USAT LT-5 (Formerly Major Elisha K. Henson and later John F. Nash)
Class: Large Tug
Length: 115 feet
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Built to serve during WW II, USAT LT-5 moved military cargo under the Army Transportation Corps. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific. On February 3, 1944, she sailed for Great Britain to assist in the preparations for Operation Overlord. LT-5 arrived off the Normandy coast on June 7 as part of Operation Mulberry. On June 8th while moored to a sunken LST, LT-5 was subjected to air attacks. Her log book for June 9 records that at 20:30 hours, "planes overhead. Everyone shooting at them. Starboard gunner got an F.W." (German Luftwaffe fighter, the Focke Wulf.) While many of the Army's remaining tugs were decommissioned, sold or scrapped, LT-5 was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers out of Buffalo serving from 1946 until 1989 as a Great Lakes harbor tug. She is the only known essentially unmodified example of the LT-type left in the U.S. Her heroics during the Normandy invasion led to the awarding of National Historic Landmark status in 1991. LT-5 is berthed on the West Pier in the Oswego Harbor where she is made available for public viewing through the H. Lee White Museum. The museum is open seasonally from May through September.
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