Higgins Eureka Boat Landing on a Beach, New Orleans, Louisiana

Gift in Memory of Marvin J. Perrett
Description: 

Photograph. Photograph of a Higgins Eureka boat landing on a beach, New Orleans, Louisiana. This image shows a Higgins Eureka boat making a landing on a Lake Ponchartrain beach. The Eureka was the forerunner of all Higgins designed landing craft used by the United States during World War II. Lake Ponchartrain, New Orleans, Louisiana, between 1938 and 1945

Image Information

Accession Number: 
Date: 
1938
1945
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Items from the service of Marvin J. Perrett. Marvin James Perrett was born on September 17, 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After attending Warren Easton High School, Perrett joined the United States Coast Guard [USCG] the day after his eighteenth birthday. Upon completing boot camp at the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, he was sent to the Amphibious Training Base at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, for boat handling school. Perrett's last training assignment was the Landing Barge School in Little Creek, Virginia, where he learned how to coxswain the Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel [LCVP]. Perrett was assigned as a boat operator to the attack transport USS Bayfield (APA-33). On June 6, 1944, Perrett guided his landing craft, PA-33-21, in the first wave of assault craft to hit Utah Beach in the Normandy Landings. Perrett survived the Invasion of Normandy and went on to make landings in Southern France before the Bayfield was redeployed to the Pacific. During the Invasion of Iwo Jima Perrett was stranded on the beach when his LCVP swamped in the surf. Perrett was able to safely make it back to the Bayfield despite machine gun and shell fire on the beach. He later piloted a landing craft in operations supporting the Invasion of Okinawa before he was discharged from the USCG after the end of the war. This collection consists of Higgins Industries photographs and documents that Perrett used as educational tools. There is also a single bound unit history of the 156th Infantry Regiment.
Geography: 
Pontchartrain, Lake
Latitude: 
30.183
Longitude: 
-90.100
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
Landing craft--American--United States
Flags--American--United States
Boats--American--United States
Pile drivers--United States
Security guards--United States