大象传媒

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

Probably the most humorous thing that took place for the group while we were at Holtville was an outing of the squadron officers and the spouses of the married officers. The whole group journeyed to Mexicali, Mexico, just across the border from Calexico, Ca., to take in a bull fight. After the Gringos witnessed a few sessions with the bulls, they become bored and restless. To liven things up the skipper volunteered to ride the bull while the Matador stuck it. The skipper was so far gone on booze he could hardly walk but he made it to the railing and promptly fell on his face into the arena. The security guards pushed him back in the stands. He bowed to applause of the Gringos but was the subject of scorn by the Mexican fans. Never the less, during the next event he was back, flat on his face again in the arena. This time the security escorted him all the way out. At the end of the festivities, the gang went looking for him and found him outside the gates to where the dead bulls are dragged from the arena. He was down on his hands and knees with a bunch of poor Mexicans trying to cut a steak from a dead bull with his pocket knife. His wife was furious. Conduct unbecoming an officer, well, maybe so, but you would never convince the officers of that squadron he was guilty of bad conduct. It was one of the most memorable fun days we were to have. In fact, the skipper was probably the best squadron commander in the Navy. He was a gentleman and a truly compassionate man. Even when he had a little too much to drink on too many occasions.

It seemss like everywhere you go there is always some guy who has to shoo the females off like they were flies. Ninety nine percent of the men have to work their butts off just to be even glanced at. Then there was the Roy Kinnard type of guy. Roy was tall, blonde, well built and good looking, who, when he entered a room or bar all female eyes just gravitated to him and many of the girls left their companions to make a play for him. He truly did shoo them off. He would actually be bored and even annoyed with them. Pissed most of the rest of us no end. Us ugly guys were used to being ignored.

Another aspect of our training was the "Dilbert Dunker". This was a contraption that was constructed to resemble the cockpit of a plane. We were each required to strap ourselves in the seat, the Dunker was lifted to about 10 feet high over the swimming pool and dropped in the deep-end of the pool. Now you are under water. You can't see any thing and you are expected to unhook yourself and get out before you drown. There are instructors there to make sure you don't drown. The object of this exercise is to become familiar with a water landing and possibly save someone from panicking in the event of the real thing. Little would I know that I would have a first hand experience with the real McCoy, not once but twice.

While at Holtville, the skipper would have trouble with one of the enlisted men. A black steward's mate whom I had encountered in North Bend. He was quite a pleasant, friendly guy at North Bend. I would never have expected trouble with him. Wouldn't you know his last name was Friend. His home was in Los Angeles and as we passed through LA on our way to Holtville he jumped the train. Was picked up by the shore patrol and given a reprimand. A couple of weeks after arriving at Holtville, he decided that he and the rest of the blacks were not going to be segregated in the mess hall. They were challenged by the whites and a riot ensued. Friend was court-marshaled and placed in the Marine brig in El Central, Ca. The report was that the marine guards nearly beat him to death. Too bad for "ole" Friend! He just lived before his time!

The squadron had been commissioned with 37 officers and 134 enlisted men. Before we were to leave Holtville for NAS Los Alamitos at Long Beach, California, the squadron was streamlined into a Composite squadron consisting of only flying officers and flying crewmen and about five administrative officers and a hand full of key ground enlisted men. The rest were released to the local CASU unit at Holtville for reassignment.

Continued.....
'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.