Local veteran donates ship’s bell to rural Michigan county
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
Article published on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007  |
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| Joseph Shelley and his wife, Betty, pose with a bronze bell off the LST-912 Mahnomen County before it was shipped off to Michigan. |
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PINELLAS PARK – A bell taken off an abandoned U.S. Navy ship during the Vietnam War was donated to a rural Michigan county after nearly 40 years.
The bronze bell off the LST-912 Mahnomen County, a tank landing craft launched in April 1944, was presented to the local American Legion by Joseph Shelley, a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
“It is back where it belongs, in the Michigan county for which the ship was named,” Shelley said.
The ship and the bell’s odyssey to Pinellas Park and finally to Michigan is an interesting story.
The vessel saw action in the Asiatic-Pacific campaigns and performed occupation duty in the Far East and China until January 1949. In 1955 it wound up in a boatyard, but was recommissioned in March 1963. It saw action in Vietnam and ran aground in December 1966 during a typhoon at Chu Lai.
The Navy spent four weeks attempting to refloat the 328-foot ship. It was later stripped of all valuables and abandoned.
The once glorious vessel that earned awards, citations and campaign ribbons was junked.
“I was in the Marines stationed in Vietnam at the time and a group of us were allowed to go on board to look for souvenirs,” Shelley said. “I got the ship’s bell.”
The bronze bell was used to signal the time each hour. It was located near the wheelhouse.
Shelley sent it home to his wife, Betty, who was living in North Carolina while he served in Vietnam. It was packed away and eventually found its way to Pinellas Park when the family settled in the home they still reside in today.
Shelley retired from the Marines and became a pipe and instrument fitter to help install power houses all over Florida.
The bell, meanwhile, was tucked away in the garage of his Pinellas Park home. Shelley thought about making it into a lamp, but his wife didn’t take to the idea.
“I didn’t want to just throw it away so I contacted the American Legion in Mahnomen County,” Shelley said.
They were more than happy to have a part of the scrapped ship named after their county that is located near the North Dakota border. The county is so small that only about 5,000 people live there.
Shelley shipped off the bell where it now sits in the American Legion hall.
“They wanted to pay me for the cost of shipping it,” Shelley said. “I refused the money. I just wanted to see that the bell was sent to where it belongs.”
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Article published on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007
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