A Veteran's Journey

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)

1. In what movie did we hear the following: “You’re meddling with powers you cannot possibly comprehend.”?
2. Who said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
3. In what song (and who sang) the following:
   I was once out strolling
   One very hot summer’s day
   When I thought I’d lay myself down to rest
   In a big field of tall grass
   I lay there in the sun
   And felt it caressing my face
   As I fell asleep and dreamed

---

I was stationed aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), an aircraft carrier, from ‘75-77 and assigned to the V-1 Division, which worked on the flight deck. My rating (i.e., my “job”) was an ABH – Aviation Boatswains Mate-Handler. We had basically two different types of jobs: Aircraft Crash & Salvage Firefighting and Aircraft Director. They were totally different jobs, but both were equally exciting, at least for me.

I was a Third Class Petty Officer when I arrived aboard Kitty Hawk. I believe there were two of us 3POs in Crash at the time: me and Gary Borne. Gary and I also served together at NAS Agana, Guam. Shelby “Big Willie” Williams was a Second Class Petty Officer, Jeff Atteberry was the First Class Petty Officer and Crash LPO (Leading Petty Officer), and CWO2 Tyrone Robuck was the Air Bos’n. Bos’n Robuck was the Crash HMFIC.

Westpac ‘75

During my one and only Navy cruise, Westpac ’75, I was assigned to Crash. I would later become an aircraft director (Fly 3 Yellow Shirt) after we completed our year-long overhaul in the Bremerton Shipyards. But, that’s another story for another day.

The Philippines (PI, for short) was our overseas deployment homeport. This was after the Vietnam War ended, so as far as I know, we were never on Yankee Station (north) or Dixie Station (south), as they were called. But we did cruise around the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan. Different types of flight operations, but each with its own set of challenges.

We left PI in mid-October ‘75 and headed north toward Japan, starting our longest time at sea without hitting a port—about five weeks. Yes, I know some of you are laughing at that “longest time at sea” comment, and I admire those who experienced longer at sea periods, but this was Westpac ’75 and the first Kitty Hawk cruise after the end of the Vietnam War.

Transit to Sea of Japan

It turns out that we were on the edge of a typhoon and we experienced high seas and a lot of rough weather on our way to Japan. All flight operations were cancelled. On the flight deck, we had to double all the tie-down chains on the planes. Instead of the usual six tie-down chains, each plane had twelve to fifteen. All the equipment, including the crash trucks, all the tow tractors, and even our Crash Crane, “Tilly,” had tie-down chains.

During the day, it was so bad that if we ventured out onto the flight deck, we were to go in pairs with a life line tied between us.

We even saw water coming over the bow. I thought they were waves actually breaking over the bow, but the waves broke lower; it was just the force that pushed the water over the bow. That was impressive though, especially since the flight deck was sixty feet above the water line. I can’t imagine how the smaller ships managed these horrendous sea conditions.

If you’re interested in what that looked like, here’s a YouTube video (2008) showing something similar.

Yokosuka, Japan – Max Liberty

We arrived in Japan on Friday, October 17 and we were in for a treat; we would have six days of “max liberty” in Yokosuka. That meant that the only time we had to be on the ship (day or night) was if we pulled duty. And, since our Division had six sections, we only needed to be on board that one day; unless someone “volunteered” to take duty for someone else in the Division. That was pretty common, especially if the “duty fee” was good. Back in my day, that usually meant someone would pay $20 to take their duty for them for that day.

As we pulled into the harbor, it was a bright, clear day (the kind of day my mom would call a “Champagne Day”) and we could see snow-capped Mt. Fuji off in the distance. It was truly breath-taking.

The exchange rate at that time was three hundred Yen for one U.S. dollar. Japan was more expensive than PI and Hong Kong. A beer in Yokosuka cost 300 Yen ($1 US), compared to three pisos ($.45 US) in PI and $4 HK (Hong Kong dollars, about $.85 US).

Tokyo, Japan

On Sunday, Gary Borne, Bud Laney, Jim King, Tom Watson, Gary DeSauniers, and I took a day trip to Tokyo. We rode the bullet train and I’ll tell you something, it was a bullet. Wow, I had never been on a train that fast before. It only took us thirty minutes. The cost for the train ride from Yokosuka to Tokyo was only 300 Yen ($1 US).

The “big problem” we faced was that it was Sunday and we had a hard time finding a place to exchange money. After an hour or so of wandering around Tokyo—and of course, none of us spoke Japanese—we finally found a small store that gladly exchanged dollars for Yen.

The weather was overcast and cold, but because we were walking everywhere, we kept warm. One of the first spots we stumbled upon was the Emperor’s Palace, very old and very traditional Japanese. There was a huge moat surrounding the palace with lots of those humogonous gold fish.

We also spotted a Japanese McDonald’s downtown. That was funny to us, since we were not used to seeing American businesses in foreign countries. We recognized the golden arches, but the rest of the writing was gibberish to us.

Japan was a welcomed stop. We had been in PI for a while and had visited Hong Kong, but Japan seemed more civilized, definitely cleaner, and had more of a business and cultural feel to it. When I look back on my time in PI, I realize I never traveled or toured anywhere while in the Philippines, which is really a shame because I’m sure there were some wonderful places to visit.

For some reason, I spent almost all my time either on the ship, the base, or Olongapo City. If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely find some other places to visit in the Philippines. That’s what the lifers told me, too. You learn the ropes on your first cruise and you do more sightseeing and get more involved with the culture and the people on the second cruise.

Thieves Alley

Just outside the main gate of the Naval base at Yokosuka and across the street was “Thieves Alley.” They say “Many a sailor has lost his credentials here,” whatever that means. But there was a group of us, so I wasn’t too worried.

By the way, does a sailor really ever have credentials?

Thieves Alley was loaded with bars and little gift shops and the owners liked to bargain. Years later, I’d visit Times Square in Manhattan and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which would be a reminder of the bargaining power. Here, you could bargain away and usually come up with some pretty good deals. You had to be careful though, because while a watch may say Rolex, it may not really be a Rolex on the inside, if you know what I mean.

The bars were something else. I simply could not drink the beer, it tasted so bad. And it wasn’t because I’d been drinking San Miguel beer in PI for so long, it just tasted like it had been “filtered through Luther’s boots.” But, we did find a wonderful place that served great corn dogs and ice cream, something that the Crash Crew craved. We frequented that cozy little spot several times—no beer though, at least not for me.

Extreme Cold

Once we left Japan, we headed north through the Sea of Japan and circumnavigated the main island. It was extremely cold and it didn’t help that we were flying around the clock. Since we did not have enough people in Crash to have two full 12-hour shifts, several of us pulled double duty, working twenty-four to thirty-six hour shifts. During Westpac ’75, we had 14 in the Crash crew; we were required to have 11 on deck during flight ops.

We would catnap when we could, whether it was in the crash compartment on the vinyl floor or cramped inside the MB-5 crash truck. Back then, I think most of us could fall asleep almost anywhere and anytime.

In the South China Sea, the weather was always warm and all I wore on the flight deck was a pair of Army ODs, a red crash jersey, a red float coat, my boots and socks, and a cranial helmet.

It was quite a different story when we were cruising through the Sea of Japan in late October. I had my thermal long johns, my sweater, my Navy foul weather jacket, my rain gear and my aviator knit cap. Even with all that on, it was still freezing cold. We were working long shifts too and there were many nights when we could not get down to the mess hall for chow. We would get box lunches, but the old bologna sandwiches simply did not cut it.

Hot Soup & Cold Sandwiches

Several times during this trip out, I called down to the galley and asked if we could get some hot soup. They said sure, come on down. So a couple of us made several trips down several ladders to bring up a huge 25-gallon container of hot soup. It tasted so good and all of us got a break to come in and down some. It helped choke down the cold sandwiches, too. We always kept the coffee brewing, too. That is something we never ran out of.

There were many times when I would come in off the flight deck to warm up and to get a cup of hot coffee. When I started drinking coffee in Guam, I would have it with cream and sugar; there was always plenty.

But on the ship, I usually was the last one in to get coffee (I always let my crew come in first), there was never any cream or sugar, so I had to drink it black. I got used to that. I still, to this day, like my coffee hot, black, and strong. There were also many times when I would tip the 100-cup coffee maker to get the last dregs of coffee, complete with grounds. But in that miserable weather, even that coffee tasted good.

Launch the Alert 5!

We usually had several Russian “visitors” around us. Not only were there Russian Bears and Badgers flying overhead (“Launch the Alert 5!”), but we also had Russian trawlers cruising alongside Kitty Hawk. I had never seen one of those before, but they looked like ordinary fishing boats to me.

We waved, they waved. Hey, we’re all friends here. This was during the Cold War and we did not trust them any more than they trusted us. There wasn’t anything we could do other than carry on our regular duties.

Helo Down

Heading back to the Philippines, we lost another helo, this one to the water. I was on night shift, so I was in my rack sleeping soundly and heard the call over the 1MC, “Man overboard, port side.”

At the time, I did not know what it was, so I quickly got dressed and mustered up on the flight deck in Crash. My friend Jack Kuiphoff was driving a tow tractor that day and later told me he drove over to the port side of the ship and looked down. The helo was on its side and the crew members were kicking out the windows and helping pull each other out—the helo was sinking fast.

In this case, apparently the helo was riding heavy and came in too fast and too low. Normally when a helo is going to land on the flight deck, the pilot brings the helo in off the port side over the water and not over the flight deck. The director then signals the pilot to fly sideways, bringing the helo slowly over the flight deck, ready to land.

They do this for this exact reason. Had the helo been coming in over the flight deck, it would have been quite a mess. They say the worst part of a helo crash is not the fire, but the spinning rotors that hit the deck and fly into a million pieces of deadly shrapnel.

The helo apparently experienced engine failure and was forced to ditch alongside the carrier. There were five men aboard—all were unharmed and were rescued by the plane guard helo. After everyone was accounted for by the “Man overboard” call, I was able to get back to my rack for another snooze.

USO – double-wow!

The very next day Kitty Hawk received some surprise visitors. The USO had flown six beautiful women from the Miss America Pageant to Kitty Hawk for our entertainment. They had probably never landed on an aircraft carrier before, but they all looked great. I caught sight of them disembarking the COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) aircraft from atop the crash truck.

The only problem I had was that I had just come off the night shift, working through the night and into the morning and I was dead tired. While they were singing and dancing into the hearts of the Kitty Hawk crew, I was grabbing some much needed shut-eye. I did not get to see any of their performance which was done on a mock stage on the flight deck. But, I later saw some great photos and heard it was a wonderful show.

Japan was one of those treasures I remember visiting. While I haven’t made it back yet, it’s on my list. There are so many beautiful places in this world to visit, as well as the good ol’ USA. I’ll get there… Just not today.

Stay safe my friends.

Until we meet again,
Andy

Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (’73-77) and the author of several books. His newest novel, NEVER FORGET, is the story of A Vietnam Veteran’s Journey for Redemption & Forgiveness. NEVER FORGET is FREE (eBook, PDF) for all veterans. Download your FREE copy HERE.

Previous blogs mentioned in this post:

• #20 – Port Call: Philippines

Answers:

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989); Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott)
2. Zig Ziglar
3. Spill the Wine (1970); Eric Burdon & War; written by: Charles Miller, Harold Brown, Howard Scott, LeRoy Jordan, Morris Dickerson, Thomas Allen, Lee Levitin