Eight or nine days after leaving Kwajalein we arrived off the coast of Guam in the Mariana Islands. During WWII Guam was the scene of some major carnage during two invasions. In December 1941 the Japanese overran the small defense forces consisting of U.S. Navy and Marine personnel an Insular Force Guard and Guam’s police force armed only with pistols. The 1962 movie “No Man is an Island” tells the story of one US Navy Radioman who avoided capture by the Japanese until the island was liberated by American forces in 1944. Jeffrey Hunter plays the role of the radioman, George Ray Tweed. The movie was shot in the Philippians instead of Guam.
The second invasion of Guam took place 21 July to 10 August 1944. During the invasion American casualties included some 1,700 dead and 6,000 wounded; Japanese deaths totaled some 18,000.
The last Japanese soldier, Army Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi, surrendered on 24 January 1972. He had lived alone in a cave for 28 years, near Talofofo Falls. He might have seen us while we were investigating Talofofo Falls.
Guam is a beautiful island at the southern end of the Mariana Island chain.
Magellan ‘discovered’ Guam March 6, 1521. I’m certain the Chamorros living on Guam were surprised they had been lost and needed to be discovered. (Magellan Monument Umatac.) Guam and the rest of the Marianas were officially claimed by Spain in 1565.
Guam became a U.S. territory following the Spanish-American War. The rest of the Marianas Islands were claimed by Germany until the Japanese took them away during WWI.
We set about exploring our new tropical home port with gusto. Tumon Bay became a favorite swimming spot and the Hotel bars round the bay were favorite watering holes. We especially enjoyed Miss Scarlet as you can see from this photo. (My thanks to John Wright for the photos.) On the north end of the island on Andersen Air Force Base was the beautiful white sand Gab Gab beach. Andersen, at the time, had every B-52 in the world parked on the tarmac. Highway 1 always had munition trucks carrying 500 pound bombs to Andersen for delivery in Vietnam.
Fort Nuestra Senora de la Soledad in Umatac was built by the Spanish around 1810 to protect their shipping
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Our 1st Class Sonar Technician was accepted into the STAR program to attend the University of Nebraska and be commissioned an Ensign. The night before he left for The States, we had a farewell party for him in someone’s second floor apartment.
Remember, I mostly did not get stupid drunk anymore, mostly. This was not one of the mostly evenings. I slipped into the party after someone had decided there had to be a baptism. Sailors were being dumped into the bath tub with the shower running to complete the baptism. Before I knew what happened I was laying in the tub and the XO was thrown in on top of me. I wish I had a picture! As the XO and I clambered out of the tub we simultaneously focused on a dry sailor standing across the room and headed in his direction.
The target recognized the situation and exited the apartment with the two of us in hot pursuit.
We lost his scent and set out to find him. I was following the XO as we were ‘sneaking’ (we actually were bent low) along the center line of Highway 1 in search of our prey.
It was at this moment the Guam police pulled up beside us and inquired about our intentions. The XO pulled himself up to his best attention and slurred, “I’m an ‘ocifer’ in the United States Navy.”
The police told us to get off the road. The next thing I remember was sitting in the passenger seat of the XO’s car on the way to the BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters). Seems the XO had two rooms and he poured me into one of them for the night.
I had just fallen into bed when the OPS (operations) Officer knocked on the door and said we had to get back to the ship for and emergency underway. Some of what happened next is muddled. Really! I do remember standing in a line on the fo’c’stle (pointy end of the ship) unloading metal food containers in case we were going into a mine field. I was facing the quarter-deck (the quarterdeck on another day) during this endeavor which gave me a clear view of the XO attempting to disconnect the land line. As hard as he tried, he just couldn’t get a finger into one of those little holes on the dial. In frustration he tore the phone line from the outlet and threw the phone onto the pier. It made sense to me at the time.
My station during ‘sea and anchor’ detail was at the fathometer console. I had to take readings of the water depth and record them to ensure we didn’t run aground. Running aground would not be a good thing to do because ships are not supposed to run into anything. I have recreated my log entries for you to see how well I was doing that morning.
Fortunately, the duty section wasn’t at the party and we did get underway without incident. Our next stop was Subic Bay, Philippine Islands.
We didn’t know it but the emergency was a fake just like the emergency the President declared to build a wall on our southern border a week ago.
See you next time.