History in the classifieds
Classic war landing boat, used in movies, now for sale
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It’s pretty common to see bass boats for sale in the classified ads. The same is true of ski boats, runabouts, party barges, offshore fishing boats and personal watercraft, not to mention canoes, kayaks and bateaus.
Landing craft? The type of boat made famous at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima? Not so much. But Rick Kogler has one for sale.
Specifically, it’s an LCVP, which stands for Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel. In World War II, it was called a Higgins Boat because New Orleans boat-builder Andrew J. Higgins designed it for a navy that needed craft that could efficiently deposit lots of men and equipment on invasion beaches. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, credited the boat’s designer for winning the war. With their dropping bow ramps, LCVPs were used in the amphibious assaults on Europe and the Pacific islands in World War II, and at Inchon, Korea, in 1950.
Kogler’s LCVP wasn’t part of these epic moments. It was built in 1966, and Kogler bought it in 1993 from someone in Virginia who had bought it from the Navy. Since then, it has been berthed at Blood River Landing, and has been a familiar sight to recreational boaters on the busy Tickfaw River.
At 36 feet long, 10-1/2 feet wide and with armor-plated sides, there was no mistaking Kogler’s craft for any of the other boats. It’s nearly 15,000 pounds, pushed by a 235 horsepower diesel engine, chugged along at under 10 mph, and Kogler used it to take children to splash and play at the Lake Maurepas sandbars near the mouth of the Tickfaw.
The LCVP also has been used in a World War II documentary, “Secrets of the Dead,” and was used last year in the film “Spring Break ’83,” which has not been released.
“That’s the only time I ever charged for somebody to use the boat,” Kogler said of the movie. “Other than that, I always let people use it for free.”
He also kept the boat because of a close friend, Marvin Perrett, a former Coast Guardsman who piloted LCVPs during World War II. Perrett landed troops at Utah Beach during the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy and also at Iwo Jima in 1945.
“He died a year and a half ago. I still have the boat. It’s just sitting out there,” Kogler said. “While he was alive, he’d get up there and take care of it and take it to New Orleans and take people out in it so it kept getting used, but I just hadn’t used it in the last year or so.”
Kogler said he is aware of only one other LCVP that is still operating, and that one is in Australia. The Navy has far more technologically sophisticated craft for landing troops now, he said.
“The only value is as a collector’s value, if they do any more World War II movies,” Kogler said. “You could convert it into a camp or something, but this boat is in too good shape to start messing with it like that.”
Kogler’s classified ad offers the LCVP for $25,000. Kogler said he is willing to donate it to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, but that museum already has a restored LCVP on display.
Landing craft? The type of boat made famous at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima? Not so much. But Rick Kogler has one for sale.
Specifically, it’s an LCVP, which stands for Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel. In World War II, it was called a Higgins Boat because New Orleans boat-builder Andrew J. Higgins designed it for a navy that needed craft that could efficiently deposit lots of men and equipment on invasion beaches. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, credited the boat’s designer for winning the war. With their dropping bow ramps, LCVPs were used in the amphibious assaults on Europe and the Pacific islands in World War II, and at Inchon, Korea, in 1950.
Kogler’s LCVP wasn’t part of these epic moments. It was built in 1966, and Kogler bought it in 1993 from someone in Virginia who had bought it from the Navy. Since then, it has been berthed at Blood River Landing, and has been a familiar sight to recreational boaters on the busy Tickfaw River.
At 36 feet long, 10-1/2 feet wide and with armor-plated sides, there was no mistaking Kogler’s craft for any of the other boats. It’s nearly 15,000 pounds, pushed by a 235 horsepower diesel engine, chugged along at under 10 mph, and Kogler used it to take children to splash and play at the Lake Maurepas sandbars near the mouth of the Tickfaw.
The LCVP also has been used in a World War II documentary, “Secrets of the Dead,” and was used last year in the film “Spring Break ’83,” which has not been released.
“That’s the only time I ever charged for somebody to use the boat,” Kogler said of the movie. “Other than that, I always let people use it for free.”
He also kept the boat because of a close friend, Marvin Perrett, a former Coast Guardsman who piloted LCVPs during World War II. Perrett landed troops at Utah Beach during the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy and also at Iwo Jima in 1945.
“He died a year and a half ago. I still have the boat. It’s just sitting out there,” Kogler said. “While he was alive, he’d get up there and take care of it and take it to New Orleans and take people out in it so it kept getting used, but I just hadn’t used it in the last year or so.”
Kogler said he is aware of only one other LCVP that is still operating, and that one is in Australia. The Navy has far more technologically sophisticated craft for landing troops now, he said.
“The only value is as a collector’s value, if they do any more World War II movies,” Kogler said. “You could convert it into a camp or something, but this boat is in too good shape to start messing with it like that.”
Kogler’s classified ad offers the LCVP for $25,000. Kogler said he is willing to donate it to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, but that museum already has a restored LCVP on display.
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