Martin,

I can't come even close to that story. Closest I can come was when we
were being refueled. A 180' buoy tender out of Honolulu would tow a
Navy fuel barge to the island and hook up on at an off-shore connection.
I was on the beach with a radio talking to the cutter. They were close
enough that I could hear them making pipes on their 1MC (loudspeaker).
I heard them pipe swim call and before the pipe was finished the crew
was diving in. When one holds swim call on a cutter, you always have a
look out with an M16 for a shark watch. Well, it just so happened that
where the off-shore connection was was also where sharks liked to linger
looking for Hawaiian monk seals. When I heard swim call, I called them
immediately and told them that the area they were in was known for the
shark activity. All you could see was asses and elbows trying to climb
that cargo net. I literally rolled on the beach laughing....one of the
funniest things I ever saw.

Same island, different subject. We had a LOT of spiny tailed lobsters
at the atoll. So many in fact, there were scientists from Honolulu
there studying trying to figure out why. They actually hired some of
the crew to go out daily to count the lobsters they had caught in the
lobster traps, kind of a census kind of thing. We would go out into the
lagoon snorkeling and catch all the lobster one could want. We had
hundreds of lobster tails in our freezer. We'd have a party on the
beach occasionally and cook lobster and crab and lots of beer (Side note
was that wood was a scarce commodity and we'd normally use pallets that
came in on logistic flights. One day we had a large mahogany log wash
in. Thing had to have been 15 foot long and 2 feet in diameter. It
stayed wet a long time. We thought we'd gone to heaven as there was
more wood than we could use for a long time. We found out that wet
mahogany gives a horrible taste to lobster. So much wood, but none to
burn.). Anyway, we had planned to have another cook out on the beach
and we were going to cook some hot dogs also. Turns out the cook didn't
want to part with his hot dogs and we could only eat the crab and
lobsters we had caught. The crew was ****ed. LOBSTER AGAIN!!!! We
wanted hot dogs. Sounds silly now, but at the time it didn't.

Last story. I went to Midway with a DC3 and a non-rate. We got there
early and went to the Acey-Ducey Club (E-5/E-6 club). We got there
about 1100 and started drinking. There wasn't any air conditioning so
we sat down in front of a pedestal type fan. We were drinking slowly
and were by no way drunk. At normal quitting time (1600?) the Navy
started showing up with their Navy girl friends (the island was being
shut down, and there wasn't any dependents there anymore). They sat
down (about 6 guys and 3 girls) and started drinking. One got up and
went to the fan and turned it toward them. The DC3 got up and turned it
back toward us. Another got up and turned it toward them. I got up and
turned it toward me. Navy got up and turned it toward them and the
non-rate got up to turn it back and the Navy guy punched him. Course
there was a brawl. They beat the crap out of us and the NAVY Shore
Patrol came and told us we had a choice of either going back to our
quarters or to the brig. When we got back to Kure the next morning, we
looked like hell. But we did get a few good punches in, but we were way
outnumbered..... These days it would be considered an alcohol related
incident. Two such incidents and you're normally kicked out.

I've never been to Kwajalein, but I was stationed on Guam on a 180' buoy
tender. Our AOR was being changed to include Kwajalein, but I left
before it happened and the cutter has since been decommissioned. No
idea if we took over responsibility.

Dave Young

Martin H. Eastburn wrote:

Dave -

We were on Kwajalein atoll and island. The Loran station was up-atoll.

The best story I heard regarding the hero stuff out of coastal rollers
and the war times was during the early 60's - the Coast Guard had sent
the
typical flotilla checking on various Loran stations and other sites here
and there. The Sea Air Rescue based at the airport was Navy. The Island
was Navy until (ugh) the Army took over and that is another story for
my annuals.

The drama : Soviet sub was in the Lagoon - 70 miles on a diagonal -
boomerang shaped.
Normally they were out at sea - they were spying on us - doing the odd
missile shot -
rather being shot at by the local shooters in Ca. Sometimes subs -
they were rare shots.

If out at sea, the sub would be 'flowered' with baking flower - sticky
mess and
the photo team and sub nasty. Such is life. Then they picked the
lagoon.

The cutters were coming into service the Loran station - oil for the
generators, food,
life and that stuff - when they spotted the sub. Wish I were there -
I bet there was
sweat on more than one brow!

The Coasties decided to give chase and call home (Washington
naturally) Washington was slow
to respond (or think) - the sub went into a shallow area in the
northwest - really un-charted
area - might have been looking for an outlet.

The cutters laid a sub net and bit fingernails waiting on Washington.

After a bit, the sub commander - likely under threat himself solved
the incident.

He fired two tubes at the net, it blasted like all heck (phew) and
without orders,
the Coast Guard had to part way. They really had a foreign power
within a Trust Territory
in trusted to them - but had no war powers in that sense.

The Russians went back to the deep ocean and the Coast Guard went on
their way.

It was one of those phew no one got shot and things went back to normal.

Kinda reminds me of the movie - "The Russians are coming" only
differently.


We were the mid pacific refueling and missile target range - so we saw
Deep Ocean trackers
and typically cargo ships to us. It was a restricted port, but we had
drop-ins.

Had a New Zealand carrier come to visit - picking up some planes after
a typhoon....

Martin

Dave Young wrote:

Martin,

I've also done an isolated LORAN tour (Kure Island, Hawaii from
1980-1981) as an engineman (we call them MK's - Machinery
Technician's). But Kure was a "Gilligan's Island". Thoroughly
enjoyed it, but was island happy by the time the year was up and was
glad to leave. I was able to do an overnighter on Midway Island
after about 8 months on Kure. Wish I could go back, but the LORAN
Station has been shut down and leveled (for the most part) and the
island is now an animal sanctuary watched over by the State of
Hawaii. You have to get special permission to go on the island from
the state.

Extinguishers won't freeze stuff when used like they're supposed to.
I actually tried to cool a six pack of my favorite beverage one time
with a CO2. Nadda. However, if you take a container of the liquid
and drop a ball, insect (don't ask me how I know), hot coffee, etc.,
you get some interesting results. Same thing with halon (back then
we didn't know about the ozone damage from it). You can spray
someone down with CO2 and it won't hurt them, but will scare the hell
out of you if you're not expecting it (again, don't ask me how I know
this). The noise and white "smoke" will make an internal mess of
your pants, if you know what I mean. If you get a flake of CO2 on
you you'll feel it; but it's not really what I'd call painful. It
evaporates pretty fast. If I'm ever on fire (God forbid), please
feel free to spray me down with CO2 or halon.

Dave Young



Martin H. Eastburn wrote:

Great! I'd spray myself or you down if we were on fire. with CO2 I'd
jump into the sea. Ever see what CO2 does to a rubber ball -
shatters it.

Also aboard ship, as in those, rollovers might inject water into
compartments
and freezing water from CO2 might do as much damage as the fire.

A cousin of mine was a Loran Radioman - His station was mid
pacific. His island
was smaller than the 110 WPB you mention. Just coral heads with
sand. We met him
one day when the 'fleet' was in and brought him food and swapped
partial crew and
gave all a day off on our island - 1.5 miles long, 500 yards wide
and 6 ft. (yes ~2M)
tall at the highest. We fed him after we looked him up - better
than the local
food hall.

Best Regards,
Martin