John Hatton

This is to announce I am seeking to continue as a board of directors’ member of the LST 325 Ship Memorial.

I have served with the LST for the past thirteen years in Engineering. I have served on the Board of Director for the past six years and served as the Chief Engineer for many years. Like all crew I started at the bottom scraping the rust out of ballast tanks and then devoted the time and energy to learn all about this ship from the keel up and from stem to stern. I drew on my technical education and hands on work over the decades in the transportation industry to improve the systems on the ship and to better train our crews to keep her in great shape and operate her more efficiently. You will find many manuals and procedure documents that I created to assist in the operation of the ship and to better prepare our crew. Another of my goals was to build a professional relationship with the US Coast Guard. We have accomplished that and have benefited greatly from working with them.

Early on John Tallent and I set a goal to prepare this ship for a long future. I worked with Engineering while John Tallent worked with the deck crew as well as organizing our administration team. Working together we did our part to build a professional and sustainable organization that could keep the LST running long into the future. I spent many years finding the few people who still worked with our old EMD engines and other parts. I built working relationships with these folks so that we could accumulate the spare parts and knowledge needed to maintain the ship as well as train the crew on how to repair and service our power plants. We have made tremendous progress in doing this over the past ten years and it’s the thing I am most proud of in my service to the ship.

I am asking you for you vote so that I may continue to work for and with all of you in this great project of securing the LST 325's future. While great strides have been made there is always more to do and together we can continue to accomplish great things.

Thank you for your continued support in our mission,

John Hatton