| Among the volunteers making sure the finished boat will be authentic
are workers, supervisors and engineers who helped design, build and test
the boats during the war, as well as coxswains and crew who manned the boats
in landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Southern France, and
throughout the Pacific theater.
The completed boat will undergo formal sea trials sometime in the summer
of 1999, and will be commissioned into the United States Coast Guard on November
6th, 1999 at a joint service ceremony. Commissioning the boat will
be Admiral James Loy, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard. The
boat will be designated PA33-21, as assigned to the USS Bayfield
(APA-33), a World War II attack troop transport ship manned by USCG
personnel. The Bayfield served as flagship and command center at Utah
Beach on 06 JUN 1944, the invasion of Southern France on 15 AUG 1944, the
invasion of Iwo Jima on 19 FEB 1945 and the invasion of Okinawa on 01 APR
1945.
Following a brief period on active duty in the United States
Coast Guard, the PA33-21 will be decommissioned and returned to civilian
duty at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. The boat will actually
be owned by the University of New Orleans (UNO) Foundation, and will be on
permanent loan for display at the museum.
This informational page about the project is in the process of being expanded.
For now, more details are available in the project newsletters, which
we invite you to view here on our site.
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