Hollywood Role for LST 1156
Away All Boats
By Gary Benson, YN2 (’54-’56)
– HUDSON FALLS, New York
In the spring of 1955 off the Island of Vieques, the USS Terrebonne Parish (LST 1156) was part of an amphibious assault group that lended naval support for the filming of the (color) movie Away All Boats, a story of a U.S. Navy ship (APA) and its crew in the Pacific during the period 1943-1945.
The film based on the novel by Kenneth M. Dodson, Away All Boats, starred Jeff Chandler as a tough Navy captain who took charge of a group of raw, undisciplined sailors during World War II.
The setting for the story was on the USS Belinda, a Navy amphibious transport ship in the Pacific campaign. Much of the action included amphibious exercises and landings, massive explosions, numerous [Japanese] air and sea attacks and plenty of naval ship and Marine operations.
The LST 1156, its small boats, and its embarked Marines from Camp Lejeune participated in all of the amphibious assault scenes, and some of the T-bone crewmembers were able to almost rub elbows with some of the Hollywood cast. The captain of the 1156 at the time of filming was Lt. Cmdr. J.A. Williams.
Occasionally, the movie can be seen on the Turner Classic Movies network. If you happen to see it, you will see the T-bone, and its small boats in their supporting role in the many WW II amphibious wartime exercises conducted.
Away All Boats is a film that shows why discipline is needed, why it’s a bad idea to wax a floor on a ship and why aircraft identification is very important.
The lead cast of the film included: Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Richard Boone, Lex Barker, Julie Adams, John McIntire, Charles McGraw, Jock Mahoney, Clint Eastwood and David Janssen. The film’s nationwide release date was Aug. 16, 1956.