Photo Courtesy of LST Memorial The USS LST 325 will dock at Heritage Port in Wheeling from Thursday through Sept. 10.

WHEELING — Living history will dock in Wheeling’s Heritage Port later this week.

The USS LST 325 — the only working Landing Ship Tank left in the United States and a participant in D-Day in 1944 — will arrive Thursday at Heritage Port and dock there through Tuesday, Sept. 10. The ship will be open for visitors each day from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tickets are available at the ship — $15 for adults, $7 for children ages 6-17 and free for children ages 5 and under — and cash or credit card can be used.

This will be the ship’s first visit to Wheeling since 2010, when a total of 41,181 people visited the ship between stops in Wheeling, Pittsburgh and Marietta, Ohio. Watching those thousands of people learn about the ship’s history and the history of the World War II era is what makes the event fun for the dozens of volunteer crew members, said cruise director Ken Rupp.

“That’s why we do it,” he said. “We enjoy the people, we enjoy the stories, we enjoy the kids coming through how are like, ‘wow.’

“And together we remember the story of not only the sailors that sailed the ship, but the people who built it. Kind of saying, hey folks, this is what happened with this country.”

The USS LST 325 was launched on Oct. 27, 1942 and commissioned on Feb. 1, 1943. The ship is 328 feet long and 50 feet wide, with the height of the mast reaching 65 feet. It travels at a speed of 12 miles per hour. It cost $1.4 million to build in 1942, which would be more than $27 million in 2024 dollars.

During World War II, it participated in the invasion and occupations of Sicily and Salerno in 1943, as well as the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Between June 1944 and April 1945, it made 44 trips between England and France, delivering supplies and earning two battle stars. Its tank deck can hold 20 Sherman tanks.

The USS LST 325 was decommissioned in 1946, reactivated in 1951, transferred to the National Defense Reserve Fleet in 1961 and transferred to Greece as part of the Military Assistance Program in 1964. After the ship’s retirement in 1999, it was given to the USS LST Ship Memorial.

Since 2003, the USS LST 325 has traveled throughout the eastern half of the country, from Massachusetts to Mississippi to Iowa. Those who visit the ship will learn about how such seacraft operates and also see artifacts from the past. Rupp said a jeep that was used in the movie “M*A*S*H” will be on display.

Yet there will be other subtle nods to history that people can see if they look closely, Rupp added. Remnants of previous voyages can be found throughout the ship. Near Rupp’s bunk are the markings of a seaman who was counting down the days until he headed home.

The ship has been home to many different surprises, Rupp said. A few years back, some of the younger volunteers heard that underneath the screens of the ventilation shafts, sailors would stash their goodies. So the volunteers went exploring.

After removing a couple of the screens, they found a couple of old Greek Playboy magazines, a pack of cigarettes and someone’s wallet. They posted a photo of the wallet on the ship’s Facebook page, and quickly got a stunning response.

“The next thing you know, about an hour later, we got a post back with someone saying, ‘Hey, that’s my wallet,'” Rupp said.

“That’s just one of the stories,” he added. “Everytime you talk to somebody, you get another story and it’s amazing.”

For more information on the ship, visit LSTMemorial.org.