Tag Archives: Military Life

Our Trip to Maui~Part 3

6 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

The next day, being Sunday, we wanted to attend a local worship service.  There was a Baptist Church in Lahaina, and we decided to attend there.It was a lovely building – without air conditioning, of course – but there were open doors all around the building to let the cool ocean breeze blow through, aided by several ceiling fans.  It was a wonderful way to worship – almost like being outdoors.The people were quite friendly, and we enjoyed the service immensely.

After the service was over, we went to lunch at a cute little deli call The Gazebo.  We later found out that Fred’s sister and her husband didn’t even know about this deli – even though they had been to Lahaina for many years.  We sat at the back side of the deli, and could see the beach all the way around Napili Bay.

After lunch, Dad wanted to show us a sight he had seen before on Maui.  It was call the Iao Needle, and is an “erosional remnant” that was formed by wind and rain.  During war times, it was used as a lookout spot.  There was a way to get up to it – but it had 300 steps to it, so we declined that adventure!

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Home and to bed – as we were still getting over our jet lag.

~~~~~More to come~~~~~

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You’re In The Navy Now Par~10

2 Oct

A Slice of Life

Bill LItes

 

The most challenging thing about boat duty on the Hector, was that when not in use, the boat crews had to keep all the boats tied off to the Boat 1Boom, which was permanently attached to, and located, toward the aft portion of the ship.  When a boat was required for any reason, the boat crew had to walk out on the Boat Boom to where their boat was tied-off, and go down the Jacob’s ladder to the boat.  Then when they were done with the boat, they had to tie it off to the Painter Line, and climb up the Jacob’s ladder to the Boat Boom, and back to the ship.  The first few times I had to do that, I had to walk very slow and it was very scary, since the 1”x 8” catwalk attached to the top of the beam, we had to walk on, was highly varnished, to protect it from the salty environment.  This made it very slippery when wet, and I felt like I was “Walking the Plank” every time I went to or from the ship to a boat.

It didn’t take long for the routine to become quite boring, and with duty only every 4th day, we ended up spending a lot of time on liberty at the 2Enlisted Men’s Club or in Sasebo itself.  Finally, after months of this routine, the ship made a trip to Hong Kong, to give the crew an opportunity to be exposed to other cultures of the world, and for a chance at some different scenery.

The city that I knew as Hong 3Kong in 1957, was built into the hills surrounding it, and reminded me of the Mexican border cities of Juarez or Tijuana (except a lot cleaner & more beautiful), where a person could buy anything very reasonably.  I bought a tailor-made Navy blue uniform and a beautiful Chinese Cheongsam silk dress for DiVoran for next to nothing, compared to what they would have cost in the states.

Tours of the island were very interesting and informative.  At the time, one area I remember was the ancient Aberdeen Floating Village, sometimes called the “Sea of Dead Ships,” where many of Hong 4Kong’s 60,000 boat dwellers lived.  Here the boats had been tied so closely together, over so many years, that a person could step from one boat to the next, all the way across a portion of Aberdeen Harbor.  The only boats that could get out of that mass, were the ones on the outer edge.

Located in Victoria harbor, were several large multi-deck floating restaurants, which served some of the most delicious authentic Chinese food I ever tasted. From the deck of the restaurant, it looked like one whole hillside was completely devoid of any vegetation and grey in color.  When I asked about it, I was told that it was the “Pauper’s Burial Grounds”, where people with no money were buried, then after several years, their gravesite was dug up and another person would be buried there…and so on.  That Chinese tradition must have been going on for centuries, involving an awful lot of people, to leave such a large scar on that hillside.

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                                                            —–To Be Continued—–

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You’re in the Navy~Part 9

25 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill LItes

Navy

 

Back on the Hector, the ship headed west, and after an uneventful week at sea, our first stop on the way to Japan was Honolulu, Hawaii, to refuel the ship and to spend a few days enjoying that beautiful tropical paradise.  1Honolulu was everything the travel brochures advertise it to be.  That was a marvelous time, with swimming, snorkeling, surfing, touring, and an occasional wonderful and delicious evening luau, with lots of pretty hula dancers.

 Then it was another week at sea before we arrived at our destination, Sasebo, Japan, where, for the next six months, we were scheduled to swing around a buoy in the harbor, servicing any Pacific fleet Navy ship needing2 the type of repairs not extensive enough to require a shipyard.  The USS Jason (AR-8), the sister ship we were relieving, had her steam up and was ready to head back to California when we arrived.  There was a brief “Changing of the Guard” ceremony, then the Jason was gone, and we began the work for which the ship had been designed.

My duty on the Hector, while it was on station in Japan, was as a diesel engine mechanic.  This task kept me busy repairing and overhauling the 3many boat engines used by the ship, as well as boat duty.  Since we were tied up to a buoy in Sasebo harbor, anyone needing to leave the ship to go anywhere (ship to ship, or ship to shore) had to go by boat.  There was the Captain’s Gig, used by the Captain and the other ship’s officers, and the Liberty Launches, used to transport the ship’s enlisted personnel and for every other task know to man.  The three-man crew for each boat consisted of a Boatswain’s mate, a Quartermaster and an Engineman.  This meant the ship had to supply enough three-man crews to man all the boats the ship might have in the water at any one time, and still maintain adequate shipboard operations.

When ships would tie up alongside the Hector for repairs, our ship’s boats would normally provide transportation for their personnel, as well as our own.  Since the four-ship destroyer squadrons usually traveled together, we could sometimes have as many as eight ships tied up alongside at one time.  As might be expected, this kept us very busy with boat runs, transporting people, equipment and supplies to and from the ship and the base, 24/7.  One big surprise at Sasebo, during our stay there, was the day the Fleet Tug USS Tawasa (ATF-92) came along side the Hector, and there was my high school friend, Jim, from Albuquerque.  We had a great visit and both remarked what a small world it was, that we should run into each other on the other side of the world from where we had first become friends.

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                                                            —–To Be Continued—–

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 1

22 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

Let me start off by saying that, after four years of college, Fred had another 1four years of schooling at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

During that time, his father, a U.S. Air Force Chaplain, 2was stationed at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, just four hours away from us. We drove over frequently to spend a weekend with them.

After they had been in Louisiana for a few years, dad was transferred to Hawaii. As Fred’s education started coming to a close, we began to think 3about giving ourselves a graduation present by joining them in Hawaii for a visit. We were getting really excited about that prospect.

But Uncle Sam had other ideas! In January 4before Fred graduated in May, dad was promoted again and reassigned to Wright-Patterson AFB, in Dayton, Ohio. It was quite a bit of culture shock to go from tropical Hawaii to winter in Ohio in a few short weeks!

And there went our dream of a Hawaiian vacation! Shucks!

Fast forward about 39 years – boy that really zipped by, didn’t it? Fred’s parents were living in an assisted-living facility in Washington State. They had thought to make a trip to Maui for a week in a time-share owned by their youngest daughter and her husband, but needed/wanted some of the family to be with them to sort-of keep an eye on them. Since Fred and I were retired at the time, we graciously volunteered for that job. Really had to twist our arms to do that, right??!!

Two weeks before we were scheduled to depart, Fred’s mother, already afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease, had a major set-back. She was placed in the Special Care Unit of the facility, where there were trained staff to care for her.

Since Fred’s dad had been trying care for her by himself – and he was encouraged not to visit her for a few weeks so she would become adjusted to her new home – we decided to go ahead with our plans. Frankly, he needed the rest from all that stress.

So Fred and I flew to Seattle, rented a car and dropped our luggage at the hotel where we would be staying for just one night. We drove to Shelton, an hour’s drive away, and spent the rest of the day with Fred’s mother, father, sister and her husband. We three then drove back to Seattle for the night, as our flight out was quite early the next morning.

In spite of being on the West Coast, the non-stop flight was really long to Maui. We arrived at the Kahului airport in the capital of Maui.

We had arranged for a rental car, picked it up, stopped by the Costco nearby and picked up groceries for the mornings we would be there. We planned on partaking of all the wonderful island foods for lunches and dinners.

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~~~~More to Come~~~~

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You’re in The Navy Now Part~8

18 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Navy

 

My transfer finally came through, and my orders took me to the U.S. Naval 1Base in San Diego, and assignment to the fleet repair ship, USS Hector (AR-7).  The Hector was one of three sister ships stationed in the Far East, to service the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s ships.  The three ships usually rotated their operations between the U.S. west coast and Japan.  The Commodore, who headed the Navy’s Pacific fleet repair organization, maintained his headquarters on board each of the three ships as they rotated through the San Diego Naval Base, about every six months or so.  Soon after I reported aboard, I learned, as an Engineman Specialist, I qualified for the vacant position as the Commodore’s driver.  What a cushy job that was!  I spent most of my duty hours cleaning his Navy staff car, running errands for him, and driving him to and from his many meetings ashore, as well as, to and from his home in town.

My family had friends living near San Diego, who stopped to see them in Albuquerque during their vacation.  DiVoran wangled a ride with them, as1 wedding they returned to San Diego area so she could visit me.  As she was leaving on that trip, her mother, Dora, had told her, “Now don’t do anything foolish while you are there.”  Of course, once she got there, we decided it would be a good time to get married.  Our mothers hurried out to California, made all the arrangements, and we did the deed on Labor Day weekend in La Mesa, California.  DiVoran and I spent the next four months in marital bliss in our little one-room Balboa Park bungalow, located just five minutes from my work at the naval base. 

It was during this time, when we had our first disagreement about automobiles.  When I first got to San Diego, I had bought a “Street Legal” 31932 Ford five-window coupe hotrod, and was in the process of restoring it in my spare time.  The car had been chopped, channeled, and gutted for use as a dragster before I bought it, and had only one wooden bucket seat for the driver, bolted to the frame.  Hey, it worked for me!  The rear end had been locked, so when you went around a corner, the inside wheel burned rubber.  DiVoran couldn’t reach the peddles, and complained, “This was not the kind of car she had expected her new husband to ask her to ride around in.”  That was mainly because there was no seat for a passenger, and she had to ride on the plywood floorboard, with no backrest and no seatbelt.  Also, she didn’t like having to ride the bus to get to work at the diner where she was waitressing,        

As it turned out, one of my shipmates had his eye on my hot rod, and I was able to swing a deal with him to trade my “Beloved ‘32” for his 1950 4pngMercury sedan.  DiVoran could drive that car, and life was much more peaceful in our little love nest after that.  When it was time for the Hector to leave for its six-month tour of duty in Japan, I took DiVoran and everything we owned, in that Mercury, back to Albuquerque, so she could stay with her parents, and attend beauty school while I was gone.

                        

                                                                                                  

                                   

 

                                                 —–To Be Continued—–

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You’re In The Navy Now~Part 7

11 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Navy

Then it was north again to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, WA and back into our winter blues.  That shipyard and what went on there was absolutely amazing!  The ship had hardly been tied off to the dock, before the “yard birds” started clambering aboard.  There was a brief decommissioning ceremony, after which the ship’s company was informed of their light duty tasks, and told to stay out of the way of the shipyard workers.  It took over a month for the Navy to process transfers for all of the 1500 sailors who had brought the ship from the east coast around to the west coast.  In the mean time, we had lots of time to watch what was going on with the ship, and as much liberty as our paychecks would allow.

1As we watched, one of the first things the “yard birds” did, was to cut openings in the bulkheads, below decks, down both sides of the ship from the bow, all the way to the stern, to provide access to the anti-torpedo armor plate attach studs and nuts.  The armor plates ran the length of the ship, and were about 20’x 20’ and 7½ inches thick.  It looked like, under normal conditions at sea, that at least  half or more of the plate would extend below the water line.  It took days for them to cut the welds off each plate, and install lifting pad eyes.  While that was going on outside, inside the ship, another group was cutting off the watertight closures over the studs and nuts, and removing the nuts.  Once all was in readiness for plate removal, a huge crane on a barge would attempt to lift the plate, while workers inside were pounding on the studs coming through the ship’s hull with air driven jack hammers, trying to push the plate away from the ship’s side.

2  Between each plate and the hull was a layer of black gooey preservative that caused tremendous surface tension when trying to remove the plate.  I was amazed to see the removal of each plate cause this huge ship to list one degree.  And then, when the plate was stacked on 12”x12” beams on another barge, its edges almost cut the beams in half.

I spent hours exploring the many parts of the ship I had never had the opportunity to see during the six months I had been on board.  One of the most memorable finds was, when I discovered the hatch to one of the ship’s fresh water tanks.  Since the ship was using shore supplied water and electricity now, the water tank had been drained, and was dry.  It was located on the side of the ship and must have been 20’ wide by 100’ long, by 40’ high, with a ladder running down to the bottom from the hatch.  When I looked inside, there was a giant ball float arrangement, used to indicate the water level, just like what is used in a toilet tank.  What a sight that was!3

 

 

                                   

 

 

 

                                                            —–To Be Continued—–

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You’re In The Navy Now~Part 6

4 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Navy

Our first stop was in Santos, Brazil where, at that time, the people had never seen an American warship in their harbor before.  Because many of our crew would have to return to the east coast after we left the Coral Sea in its west coast shipyard, those crew members had been allowed to take their private cars aboard the ship for their return trip.  It caused quite a 

1stir when the people in Santos saw all those cars on the ship.  No telling what they must have thought we were doing with them, especially since there were no American cars in Santos at that time.  Moreover, because they exported most of their country’s coffee, the coffee they served there was very strong and served in tiny cups.  I had to fill the cup half full with cream in order to drink it, and then, of course, all the locals laughed at me.

                                   

2Because the ship was too wide to pass through the Panama Canal locks, we had to sail completely around the tip of South America.  As we traveled south, we were forced to change back into our winter blues as we neared and rounded Cape Horn.  The winds and waves in that area were constantly pounding the ship, and I was glad to be able to stay inside, out of the gale force winds and the freezing sea spray.

As we headed north, up the western side of South America, our next stop 3was Valparaiso, Chile, where we enjoyed experiencing much of South America’s ancient culture up close.  Nicknamed “The Jewel of the Pacific”, the city of Valparaíso is a vibrant center of Chilean culture.  We didn’t get to stay long there, but much of what we saw was breathtaking.

 4UntitledContinuing north, it was back into our summer whites, as we crossed the Equator again, and stopped at Balboa, Canal Zone in Panama.  It was there that we learned all about the history of the canal, it’s locks, and how they are used to move ships from one ocean  to the other, and how many days and miles of travel we would have saved, not having to go around Cape Horn, if only the Coral Sea had not been too wide to fit through those huge locks.

After leaving Panama, our next stop was at the Alameda Naval Air Station, in San Francisco, where I enjoyed some of the best fried oysters I have ever eaten.  As it turned out, this would not be the last time I was to visit San Francisco with the Navy.  More than a year later I would end my two-year active duty time with the Navy, and be processed back into Naval Reserve status at the Treasure Island Naval Station, there in San Francisco.  Yummm! More delicious fried oysters and other seafood delights

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                                             —–To Be Continued—–

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Wiesbaden~Part3/Frau Katie

1 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

When we were headed to Wiesbaden, West Germany in 1967, I was seven months pregnant with our first child, Karen.  It was a long flight over, and she and I were both exhausted.

At that time, the military was assigning each incoming military family a sponsor, to help with the transition from the U.S. to an international country.  Our sponsor seemed to be very helpful through letters (e-mail had not been invented yet).  When we told him we were going to stop in Albuquerque to visit with family before departing for Germany, his comment was for us to enjoy our time there – it was his home, as well.  Hmmm…. Interesting.

He met us in Frankfurt and drove us to Wiesbaden, about an hour down the road, where we checked into our hotel.  He apologized that his wife was not with him (it was about 5:30 a.m.), but they had a small child that was still asleep, and they would meet up with us that afternoon for a trip around the town, and dinner.

After a good nap and shower, we headed out to meet them.  As we got closer to the family, the wife called out my maiden name!!  Turns out, she and I had been in Rainbow Girls together in Albuquerque.  She had even been in my installation ceremony as Worthy Advisor.  Small world.  And small world, indeed, when Fred and her husband found out they had been in some classes together at the University of New Mexico!  It certainly made us feel more at home, having some ready-made friends there.

We had initially thought that we would attend the Chapel on base, but contribute to the Baptist Church in town.  Fred’s father had been an AF Chaplain, and we thought that we would continue that tradition.  However, some of the members of the church came to visit us, and convinced us to join them.  We became quite a part of that group, and never regretted that decision.  We made some life-long friends there.

Karen on Grandma Wills’ shoulder

After Karen made her appearance, we started taking her with us to church. There was a nursery there, that was manned by a lady they called Frau Katie.  I think she really took a shine to us, since I would take Karen down to the nursery and nurse her.  That was when a lot of American women were against nursing their babies, and only using bottles.  In any case, Karen became a favorite of hers.   On one of our last trips before we rotated stateside, we asked Frau Katie to stay with Karen while we were gone.  We later discovered that she was teaching Karen to speak German!  That gave Karen a head-start on German when we returned to Germany 10 years later.

Katie came to visit us when we lived in San Antonio, and we thoroughly enjoyed her visit.  When we returned to Germany 10 years later, we went to visit her in Wiesbaden.  My mother had come to visit us, and she went with us.  Katie treated us to some home-made cheese cake at an outdoor café.  I’m sure she’s gone to be with the Lord by this time.

But we will always remember Frau Katie and Wiesbaden.

Karen and Frau Katie

Karen and Frau Katie

                                                     

 

 

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You’re in the Navy~Part 4

21 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

My orders, following my two-weeks leave, had me reporting to Norfolk, VA for assignment to the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43), which at the time was on patrol in the Mediterranean.  To get to the ship, I was flown from Norfolk, to Cannes, France (On the French Riviera!) with stops or layovers in Gander, Newfoundland, the Azores, and French Morocco, North Africa.1

I arrived in Cannes, France on Christmas Eve (Aw, shucks, it was cold in Cannes, and there were no girls on that famous French beach).  When I got my first up close look at the Coral Sea, I couldn’t believe how big it was.  I 2reported aboard and was directed to follow a Seaman to the compartment where I would live for the next six months.  I followed him thru one hatch and down one ladder and I was lost.  That ship was so massive, it took me a good month to find my way from my bunk, to anywhere but my duty station and to the mess deck.  Even though the ship was huge, every compartment had its use, and berthing quarters, for the 3500 enlisted personnel, were very crowded, and consisted of small clothes lockers and fold-down beds stacked four high.

 One of the first things I had to do, after being assigned watch schedules for my work/duty stations, was my turn at KP duty (welcome aboard you newbie).  The enlisted mess deck on the Coral Sea was run by a First Class Machinist Mate who, the rumor had it, had almost blown up one of the main ship’s boilers years before, and for punishment, was restricted from going anywhere on the ship below the mess deck level.  He was a very angry and mean person, and also demanded perfection from everyone working on 3his mess deck.  He was so hated, that he slept in a chain link wire cage, located right there in the corner of the mess deck, to protect himself from harm from the many people he had poured out his wrath upon.  The story goes, that years before, someone had thrown a string of firecrackers into his cage, in the middle of the night, and he almost killed himself trying to get out.  You can just imagine what kind of retribution he had been dishing out, on anyone assigned to his mess deck after that little prank.

After I was released from my tour of 16-hours a day “Mess Deck Hell”, I spent the rest of my tour of duty on the Coral Sea working below decks as an Engineman Specialist, monitoring and servicing the hydraulic equipment used to operate the ship’s deck-edge elevator.  This elevator was one of three elevators on the ship, used to move the air group’s aircraft between the hanger deck storage area, and the flight deck, whenever flight operations were required.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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West Berlin Part~2

18 Aug

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

         

One of our favorite places to visit in West Berlin was the Charlottenburg Palace.

1It is very like many of the palaces and castles built by German King Ludwig, and part of it was influenced by those structures.  It is built in rococo and baroque style.  It was built in the late 1700’s.  The central area has a large domed area with a gilded nude statue of Fortune as a weather vane.  The grounds are beautifully landscaped, similar to Versailles in France.

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Within the Palace is the Charlottenburg Museum.  One of the most fascinating things in there is the original bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.  We’ve always wondered why the original was in Germany and not England or even Egypt.

In the Tiergarten area of West Berlin (a large public park to the west of the city center) is the Russian Memorial.  It commemorates the 480,000 Russian war dead who died in the Battle of Berlin in April and May of 1945.  Throughout the Cold War, Soviet honor guards from the Soviet occupation zone were sent to stand watch at the memorial.  It is an impressive sight.

5Another impressive sight is the Victory Column, also in the Tiergarten area of Berlin.  It was built from 1864 to 1873 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Prusso–Danish war in 1864.  The shaft of the monument is made of cannon captured from the enemies. The bronze figure at the top was added later, after further Prussian victories in wars against Austria (1866) and France (1870– 71); so the column marks also the unification of Germany after these victories.  It’s really beautiful.

We had heard of the Congress Halle, and walked past it when our oldest daughter 6and I were in West Berlin with Fred, who was on a TDY (Temporary Duty) back in 1969.  It was built by the Americans and given to the Berliners as a symbol of friendship between the two countries.  Because of it’s unique design – an “open” oyster – it is affectionately known as the “pregnant oyster” by the locals.

While we were with Fred on that TDY, we were staying in a hotel that was miscpart of  Templehof Airport, where the Berlin Airlift originated.  One day, I wasn’t feeling very well, kind of like I was getting the flu.  When I went down to the restaurant, the German server inquired about my health.  When I explained, he said he had just the thing for me – and he brought me a cup of the most delicious lentil soup I’ve ever had.  Mostly broth – nice and hot.  And then he put together a tray of very hot water with several tea bags and had it sent up to our room.  After all that TLC, I was back to normal by morning.

One of our fondest memories of West Berlin is the English-speaking Baptist church we visited.  There was a large group of English-speaking people in7West Berlin, and they managed to find each other and form a church.  All were welcome – including any Germans who might wish to attend an English-speaking service, even if it was more to increase their knowledge of English, than to worship our Lord.  But along the way, they were sure to be touched by the people around them, as well as the Holy Spirit, and perhaps come to know Christ as their personal Savior.

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Our tour and trips to West Berlin were some of the most satisfying of our time in Europe.  Certainly something we will never forget.

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