Reply #7: That brought back a lot of memories

[DemBones DemBones]

for me and I was never a sailor, but a sailor's daughter who has sailed from SF to Subic Bay, P.I., and back, and was never seasick once. That was, and I guess still is, twenty-one days by MSTS ship, with stops at Honolulu and Guam going out but only Guam coming back, curiously. Oh, God, the flying fish! The whales! The spray on deck, the rocking and rolling of the ship. I loved it all. I could see why my father chose the Navy in WW II: sea duty! The admiral's reflections on Navy life didn't mention getting your sea legs, but I remember so well how, going ashore on Guam, I couldn't walk normally at first. No one prepared me for that!

If my younger siblings had been five years old, we could have taken round robin cruises from Subic to Hong Kong and/or Japan (where my older brother, a Marine, was stationed for his first assignment.) I was jealous of my friends who were able to do that, but my father and I sailed once from Subic to Corregidor in Manila Bay, on one of those little day cruises the Navy runs for personnel and their dependents over the age of five. It was quite a trip. The South China Sea is the most beautifully colored water I've ever seen, the beaches black volcanic sand dotted with coconut palms. But Corregidor, in my memory at least, had white sand. White sand with huge shell casings embedded in it. Announcement: "Do not touch what appear to be shell casings, live ammunition is still being found on Corregidor."

Corregidor was a very emotional place to be in 1957. I was only ten but I could feel it. The Philippines was not short on memories of the Japanese invasion, including the occasional live shell, but this was. . . Corregidor. I climbed on those famous cannon, infamously mounted pointing in the wrong direction.

I truly loved the Philippines but it was somewhat of a hardship post in those days and not as much fun for my mother, certainly. Join the Navy and see the world, indeed. Particularly Norfolk, in our case. (Three tours to Norfolk, though it was three different bases in the Norfolk area.) And several other bases, back and forth, seventeen schools for me in twelve years, and I won't even tell you how many moves.

But I really do know something about an aircraft carrier!

And a submarine, destroyer, minesweeper, drydock -- my family once got to be inside the control room (Would it be called the bridge?) of a drydock my dad was "on" while a ship was being brought into drydock -- amazing!

Every now and then I see a movie with Navy ships and men and it hits me how strange it is to no longer be part of that seafaring culture.

So thanks for the nostalgia, HH. I'm going to miss your posts from my native culture, and wish you well in retirement!

:hi: :toast: