NATCHEZ &045; Five years after returning home to America, a decorated World War II ship, under the command of U.S. Navy veteran Capt. Robert Jornlin, finally is going to a permanent home.

On Wednesday, Jornlin brought the LST 325 up the Mississippi River past Natchez on his way to Evansville, Ind., on the Ohio River, the final resting place for the storied landing ship tank.

&uot;We started Tuesday morning in Mobile and cut across to hit the Mississippi River at Marker 11,&uot; Jornlin said about mid afternoon by mobile phone on board the ship. &uot;We’re running on our own engine and with a crew of 36.&uot;

The volunteer crew includes two pilots on loan from the Delta Queen Steamboat Co., who know the Mississippi River well, Jornlin said. They are Capt. Jim Davis and Capt. Ted Amelse.

Jornlin and other Navy veterans went to Greece in 2000, when the nonprofit USS LST Memorial Inc. acquired the LST 325 and helped to make the ship seaworthy prior to the long trip across the Atlantic.

&uot;I brought the boat back from Greece five years ago,&uot; he said.

Six of the veterans who were with him then are with him now.

At 328 feet long and 50 feet wide, the ship is a rare sight for communities and plantations along the Mississippi.

Its history began in 1942, when it was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Perhaps the greatest claim to fame of the LST 325 is that it made at least 30 trips between Britain and France by way of the English Channel for the invasion of Normandy and afterwards.

The ship also played a crucial role in the invasion of Sicily by the Seventh Army under the command of Gen. George S. Patton.

For nearly 20 years after World War II, the decommissioned boat sat idle in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Florida before it was sent to Greece in 1964.

The last trip will be a sweet one for Jornlin, as the ship will become a permanent museum in Evansville, where more than 150 LSTs were constructed for the Navy.

When the LST 325 visited Evansville in 2003, it received a warm welcome &045; 30,000 people boarded to see the vessel in a 12-day period.

Evansville officials are constructing a $3-million dock for the LST in addition to other financial support to assist it in operating as a permanent museum.