Well, again involving Victory at Sea, there is a yet bigger "serendipity" unfolding - now for LSTs:
But what you didn't know is (after completing the '131) I discovered, in conversation with Fred, that a much more important LST to him was the '902, whose construction he oversaw, on Lake Erie, then rode down the Mississippi - exactly as above - took through shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, then through the Panama Canal - ultimately delivering her to Pearl Harbor. While not precisely the '902, the '831, above, was of course, of the same (LST-542/Chelan County) class and also (according to Navsource) built in western PA, coming down the Mississippi less than two months earlier than '902: no doubt the two looked very close, if not identical. Anyway, I got that "supernatural-creepy" feeling - and take note of LST-831's portside camo, which will prove to be of the same (general) pattern as on yet a third of Fred's LSTs (see below).
Yet more "coincidences" there certainly are: the next, encountered on the 3rd DVD (episode 20: "Return of the Allies"):
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If the above still doesn't seem particularly lucky - among some thousand LSTs built, all told - just hang on: the above flyby begins with some sisters even closer to yet another of Fred's LSTs - in fact, his most significant - and longest - assignment of his navy service:
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The incontrovertible proof delivered by a second flyby - now going the other way, from the beach side:
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Note all are paired: '612 w/'609, '126 w/'223 and '242 w/'608, the "three sisters" - '609, '612 and '608 (in that order) - beached contiguously, with no othres coming between them, but only a stretch of "open" beach (now cluttered with LCT/LCVs) separating '608 and '612. This space ideal for having earlier accommodated the "missing" pair - LSTs 610 and '611 - recently up-anchored (very possibly to return again): this is the simplest explanation for all the above - corroborated by Navsource that all five were indeed at Leyte! Although still falling short of a direct pic of Fred's LST (and anyway he wasn't yet aboard the '610) - still the above is darn close - showing exactly what they looked like, and where they had just gone - to run across purely by chance, after surviving in the Victory at Sea series, for over a half-century!
Nor did it end when looking over my other favorites in these DVDs: the ever-present amtraks on-, in and all around these LSTs:
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If you don't get the significance of this - preponderant appearance of LST-612 in these clips - it is that undoubtedly she was the transport for this camera crew - which again means that Fred's LST-610 was almost certainly also along with them all the way, and that they very likely did photograph LST-610 - such clip(s) possibly left "on the cutting-room floor" - or maybe (the way things are going, here) even yet somewhere in these Victory at Sea episodes - preserved for all time - still to be discovered by us! At this rate, I would even keep a lookout for a film clip of Fred himself - as a 20-something youngster, who, admittedly I would never recognize (but his family probably could)!
So, are you ready - ready to see the real meaning of "Spooky Coincidences", here...?
GodSpeed, Fred! We're thinking of - and keeping a lookout for - you, buddy!
Cheers,
-Matty
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