I spent 12 years in Amphibious Ships. My first was USS St. Louis, LKA-116. We carried LCM-6 and 8s. Along with LCPLs and sometimes LCVPs. I loved working as boat crew, (Boat SM). But everyone in the boat, learned everything about the boat. We took turns at the wheel, could drop the bow ramp, served as deck hands, handling cargo and vehicles. We helped the boat engineer. It was hot, miserable, cold, wet, exhausting work. A 20 hour in the boat day was the norm. Grease and oil covered you, mostly from the rigging used to hoist and lower the boat and any cargo. I liked it. The Coxswain may be a BM3, and me an SM1, but it was his boat. I did my job and whatever he told me to do. Most boat crew, learned their job on the Job. Our Ships Bosun, tried to send all his Coxswains to school, but that wasn’t always practical. We just learned how to do stuff. It was a great life. 

Thanks for the report and all the photos. What an amazing display of skill and passion. I’d love to see this in person. My Sister-in-Law Mary is quite the skilled craftsperson. I’m sure she’d love it.  mikie

Thanks for this extra info. I will be looking for more pictures for the display.

Graham. It was a pleasure to meet up with you and to be able to show you a small part of the history of my home city of Lichfield. Thanks for my pint in the birthplace of the S. Staffs Regiment, formed way back in the 1700's. My round next visit,    The exhibition is being very well received with coach parties visiting most days apparently.  Kev  

True, but again, these are exceptions to the role and what he had to do in total for the whole company. For the Company HQ section to be put in the fight was a last resort as typically a platoon or a couple of squads were in company reserve to exploit a break thru or plug gaps in defense. That said, one can find pix of most anything but you must ask yourself “what was happening right then at that minute” the pix was taken to have context.  Your display so make it however you want to. You asked though. 

Ok

And the Higgins boats were “LCVPs”. 

The Navy had a points system just like the Army. Everyone after October 1942, was drafted with the caveat of service “The duration of the War, Plus Six Months. So, lots of variables, time in service, combat time, wounds, dependents, same stuff as the Army. 

The cover is part of the m1956 system. As for scratching the paint of I'm not sure... might devalue it for some people but I would wait for someone with more experienced to chime in.

The strap on the outside is for the bayonet.  I was Issued one in 1963 when I was in the 82nd Abn. I had an M14 as the standard small arm.  We painted and repainted the E-tools on a regular  bases, after every use.  The paint was sold in a spray can at the area PX.  Hope this helps.