OK Gents, don't get your shorts in a bunch...
It seems that my "news" about the Alabama State Docks management having
decided to limit visiting vehicle passes to a max of 1000 has aroused
the ire of at least a couple of list members who apparently don't
understand the situation. Please allow me to try to explain.
First, I am a retired OF (olde pfart) who has no connection with the
LST, and do not nor ever have had any connection with the State Docks.
If what I am about to tell you makes me sound like an apologist for the
State Docks management, so be it.
The Alabama State Docks facility is first and foremost **a working
seaport**. While it is not the Port of New York, or the Port of Houston,
it *is* a busy place, somewhere in the top 20 seaports in the US. Their
business is *not* one of entertaining the public. It can be a
*dangerous* place: there are rail sidings with lots of unguarded
crossings; there are 18 wheelers roaming all about hauling cargo in and
out; for the idiots who comprise an estimated 87 percent of the general
population (my estimate; too low?) there are numerous places to fall
overboard into the filthy water and *there ain't no lifeguards!*. The
Docks staff simply is not geared up to handle large crowds of visitors
and their vehicles. Liability for injury to the public is a large
concern, as is the potential for trouble caused by the inevitable
mischief-makers which, sadly, are always present in large crowds. I'm
pretty certain that there are other considerations of which I am not
aware.
As to the comments from down under, there is no prohibition against car,
bus, or van pooling. If 15 people can be packed into a VW Bug, they can
get in, in that one vehicle, which would leave 999 other passes who can
each haul in 15 people. Or whatever. As for "Park and Ride", please note
that this is Mobile, Alabama, not London, or Sidney, or even Dallas. "We
ain't got no sech thing heah, nevah heered uvit." We're lucky (?) to
even have a city public transit system at all, and it isn't much. This
is a very car-bound place: no car, no go.
The arrival of the LST has stirred enormous interest, and respect for
the crew, locally. The problem is that, as nearly as I can discern, no
one anticipated the magnitude of the interest locally and around the
country. There is one old vet, who shall remain nameless, and who may or
may not have any assistants, who has been coordinating the arrival of
the ship here. I imagine that if he had known of the interest which
would arise he would have arranged with the city transit system to have
shuttle buses running from the Mobile Civic Center parking lot (huge!)
to the State Docks; that is done for other events, given sufficient lead
time. Anyway, keep in mind that this is an *entirely privately funded*
operation, and I don't have any idea whether the old vet has any prior
experience with staging a public event such as this. Cut him some slack!
Now for a further update on what the local media have reported:
According to the 5:00 PM TV news, people have been obtaining "tickets"
(passes) all day today. The report did not say whether the entire 1000
passes had been issued. It also did not say *where* the passes were
obtained. The TV reporter recommended viewing the arrival from Cooper
Riverside Park, which may be an unspoken way of saying that the passes
are all gone. This whole operation has been poorly managed, IMHO. Sorry,
but rather typical of this burg.
So-o-o, my sincere apologies if any of the info I have passed along
turns out to be incorrect. Like Will Rogers, "All I know is what I read
in the newspaper." Or hear on TV.
One last note: You will not be allowed to board LST-325 at this time.
The liability thing again. However, if you are coming in from out of
town, you *can* board a couple other WW-II warhorses. Be sure to visit
Battleship Memorial Park and see/board BB-60, USS Alabama, and USS Drum
(don't remember her her number). Both vessels are open for self-guided
tours and are well worth the time to visit. There are also numerous AC
and some ground vehicles on display. Battleship Park is located on the
Mobile Bay Causeway, highway US-90/98, which can be reached from I-10 or
from Government St., through the Bankhead Tunnel.
Ed Greeley
Mobile, AL
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