Mr. Charles Harden, a World War II veteran, served as an ensign on the USS Shadwell in 1945 when she left Tokyo Bay. Now 87 years young, he recently toured the Shadwell accompanied by his wife Mrs. Billy Harden. On his tour, Mr. Harden carried with him an 8x10 shot of the USS Shadwell in 1945 anchored out in the bay.
The ex-USS Shadwell is a decommissioned United States Navy Landing Ship Dock that serves as a floating laboratory for the development, testing, and implementation of techniques and equipment to be used in shipboard firefighting.
Moored in Mobile Bay, AL, the ex-USS Shadwell is regularly set ablaze in a controlled environment to further the safety of operational Navy and civilian shipboard firefighting measures as the Navy's full-scale damage control research, development, test, and evaluation platform.