A Veteran's Journey

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)

1. Who said, “Never let things you want make you forget the things you have.”?
2. In what movie (and who said it) did we hear: “A Chief Petty Officer shall not drink. However, if he should drink, he shall not get drunk. If he should get drunk, he shall not stagger. And if he should stagger, he shall not fall.”?
3. In what song (and who sang it) did we hear the following:
   This old highway’s gettin’ longer
   It seems there is no end in sight
   To sleep would be best
   But I just can’t afford to rest
   I gotta ride in Denver tomorrow night

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After five weeks at sea, running flight ops from mid-morning to midnight, lack of sleep, and the constant hum of Kitty Hawk’s four main engines, I’m ready for a port call. I’m sure all 5,500 of my closest friends and shipmates are ready.

Let’s see …

We got underway for Westpac ’75 on Wednesday, May 21 at about 1430 (2:30 p.m.). We were supposed to leave mid-morning, but one of the ship’s boilers had a problem, so a slight delay.

It took us about six days to travel from North Island (San Diego) to Hawaii, passing by the USS Arizona Memorial. That was awesome—both the memorial and our stop in Hawaii.

I tell ya, after 15 months at NAS Agana, Guam in a scuba diver’s paradise, Hawaii seemed like a natural transition. Surfing was definitely better, but Hawaii was a little more expensive than Guam. Nevertheless, the Navy covered room and board.

Naval Station Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands (PI) was our overseas home port for forward deployment. We’d been in and out of PI several times, and each time the excitement of working in Crash & Salvage on the flight deck was an adrenaline rush.

The 16-18-hour days were long, but with constant movement and multiple flight ops cycles each day, it didn’t get tiring. Especially at night, with some of the jet aircraft in full afterburners during launch.

In between, there’s a serene type of quietness at sea. A million twinkling stars above, the bright moon shining a lighted trail from the ship to whatever path you can visualize. And the fresh, clean air … well, except when you’re downwind from a jet exhaust.

Anyway, after five weeks at sea and the freezing cold transit through the Sea of Japan, I’m ready for a break, some ice-cold San Miguel Beer, a big plate of fried lumpia and fried rice, and some good ol’ Filipino country music band. Along the way, I’ll grab a bag of a dozen hot Pandesal bread rolls, fresh from the oven.

Yeah, I’m ready.

Pulling into port

Even though I’ve been aboard Kitty Hawk for seven months and watched this magical orchestration of maneuvering a 60,000-ton ship into a tight mooring spot alongside the pier a dozen times, it never ceases to amaze me what it takes to coordinate this effort.

I’ve learned that the liberty “excitement level” is based on the amount of time we’ve been at sea. For example, many times we’d be at sea for a week or so and pull back in. Sure, that first liberty or two was awesome, especially for a newbie like me. But after that, I learned from my good friend, ABH2 Shelby “Big Willie” Williams, that you can actually make some money by taking someone’s duty that first night of liberty. The going rate back in the mid-70s was $10 a night. It was worth it.

We had six duty sections in V-1 Division. That meant while we’re in port, one section of 12 men (we didn’t have women on the ship back then) would always be aboard the ship after work hours. There wasn’t really anything to section duty. We just needed to be aboard the ship. If you were a petty officer, like me (ABH3), then you might catch the watch duty at the After brow–that’s where the enlisted men disembarked to leave the ship and staggered back aboard after midnight curfew.

Big Willie also taught me that if someone was short of cash, I could double my payback on the loan.

“Chet … got $20 I can borrow?”

“Sure; I’ll loan you $20, but will need $40 back on payday. Deal?”

“Deal.”

It was that easy, especially for those new guys who “needed” to take liberty that first night.

Shore Patrol Duty

I had Shore Patrol duty a few times while in PI. It wasn’t that bad and a lot less boring that SP duty in San Diego. There, we’d walk around the pier and ball fields (boring) to make sure nobody got into trouble or mugged. There were a couple of reported muggings, but never on my watch.

The biggest problem I had walking the San Diego SP beat was when the ball field sprinklers went off in the middle of the night with no warning. I got soaked several times.

Shore Patrol in PI was different, though. We’d patrol Olongapo City in pairs in our “summer whites,” each of us with an “SP” armband, wearing a white web belt and carrying a wooden baton.  Our beat was to walk several streets, usually a mile or two, and walk into each bar and each restaurant to check if there were any sailors out of hand, then move onto the next one. It wasn’t a bad duty at all.

The best thing? I had the opportunity to visit all the bars and restaurants on the beat … sober.

When it was chow time, we’d place an order at a restaurant, then walk the beat. When we returned, our chow would be ready for us—hot and tasty. The food in Olongapo City was more than reasonable. One of my favorites was fried shrimp. In 1975, the cost of a fried shrimp dinner, complete with fried rice, was about $1.50. In the states, it would have been about $3.50.

Hong Kong

I had fun during our stop in Hong Kong. It was still under British rule, but we were there for a week in mid-August. Several wives of V-1 Division guys flew out to spend a week with their husbands. Since we had max liberty (meaning no workdays unless you had section duty) I know we won’t see them until we leave to head back to PI.

I had duty on the first day in port, which was no big deal. And since Hong Kong didn’t have a pier to moor, we anchored in the harbor near Green Island and had to take ferries into Hong Kong.

Island Tour

I took liberty on my second day in port. Instead of heading straight to the bars, several of us took an all-day tour that took us up to Victoria Park, the highest mountain in Hong Kong, which provided an awesome overlook of Hong Kong Harbor. Kitty Hawk was certainly the biggest thing in the harbor, and she looked beautiful and I was proud to be a part of her crew.

Besides touring Tiger Balm Garden, which had a 7-story pagoda, we took a boat tour through Aberdeen, the floating city in Hong Kong. Here, entire families lived on small sampans, usually tied parallel to a pier.

We ended up at the Tai Pak Restaurant, a floating restaurant with exquisite décor. They served a full six-course meal. I’d learned long ago in PI not to ask what I was eating, so I ate what they put in front of me with no questions asked. And it was all fantastic. Because this was a floating restaurant, plain water cost $3HKD, but beer was free.

I like this place.

Tattoo

I also got a tattoo in Hong Kong at Pinky’s Tattoo Parlor. I’ve shared this story many times, but here’s the short version:

• I went with Charlie Brown (Fly 2 LPO). He wanted to get a tattoo, so I tagged along, not really intending to get one.
• Free beer while you get a tattoo? OK, now I think I want a tattoo.
• An eagle tattoo? Sure, why not. “Which arm?” “My right arm, please. Where’s the beer?”
• Cost was 40 Hong Kong dollars (about $8 USD).
• Still got it, still proud of it, still telling the same story.

Sea of Japan–Our Longest At-sea Period

We’d just left Japan. We had a week max liberty, and we took advantage of it. I still remember pulling into the harbor mid-morning. It was a bright, clear, cool day (my mom called them “Champagne Days”) and we could see snow-capped Mount Fuji in the distant.

My good friends, Gary Borne (R.I.P.), Tom Watson, Jim King, Buddy Laney, Gary DeSauniers, and I took a bullet train from Yokosuka to Tokyo. And … it was a bullet. I’d never been on a train that fast, taking only thirty minutes to get to Tokyo.

None of us spoke Japanese, but we made our way around and finally found a small store that gladly changed our US Dollars to Japanese Yen (about 300 Yen to one US dollar).

Besides visiting the Emperor’s Palace, we also visited the local downtown McDonald’s. We easily recognized the golden arches, but all the other writing was gibberish to us.

Just outside the main naval base was a street commonly called “Thieves Alley.” They say, “Many a sailor has lost his credentials here,” whatever that means. The alley was loaded with bars and little gift shops, and the owners liked to bargain. You could usually bargain away and come up with some pretty good deals. You had to be careful, though, because the watch you just purchased may say “Rolex,” but it may not really be a Rolex.

After leaving Yokosuka, we circumnavigated the main island and let me tell you, it was cold. It didn’t help that we were flying aircraft around the clock. Since we didn’t have enough people in Crash to have two full shifts, several of us pulled double duty, working 24- to 36-hour shifts. I quickly learned I could sleep anywhere, whether in the Crash compartment on the floor or the MB-5 Oshkosh Crash truck.

So, after five weeks at sea, several of those days flying around the clock, freezing my ass off on the flight deck, I think it’s fair to say, we were all ready for a nice warm liberty in PI.

Winding Down

After the Navy, I didn’t step foot on a “big” ship for an ocean cruise until 31 years later when my wife & I took a Holland America cruise down the Baja Mexico. Things were a “little” bit different, I’ll admit.

First of all, when we stepped off the ship, instead of being greeted by a terrible odor (like Olongapo River) with young kids in canoes begging for pesos, several times we were approached by, “Psst … wanna buy a cheap watch?” or “Psst … come to our presentation and learn how you can get in early on a condo time share.”

And when we walk into a bar, I didn’t hear, “Hey there sailor, buy me drinkee?”

Yep, things have certainly changed from the Navy. But I tell ‘ya …

Even though I was discharged in 1977, those memories are still with me, especially when I encounter a sound or a smell. It takes me back to those first liberties.

Until we meet again,
Andy

Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (’73-77) and the author of several books (www.azadkinsiii.com), many of which are free downloads (PDF, eBook format). He is currently retired and lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife and life-long soulmate, Becky.

Previous Blogs mentioned in this Post:

• #209—This “Getting Old S**t” is Getting Old
• #41—Haze Gray and Underway!
• #37—Hawaii, One Word: Beautiful!
• #53—You Always Remember Your First …
• #67—Flight Ops: A Day n the Life of Crash & Salvage
• #23—Rough Seas–Sea of Japan
• #51—Shore Patrol: It’s Not Just a Job, It’s an Adventure
• #43—Port Call: Hong Kong
• #15—Tattoo—Yes … or No?

Answers

1. Sanchita Pandey.
2. Men of Honor (2000), Billy Sunday (Robert DeNiro).
3. Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old) (1989), Garth Brooks; written by Randy Taylor, Garth Brooks.