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Description
Jinpo Maritime Theme Park, the open-air military history museum in Gunsan, contains two ships. The older one is Republic of Korea Navy tank landing ship ROKS Wibong (LST-676), the sixth Unbong-class LST. She was built by either the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Quincy Shipyard (Fore River, Massachusetts) according to the placard at the museum or the American Bridge Company (Ambridge, Pennsylvania) according to the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command website and was commissioned into the United States Navy as the nameless USS LST-849 on January 16, 1945. Her measurements are 100 meters long and 4196 tons fully loaded, with a top speed of 11.6 knots and a range of 3800 nautical miles at an 8-knot cruising speed. She participated in the American landing on Okinawa and supervised the first few months of the Allied occupation of Japan before the US began demilitarizing and placed her in reserve. While mothballed with the rest of the Pacific Reserve Fleet on the Columbia River, she was named USS Johnson County, which was a common name for counties in several states. She was transferred to Korean forces in Seattle on January 19, 1959, sailed across the Pacific, and recommissioned as ROKS Wibong on May 19. She participated in 16 combat missions during the Vietnam War, carrying up to 15 tanks and 500 troops, and remained in service until retired as a trainer on December 31, 2006. The following Christmas, the navy gave her to the city of Gunsan, and she is now propped up on the tidal mudflats of the Yellow Sea coast. Fortunately, as an LST she has a shallow draft and propping her up is less work than it would be for a ship built for "high seas" missions. My father once spent a week aboard a Korean LST that sailed out of Jinhae during the Cold War when he was a U.S. Navy sailor -- perhaps he got to serve aboard Wibong? Family history aside, I deeply appreciate the Navy and Gunsan for preserving this ship.

Description
Jinpo Maritime Theme Park, the open-air military history museum in Gunsan, contains two ships. The older one is Republic of Korea Navy tank landing ship ROKS Wibong (LST-676), the sixth Unbong-class LST. She was built by either the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's Quincy Shipyard (Fore River, Massachusetts) according to the placard at the museum or the American Bridge Company (Ambridge, Pennsylvania) according to the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command website and was commissioned into the United States Navy as the nameless USS LST-849 on January 16, 1945. Her measurements are 100 meters long and 4196 tons fully loaded, with a top speed of 11.6 knots and a range of 3800 nautical miles at an 8-knot cruising speed. She participated in the American landing on Okinawa and supervised the first few months of the Allied occupation of Japan before the US began demilitarizing and placed her in reserve. While mothballed with the rest of the Pacific Reserve Fleet on the Columbia River, she was named USS Johnson County, which was a common name for counties in several states. She was transferred to Korean forces in Seattle on January 19, 1959, sailed across the Pacific, and recommissioned as ROKS Wibong on May 19. She participated in 16 combat missions during the Vietnam War, carrying up to 15 tanks and 500 troops, and remained in service until retired as a trainer on December 31, 2006. The following Christmas, the navy gave her to the city of Gunsan, and she is now propped up on the tidal mudflats of the Yellow Sea coast. Fortunately, as an LST she has a shallow draft and propping her up is less work than it would be for a ship built for "high seas" missions. My father once spent a week aboard a Korean LST that sailed out of Jinhae during the Cold War when he was a U.S. Navy sailor -- perhaps he got to serve aboard Wibong? Family history aside, I deeply appreciate the Navy and Gunsan for preserving this ship.