大象传媒

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Robert H Allison.

I often wondered if any of the wives of the married guys in the picture every saw this book and became aware of the fact that their husbands were entertaining other women while they were suppose to be out fighting a war. Actually it was just a chance encounter, not planned by anyone.

Another nutty thing that Wells and I pulled was to take all the duplicate phonograph records that were issued to the squadron to an army camp nearby and trade them for two carbines, a 30 caliber rifle and a bit of ammunition. This was on the "QT" and no one ever found out. I don't know if Wells ever got his rifle home or not but I had traded my carbine off for some thing that escaped my memory long before we got back to the states.

One thing about our housing was that it was Quonset huts again. They sit on the bare ground that was a fine red dust. At night while trying to sleep in the heat we would sweat and the sheets that we slept on became a red mud mat. Only had to sleep on them for a week before getting another set. We did wash them ourselves occasionally.

For the first couple of nights that we were in these huts one of the other ensigns would wake up in the middle of the night having a night mare and screaming that the Japs were slitting his throat. The stories going around were that there had been a few instances of that happening before we got there and there were still occasional times when a Japanese soldier would get into a chow line because he was hungry.

The second of two USO shows that I was to see was at Agana. This was a daytime show that featured two well known light-heavy weight boxers. One was George Abrams, this I remember because my Uncle's name was Abram. The other's name, I don't remember. They were to put on an exhibition of boxing and the referee was Commander Gene Tunney, a former world heavy-weight champion. After sitting and waiting for about an hour with a throng of sailors for the show to start, here comes a delegation of senior officers escorting the locally stationed nurses and Red Cross women to take their seats at ringside. This "exhibition" wasn't too well received by the throng.
The demonstration was the poorest example of boxing you could ever imagine. The two boxers hung on each other and it's doubtful if they threw a punch. Tunney just stood to the side, leaning on the ropes and did nothing. The hoots and the boos became a crescendo. Some sailor yelled out: " You wouldn't be standing there like a dummy if Dempsey were in there, Tunney!" Not too much respect for the uniform. Even less for the man.

The boos got so bad the commanding Admiral stood up and told the crowd that if they didn't shut up and stop the noise he would have the whole bunch marched out in double file. Things quieted down but the fight didn't get any better.

The last couple of days that we were on Guam we were sent to the harbor to wait for the Petrof Bay to come in from Iwo Jima. The evening before we were to shove off we went to the officers club there at the harbor. This club was right next to Admiral Nimitz's quarters and his swimming pool. Everything was going along fine until Al Godfrey had to empty his bladder and went into the bushes by the pool and cut loose. He was observed by the Shore Patrol and arrested. Since we were leaving the next morning he was released to the custody of the skipper. Once we were out to sea the captain of the ship received a message from Nimitz's office wanting to know what punishment the skipper had given to Godfrey. The skipper was forced to confine him to quarters for three days which didn't bother Godfrey because we would be at sea for those three days. Thank God, he didn't use the Admiral's swimming pool.

Incidentally, the sand used in the construction of Nimitz's swimming pool was imported from the Gulf of Mexico to Guam because of it's pure white color. This is hear-say but probably true. After seeing the snow white sand on the beach in Cancun years later, while on vacation, I now believe the story.

Continued.....
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