D. Richard Ulmer, QM3, USN shortly after reporting aboard LCI 725 in Portland |
Capt. Don Ulmer USN (Retired), former skipper of the US submarine Clamagore, at the LCI 713 restoration project
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Cold War Submarine Skipper visits the 713
D. Richard Ulmer, QM3, USN shortly after reporting aboard LCI 725 in Portland |
Capt. Don Ulmer USN (Retired), former skipper of the US submarine Clamagore, at the LCI 713 restoration project
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Cold War Submarine Skipper visits LCI 713 Project
Saturday, 28 November
Captain Don Ulmer, USN, (Retired) made a sentimental visit to the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum LCI 713 restoration project. Capt. Ulmer’s older brother, D. Richard Ulmer served aboard LCI 725, built in Portland’s Commercial Iron works in 1943 and commissioned Christmas Eve of that year. The sponsor, Mrs. G. Hraski, wife of a CIW Machinery Foreman, christened the 725 and sent her down the ways barely two months earlier. It was wartime and getting ships to combat zones had to be expedited.
Richard Ulmer wrote of Portland to his parents in New Jersey on 10 December ‘43, “I got here yesterday morning and they gave us week end liberty. This is really a nice place. Lots of pretty scenery and met a lot of different kinds of people, all of whom treat us well.” Six months later the Seven and a Quarter as the crew preferred to call her had completed shakedown cruise and crew training, crossed the Pacific and participated in the invasion of Saipan. There, the 725, reconfigured to launch rockets, struck targets on the beach. She performed this mission again at invasions of Japanese strongholds at Tinian, Pelelieu and Okinawa. Per Richard in another letter home, “It was the first one (probably Pelelieu) where every man on the bridge had to lie down on the deck (including the skipper). We stuck our nose in too close, and the Nips opened up on us with rifles.” Richard was battle stations helmsman and stood his watch on the open bridge.
Prior to visiting 713, all Capt. Ulmer knew of LCI’s was what his brother had written during the war. He said, “It is very moving to finally see how Richard lived, slept ate and fought. My earliest memories of him were as my hero. He continues to be. Restoring the 713 to its original condition is a tribute to his memory and to all who served in the Amphibious Forces. I applaud the efforts I see here.”
David McKay (title) states LCI 713 is a historic vessel on the National Parks register. Of the some 5,500 vessels commissioned by the Navy during WWII, she is the only surviving member of her class. Says Mckay, “The 713 will be mobile and can attend events far away as Seattle when restoration is completed. She will pay her own way well into the future.”
Pending opening to the general public, LCI 713 is moored just west of the I-5 Bridge at the Red Lion Thunderbird dock. She currently may be visited on Saturdays by special arrangement. Point of contact is Mr. Gordon Smith, 360-256-5901.
