Posted: 6/11/03

Second ride is a breeze for LCT vet Don Grant

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Don Grant can now say he has made a successful landing on a World War II era LCT. Nearly 60 years ago off the shore of Normandy and Utah Beach, Grant wasnít so lucky.

And the Linwood Township man, now 82, still has the painful reminder of June 6, 1944 when the LCT he was aboard just yards from Utah Beach in France hit a German mine and exploded. Grant was just one of five other sailors who survived.

Not so lucky were 17 other sailors and an unknown number of U.S. Army personnel who were heading for the beach with a half dozen tanks and a bulldozer.

Fifty nine years have not erased the physical pain that Grant suffered that day. His back was broken and a leg seriously injured when the LCT (Landing Craft Tank) exploded. A lifevest kept Grant from drowning and he spent the next six months recuperating at hospitals in England and the United States before being discharged from the military.

So it was with some anticipation that Grant and two old buddies from the service days made their way to Duluth last weekend for the annual reunion of the Flotillas of W.W. II. Personnel who served aboard the LCTs in the European and Pacific theaters took part in reunion events in Duluth and Bayfield, WI, June 5-7.

For Grant, Al Antonucci, 82, of West Paterson, NJ, and Frank Antrim, 85, of Phoenix, AZ, one of the reunion highlights was a trip up the south shore of Lake Superior to Bayfield and a ride aboard the Otter Island, a LCT ship that is still in service on Lake Superior.

A day to remember

Saturdayís lake journey on the Outer Island was a refreshing change for Grant compared to his last trip aboard LCT 777.

As Antonucci recalled it last week, Grant selected LCT 777 because he thought the number might be lucky.

ìëIím going to see how lucky the three sevens are,îí Antonucci recalls Grant saying as the three men opted for LCT assignments as part of D-Day.

The three had trained together in the states and went to England in January of 1944. Grant and Antonucci were maintenance engineers. Antrim was a lieutenant.

ìHe was our boss,î Grant joked of his friend from Arizona.

Antrim and Antonucci were with LCT 778 when the Allied invasion force left England in the hours of darkness on June 5. Their craft was still waiting to go in when they saw Grantís LCT 777 hit a floating mine left in the water by the Germans.

ìI never got my feet dry on the French coast,î Grant said. The explosion tossed Grant from the ship and into the water. Paralyzed, he was saved only by a lifejacket and a quick-acting rescue boat that came to the aid of the craft.

Grant was discharged from the Navy on Dec. 21, 1944. It took months for Grant to regain his health but the battle damage still is with him today.

ìIím still recuperating,î he said.

Grant returned to Minnesota after the war and quickly found a career with the U.S. Postal Service. His career spanned 32 years from 1945 to 1977 at the Wyoming and Forest Lake post offices. He retired as Forest Lake Postmaster in May of 1977.

War buddies

The experiences shared by the war buddies did not end with the fighting in 1945.

Grant and Antonucci have remained in contact throughout the years. Another mate, John Coates, was also part of the group that stayed in touch. Coates, an electrician from Buffalo, NY, died in 1998.

Antrim, who was from Des Moines, IA, did not become part of the regular reunion group until 1994. That was when Antonucci was able to find his old pal who had moved to Arizona in 1952.

ìHe (Antonucci) wanted to find me after 50 years,î Antrim said. ìHe knew the town I was in so he took a shot.î

The group was last together in 1995 in New Orleans but made a point this year to take in another gathering. The chance to climb on an LCT again was a key, but so was the thought of old friends seeing each other again.

Donís wife Ruth helped pull the gathering together. Antonucciís wife Annabelle was there and so was Adela Coates, the widow of John Coates.

Nearly 60 years have past since that important day in world history, but the memories, and the friendships built during that time, are still alive and flourishing.

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