recreation not only for the 

 crew in their short hours off duty, but 

 also for many other service men in many 

 distant battle areas where the LST sails. 

 This is because crews share their movies 

 with other groups where the ship en- 

 counters them. 



In November of 1944 the board of di- 

 rectors of the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation learned that LSTs at the time 

 of being launched had very limited recre- 

 ational facilities for crew members, and 

 that organizations had been sponsoring 

 recreational equipment for these ships. 



The matter of the lAA sponsoring 

 recreation room was referred to the 

 finance committee of the board for in- 

 vestigation. After the committee conferred 

 with the captain of U.S.S. LST 652 which 

 had just been built at Seneca, a resolution 

 was presented Dec. 1 to the board recom- 

 mending an appropriation by the lAA 

 for the sponsorship of a recreation room. 



The lAA board approved the resolu- 

 tion and early in December, presentation 

 of funds was made to the crew of U.S.S. 

 LST 652. Members of the lAA finance 

 committee and other members of the 

 lAA board who were in Chicago attend- 

 ing the AFBF convention accepted an 

 invitation to dine with the officers of the 

 ship which was then anchored at Navy 

 Pier, and the presentation was made at 

 that time. 



In making the presentation, Talmage 

 Defrees, lAA Vice-President, stated that 

 the gift was in reality from the Farm 



Bureau families of Illinois and repre- 

 sented a contribution from their hard 

 work and toil on the farm. 



Lt- (i-g-) ^- S. Fein, executive of- 

 ficer of the ship, who accepted the gift 

 in the name of^ the commanding officer 

 and men, asserted that many of the crew 

 were from farms and small towns in Il- 

 linois and they appreciated what the con- 

 tribution meant. 



Following the dinner, the lAA board 

 members were taken on a tour of the 

 ship and had an opportunity to visit with 

 some of the crew members who were 

 from Illinois farms and communities. 



On Jan. 11, the lAA received a letter 

 from Richard N. Shaw, commanding of- 

 ficer of U.S.S. LST 652, in which he 

 said: 



"The holiday season was considerably 

 less gloomy than it otherwise would have 

 been, as a result of the generous gift of 

 your members to the crew of this ship. 

 None of the men were able to go ashore 

 Christmas, and for many of them it was 

 their first Christmas away from home. 



"Just as any spirited group of young 

 Americans would have done under sim- 

 ilar circumstances, the men got up an 

 entertainment on the tank deck, with one 

 of them playing Santa. The entertain- 

 ment was topf>ed off with a showing of a 

 motion picture, "Silver Stallion," using 

 the 16 MM Bell & Howell motion pic- 

 ture projector purchased with funds do- 

 nated by your members. 



"One film was shown Christmas eve 

 an»l another Chrstmas night." 



Dining with tho o&icers oi LST 652 ore 

 lAA board committee member*. Left to 

 right atu: K. T. Smith. Ena. E. P. Neuge- 

 bauer. Lt. W. H. Crabb. Ens. Herbert 

 Burgess. Otto Steifey. W. A. Dennis. Albert 



Hayes. Vice-President Talmage Deirees. 

 Homer Curtiss, Chester McCord. Lt. M. S. 

 Fein, executive officer, and C. J. Elliott. 

 lAA committee members oi the board en- 

 joyed a chicken dinner. 



FEBRUARY. 1945 



