Visiting Jerry Ford, Muskegon, MI & LST-393

Sunday 5/18, we left the Escapade Fairgrounds and drove north towards Grand Rapids, MI and checked into Wood Chip RV Park about 10 miles south of Grand Rapids.  We had decided to give ourselves a rest after a month on the road so we paid for 2 nights of R&R.  We got reorganized, did a little cleaning and relaxed reading books and magazines. On Tuesday 5/20 we arrived at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, right on the river in the heart of downtown with spacious grounds and free parking.  This Presidential Library and Museum is unique in that the Library is physically split from the Museum and is located on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor--the only such split facility in the Presidential Library system.

The Museum is on the 2nd Floor and begins with the sights and sounds of the mid-1970s, rock and roll, the Vietnam War, the Watergate breakin, Nixon's resignation, Squeaky Fromme and the pistol she used in her assassination attempt on Ford, the '70s energy crisis and much more. The whole story of how Ford became the U.S. Vice President after Spiro Agnew resigned and U.S. President after Nixon's resignation without ever being elected to these offices is unprecedented in U. S. history! 

Iron sculpture of Ford in his football days

A look into his childhood and school years, becoming an Eagle Scout, his football stardom in high school and college and service as a Navy officer in World War II on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific were all interesting as well as his law career and then political career leading up to the presidency. There is a replica of Ford's Oval Office and the Cabinet Room in the Museum.  And of course a discussion of Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon and the reasoning behind it, still controversial today!  We came away with the impression that this was a very decent, honest man trying to do the world's most difficult job!

Later that afternoon we drove northwest to the Lake Michigan port city of Muskegon to visit one of only two remaining World War II LST (Landing Ship,Tank) amphibious ships. 

 First we stopped at the Muskegon Chamber of Commerce in the old but beautifully restored Union Railroad Depot built in 1895.  We then walked to several nearby nicely restored buildings like the Muskegon Board of Education administration building (1895), the Hackley Public Library (1890) and the large well-kept Hackley City Park with a huge Civil War monument and with statues of famous Civil War Union generals in all 4 corners of the park!

 Lin, as some of you will remember, wants to visit almost all of the Navy museum ships in the U.S.   This was USS LST-393, a veteran of 3 major European campaigns in World War II, including D-Day at Omaha Beach in 1944.  This ship was sold as surplus by the government in 1947 and used as a car ferry on Lake Michigan until the 70s when she was laid up at its current location then rescued by a group of Navy veterans about 12 years ago.  The ship is in remarkable condition and the tank deck is filled with wartime exhibits plus a WWII Navy training film video on the operation of an LST and how it approaches a beach and drops its bow ramp and offloads its tank deck cargo of combat vehicles and then its deck cargo.  Virtually all its spaces on 6 decks including the engine rooms are open to visitors so it was a very informative visit.

 In keeping with the Navy theme, we drove out toward the canal to Lake Michigan to view a historic WWII submarine, USS Silversides (SS-236). The Museum had closed for the day but we could walk down the pier and inspect the ship.  Silversides is a Gato-class sub commissioned 12/14 1941!  In WWII, she earned 12 battle stars in combat and a Presidential Unit Citation for sinking 23 enemy ships, #3 record of all Allied Submarines so quite a historic ship!  Also on display ahead of the sub,
is a prohibition-era U.S. Coast Guard Cutter, USCGC McLane (WSC-146) commissioned in 1927 to chase bootleggers.  During WWII, she was assigned to the Bering Sea Patrol--very cold, rough duty!  She was decommisioned in 1968 and became a museum ship in Chicago and eventually was moved to this museum in Muskegon.  I find this ship interesting because it was contemporary with the larger USCGC Itasca that my father served on as gunnery officer whthe ship guiding Amelia Earhart into Howland Island when she disappeared.  That's it for Muskegon; next we'll visit beautiful Holland, Michigan, also on Lake Michigan.