The Wind and The Darkness

                                          

                                          The Wind and The Darkness





     I have always enjoyed being on or around the water.  Coming from Tennessee the only water I was familiar with was Old Hickory Lake.  My first two years in the Navy were spent at Patrick AFB in Florida.  There I tasted salt water for the first time if only to swim in it.
     The last twenty months  of my enlistment were spent on the ocean either on board a ship or on a Mike boat.  I became familiar with the many faces of the sea - from calm gently rolling swells that would rock you to sleep, to monsoon storms so rough you would be tossed out of your bunk. There were times when I would look up and see nothing but water all around, even overhead, and times when I would be mesmerized by the sun glaring off the calm surface. The sea has it's own smells too - fishy odors close to shore, clear and cleansing out of sight of land.  It's colors are the clear blue green of deep water and the angry gray of storm-tossed waves.
     All of us had respect for the sea, we operated in all kinds of conditions.  Some of us looked into the depths reflecting on our problems to put them in their proper place.  I used to go on the flight deck at night and lay in the safety netting surrounding the deck, hanging over the side of the ship with nothing beneath but the darkness of the sea.  Even with the stars shinning the nights were black, we had black out conditions aboard ship at night.  The wind always blew because the ship was underway.  On a black night it was as if you were in a void - all thought replaced by the wind and the rocking of the ship as she rode the swells taking you into another world.  For a short time the war and all your worries were far away, for me the sea was refreshing and invigorating like a good nights sleep.
     We were never more that a few miles from shore.  In the daytime the jungles were clear, green and inviting, at night they were dark, lifeless and at best a shadow in the ambient light of the stars.
     Laying in the safety netting looking towards shore I watched red tracer rounds arc thru the darkened sky, crossing from mountain top to mountain top.  It was like a light show only all of the lights were red.  There was no sound or smell of cordite only the wind. Tracer rounds were spit out about every fifth round and at night it appeared as though a seamstress were stitching the darkness with red thread.
     At first the sight of the tracers was interesting in that I had never seen anything like it but then I wondered about the guys pulling the trigger. Were they alone, did they have hot chow that night and when would they see clean sheets again, how many more days til they rotated stateside, were they scared and what was going thru their mind. Up until then my war experiences were limited to the old movies on TV where the good guys always won and the enemy perished by the hundreds, but this was Vietnam, John Wayne was in Hollywood and the good guys were dying.
     One night several of us watched as an ammo dump exploded miles away down the coast.  It was like the final act of a fireworks display where they shoot off bunches of rockets at one time. Red tracers and flashes of large explosions illuminated the darkness for hours - we were in awe of the sight. The reality that this was war couldn't sink in as the sounds and smells were not there. Then just as in the movies the screen faded to black as the ship came about and the stern now faced out to sea. The wind and the darkness engulfed us as we wandered back to our compartment and told the guys " wow you should have seen the ammo dump go up ".
     Just a few miles away men were fighting and dying in the black of night. Fighting the enemy and the darkness of their own mind. This was something I knew nothing about and could only imagine. All I could do was watch red tracers as they crossed the night sky.

Remember The Alamo

               


     One of the first ships our group served aboard in Vietnam was the LPD USS Alamo. The Alamo was a newer amphibious assault ship.  Not only did it carry Marines their equipment and our boats it also had a flight deck for helicopters. Being a newer ship they seemed to have the best of everything.
     One of the great things about the Navy was the chow.  They had great cooks and I guess the only thing I could fault them on was the powdered milk and eggs, powered food isn't natural.  It was years before I would eat eggs again and milk never tasted the same so I eventually gave it up.
     On the Alamo we could count on two sure things the first of which was that the chef's surprise was fried chicken. A lot of fried chicken, once in a while we were served something that looked like fried chicken that one of the guys said was rabbit but it tasted like chicken. When I got home I told my wife not to cook me chicken again. Only in the last few years have I begun to eat chicken breast -  but not fried.
     As for the other certainty, movies were a big deal aboard ship but there were times when new movies couldn't be had so watching a rerun was inevitable. The Alamo had a remedy for reruns.
     The story was that when the Alamo entered service the actor John Wayne presented the ship with it's very own copy of his majestic movie, " The Alamo ". I had never seen this particular movie until then but by the time I got off the ship a few months later I was damned tired of it. I swear the Alamo was shown every week.
     The Alamo showed movies on the mess deck which was a large space for feeding all of the troops and ships company. They dropped a screen down in the middle of the mess deck and turned out the lights. When you got tired of watching the movie as made you could go around and watch it from the other side of the screen. The sound was the same but the characters were now reversed. It was different.
     One Saturday the ship pulled into Da Nang harbor and dropped anchor. On this particular Saturday the captain decided the crew needed a day off so he loaded up the crew, beer and a picnic lunch  for a day of softball on shore. Three of our boats were used to ferry everyone to shore, my boat was left behind in case a boat was needed for whatever reason.  I was left as boat coxswain, I had driven the boat several times but always with the senior petty officer close by.  It was a lazy day and it was doubtful we would be needed.
      We were tied up along side the ship soaking up the sun when this four stripper ( captain ) came down the Jacobs ladder. The captain walked up to me and said he needed a ride to his ship about a mile away.  It was a troop ship.  I had the engines lighted off and away we went.
     Coming along side of a ship in a Mike boat is really kind of simple.  Having twin screws enables you to actually walk the boat sideways. I had performed this maneuver several times but not yet perfected it.
      When we came along side the captain's ship I started maneuvering the boat into position with the captain  standing next to me. WHAM !   My boat slammed into the ships gangway ( new gangway ). WHAM !  I hit it again.  It would be hard to bust an E-3 seaman but I felt as if the captain was figuring how to go about it. The third time was a charm and all the time the captain never said a word.  When at last I held the boat in position the captain looked at me and asked if I had been driving the boat for long.  I told him this was my first time alone he said, "you'll learn"  then stepped off on to his freshly dented gangway.

The Lighter Side Of War

                 


     The members of of ACDIV 13 had a fun side, the ships we were stationed on used us for a lot of different jobs. Some times we were used to ferry people and things around, we picked up supplies in Da Nang Harbor every week and at times were sent out so the ship could make repairs to the well deck. Having nothing to do created boredom and you know about idle hands being the devil's workshop.


                                                              Nicotine Fit


     We had several characters among us who were unforgettable. There was this one guy from somewhere around New York, his heritage was Polish and I couldn't even begin to spell his name, maybe that's why we called him Ski.
      Ski was a nice guy and fun to be around, he only had one problem. Ski was a mooch when it came to cigarettes.  He never had any of his own except for those he got from the C- ration boxes and they were 20-25 yrs old. He didn't seem to mind what brand he smoked as we all smoked different brands and he bummed off all of us. Most times Ski would just walk up join in the conversation you were having, pull your pack of smokes from your pocket and pull out a cigarette then put the pack back in your pocket, he was very considerate. When we played cards in our compartment we usually had our packs and lighters ( oh, he didn't own a lighter either ) laying in front of us. Ski would reach over pull out a cigarette as he talked and never broke his train of thought.
     We all just sort of took Ski as he was.  He was a nice guy and cigarettes were about .15 per pack, no big deal. After a while though some things get under your skin and become an irritation. It took a while but Ski finally got the better of one of the guys as we were playing cards one night. It was payday, a day when you drew your pay, settled your debts and replenished your personal supplies - all in that order.
     So here we are playing poker in our quarters and Ski is in the game. A good hour or so has gone by and Ski has smoked 4-5 cigarettes by now when he reaches over and pulls another from a pack belonging to one of the petty officers. I guess this petty officer was losing or something but he slapped Ski's hand and said no. Ski was shocked and asked "what the hell". The petty officer asked Ski if he got paid that day and Ski said yes, then he was asked why he hadn't bought any cigarettes and for that Ski had no answer. The petty officer told Ski he was tired of keeping him supplied with smokes. Ski said he was sorry and he would get cigarettes the next day then he reached for a cigarette from some one else's pack and they promptly smacked his hand. Ski went without a cigarette for the rest of the night as no one would give him one.
     The next day when we came back to the compartment from lunch we were surprised to find a carton of cigarettes on every body's bunk - the brand they smoked. As usual we sat down to play a little lunch time poker. Ski was in the game, he promptly reached over and pulled a cigarette from someone's pack. Seems as though after buying about 15 cartons of cigarettes Ski forgot to buy any for himself, but he was a nice guy.


                                                       Prohibition


     Once a week the ship would drop anchor in Da Nang harbor to pick up supplies. The most obvious thing to do would be to send one of our boats, sometimes two, as they are big enough to carry whatever was needed. So off we would go up a river to what was called the beach ramp.
     This was a place that the marines had set up as an ammo dump and it had a ramp going into the water for loading boats. We would pull up and drop our ramp and wait for whatever we had to pick up even if it took all day (which it usually did) - remember what I said about idle hands.
     Turns out the beach ramp was about 3 miles from China Beach which was an in-country R&R site.  They had all kinds of recreational facilities but most of all they had booze.
     There were several problems getting the booze :
                     1. We didn't have transportation.
                     2. We didn't have ration cards, beer for enlisted men, liquor for officers.
                     3. We didn't have the right kind of money.
                     4. Who would go get the booze.
     Problem #1 was simple - hitchhike, problems #2&3 had us scratching our heads.  Problem #4 was simple enough, some one just needed the balls to go for it.
    We had among us a new recruit we affectionately called Wildman.  We called him that because he was always doing wild and crazy things. Once the above problems were explained to Wildman, we gave him a collection of about $30 and sent him on his way. Wildman walked out to the highway, stuck out his thumb and quickly obtained a ride in a passing jeep.
     About 4 hours later, a Marine six-by truck ( about the size of a dump truck - all wheel drive )backed on to the boat and out pops Wildman. He climbed into the back and shouted to form a line then commenced handing down three cases of beer, a quart of Canadian Club and a quart of Crown Royal, plus he gave us back some change. Wildman was our go to man from then on.
     In the process of passing the booze the Canadian Club was dropped on the deck, miraculously  it landed on it's bottom and only broke off the neck. Our quick thinking 2nd class engine man carefully picked up the broken bottle and placed a greasy rag from around his neck over a small bucket that had been quickly rinsed with river water ( you don't want to know about the river ) and strained the booze into the bucket. His quick thinking saved one of us from swallowing a piece of glass.
     We never asked Wildman how he managed to pull off such a feat, we just toasted him with a drink and started saving our money for next time.
     One of the fine points about being able to obtain booze was the resale value.  Aboard ship a six pack which cost us a couple of bucks would sell for close to $10.  Problem was that some of the guys who bought the beer had a problem keeping it under raps and had to stand Captains Mast. The ship knew we were bringing the booze aboard and searched our boats whenever we returned to the ship.  We were never caught.


                                                        Speaking Of Beer

     One of life's lessons that I learned early on was that the thing you want most usually is unobtainable - nowhere to be found. Another lesson was, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth ".
     The antics we went thru to get our hands on booze were just as described in the last story.  It wasn't that we were addicted to booze and had to have it to survive. We didn't have any but wanted it more because we didn't have any. Any of this make any sense?
     We were young sailors in a far away land or rather floating around in a far off ocean with very little to do. A cold beer would not only quench a raging thirst it would soothe the beast brought on by the heat, boredom, and monotony of waiting for something to happen.
     We had recently completed one of our two amphibious landings and were floating around waiting for orders on our next task of the day. We were told to marry up with another Mike 8 and come into the well deck. Great, done for the day, now we can go into our compartment and play cards the rest of the day. This was not to be as the Marines ashore required more cargo.
     Boy did we get the surprise of our life when forklifts started loading pallets of beer on our boat - bunches of beer. We were loaded two pallets high, five pallets across and about fifteen pallets deep on each boat. Let's see, that is 24 cans per case x 25 cases per pallet  x 150 pallets  =  a lot of beer!
     One disturbing fact was that here we were conniving and scheming to make sure our boat was the one to go to the beach ramp every week so we could buy booze and now we find out the ship is using it for ballast.
     To get back to the problem at hand - no way could a battalion of Marines drink all of the beer we had on our boat and surely we were deserving of a small delivery fee. We figured that no one would miss a couple of pallets that just happened to get knocked overboard by a rogue wave.  (Rogue waves were not known back then so we just said that a wave came out of nowhere and hit us when we were not looking)  - wham!  Two pallets were washed overboard.  Fifty cases of beer were a lot to hide but they say necessity is the mother of all invention and where there is a will there is a way.
     The Mike 8 is a well constructed boat.  It's designers thought of ever possible situation that could hinder the boat from making it to the beach with it's load. Beneath the well deck were five voids that ran across the boat from side to side, a man could duck walk in them. The idea was that if a void was punctured only it would take on water and the boat would continue to float.  Seems like we could flood three of the voids and still remain afloat.  Each void had an inspection plate on either side of the well deck and each round plate was big enough for a man to enter the void, but the plates were secured by about 80 - 3/4 inch bolts torqued to 150 ft lbs.
     Fortunately we kept nuts on one of the plates a little tighter than hand tight for just such an occasion - in no time at all fifty cases of beer washed overboard right into the void.
     The Marines must have been ticked about the missing beer because there was an inspection when we came aboard that night. An officer and a Chief Boatswain mate searched our bilges and storage compartment and came up empty.
     The lesson to be learned here is not to underestimate the resourcefulness of a thirsty sailor.



                                                                 Mail Call


     My Dad once told me of how they would screw around with the new guys aboard ship.  They would tell him he could write a letter home and mail it while in the middle of the ocean.  When the recruit inquired as to how this was possible they explained that he would have to be on deck at some odd hour of the night as the ship would be passing a mail buoy and he could drop his letter in it and the next ship heading in the opposite direction would retrieve the mail and take it stateside. Not everyone was gullible enough to fall for the trick but several stood on the deck in the cold or rain  or both for hours. It was sort of a rite of passage - first time at sea.
     The best part of a serviceman's day was always "mail call".  Not everyone got mail every day but everyone looked forward to hearing their name called when the mail was handed out. Sometimes it was almost as much fun to see what the other guys received.
     The girlfriend of one guy had put his name in the local paper back home and told the whole town that he was overseas and lonely, please write to him. This guy got mail every day and loads of it mostly from people he didn't know.  He got love letters ( some were quite racy ), he got magazines of all kinds, newspapers, etc.
      Then some guys got gifts - cookies, salami, cheeses and sausages.  If we'd had an oven we could have made a pizza.
      Linda would send me packages of grape kool aid and popsrite popcorn. The kool aid we would mix with the water in our igloo cooler - when you couldn't drink beer grape kool aid was the next best thing - beat the hell out of plain water.
     Popsrite popcorn came in a flat aluminum pan with a wire handle.  You had to remove a paper cover and then set the pan on a hot stove.  Soon the popcorn would start popping and the aluminum cover would start to rise and form a round dome as it filled with hot popcorn.  When all of the popcorn popped you just tore open the dome and started eating. There was just one problem - we didn't have access to a stove hot or cold.
     Not having a stove was an opportunity to improvise and we excelled in that area. The Marines had heat tablets issued to them for warming their C-rations. Heat tablets were basically Sterno in tablet form - use enough and you could boil water quickly. This though presented another problem, open flames were not allowed aboard ship.
     During daylight hours cooking the popcorn was not an issue when we were out of the ship on our boats, a five gallon bucket with some busted pallet wood and a pint of diesel fuel to get it started, but after hours cooking presented problems as the Captain frowned on seeing his ship afire.
     Thru experimentation we found that the heat tablets burned a blue - white flame which was nearly invisible even at night. So one night I decided to pop some popcorn for the guys. I got a gallon can from the mess cooks and poked holes in the bottom to provide air for the fire and then dropped in about 9 or 10 or more heat tablets and a match. In no time at all the popcorn was well on it's way, the aroma was delicious and tantalizing. I had selected a cook sight that I thought was well hidden.  I was between a couple of the large Marine amtracks and things were going well when all of a sudden we were surprised by a Marine guard. Turns out the guard was aroused by the aroma of popcorn and was less concerned about the fire than our offer to share.  Sharing some popcorn with him assured us of his silence.
      The popcorn is now popped and ready to eat - just put out the fire and head back to the compartment. The fire though was not ready to go out.  I must have used more heat tablets than I needed because the fire was not even getting low. Throwing sand on the fire was the only thing to do but the heat tablets still got  a supply of air and flame appeared from the mound of sand, it took a whole sandbag of sand to put out the flame.
     The popcorn was great but we decided do our cooking off the ship.


                                                             Game Time


     We liked to play games in our off time especially if we could place bets on the outcome. We played all kinds of card games though poker was the standard fare. I had no idea there were so many different poker games. We played five card stud, seven card stud, seven card no peek, hi-lo. We had deuces wild, low card in the hole wild, low spade wild,  high spade splits the pot, two's and nines and one eyed jacks were wild. There were times while in the middle of a game we would have to be reminded what game we were playing as it was dealers choice and changed with every hand.
     Sailors get serious about their gambling. My first time aboard ship I walked into the compartment and found a game of Acey Duecy going on. This was a game where each player put money into the pot and was then dealt two cards.  Prior to receiving his next card he places a bet in an amount up to the total of the pot.  If the third card falls between the first two cards the player removes the amount he bet from the pot. If the third card matches or falls outside of the first two cards then the player tosses his bet into the pot and the pot grows.
     This particular game had about six players and they were tapped out for cash so they were accepting backers who would place bets based on how good a hand the player had and take half of the winnings if they won. When I walked in the pot contained over two thousand dollars cash, an expensive watch and the title to a 1966 mustang ( this was late 1967 ). The game went on for another 2 hours and as with most games of chance there were winners and losers.
     Once at sea there was a continuous poker game every night in the compartment.  Cash didn't last long so to keep the interest high a bookkeeping system was set up. Come payday everyone settled up or they were not allowed to play again.
     Poker and blackjack were the standard card games but we sometimes adapted other games. Linda's dad sent me a home made board game that was played with dice and marbles.
     The basic idea of the game was to get your four marbles around the board before your opponents. Up to four players could play and the excitement could become quite high. One of the rules was that if your marble landed on an opponents marble the opponents marble had to go all the way back to the starting point and try again. Treachery and intrigue kept the tension and excitement high as each player had put up fifty cents or a dollar in the pot, winner take all.
     I don't remember the original name of the game, the guys  though came up with another name for it, "f--- your buddy ".
     In a time where the future was uncertain and you were far from home it was good to have something to lift your spirits and make us laugh. There were many things to be concerned about but all it took was a little humor to put a smile on our faces.

    



                                                     

Time Marches On

                        Time Marches On





    When growing up I would often hear adults talk about the " good ol' days ". They talked about the way things were and how things have changed. During my own life time there have been a plethora of inventions and events take place and I wondered about the experiences and events that occurred during my grandparents lifetime and later those of my parents.
     Think about how much time passes in a persons life then think about all of the happenings that can occur in that time frame.

                                                                 1800's


     Grandpa Riggan was born in 1886, the same year " Avon " and  "Coca Cola " hit the market.
     The horse and buggy mode of transportation saw the beginning of it's demise with the invention of the automobile in 1889.
     Granny Riggan was born in 1890 , there were 43 states in the union and Benjamin Harrison was President . The most noteable event occured December 29 when the Army tried to disarm a camp of Lakota Sioux Indians which resulted in the Massacre at Wounded Knee , 153 men , women and children were killed .
     The cure for what ails you was marketed as " aspirin " in 1897, it was probably better if you swallowed it with  "Jello " which was invented the same year.
      In 1899 Granny Wade made her debut in this world just as the Spanish American War ended, we won.

                                                                     1900's

    The turn of the century brought with it more inventions, discoveries and events. The promise of prosperity and personal well being hung heavy in the minds of the people.
    1900 was the year of the "Hershey Bar " made in where else but Hershey, Penn. by a man named Hershey. Radio was also invented but there were no broadcast stations so you couldn't hear it.
    1901 was the year that U.S. President Mc Kinley was assassinated, he wasn't the first U.S.President killed in office nor would he be the last.
    For the lighter side, in 1902 the  "Teddy Bear " was intrduced and found it's way into baby cribs and little kids arms by the thousands. Grandpa Wade was born that year, wonder if he had a Teddy Bear ?
    People must have thought the Wright brothers were nuts when they unveiled a contraption called an airplane and actually flew it in 1903.
     I can't imagine many people of the time understanding Einstein's " Theory Of Relativity " which was published in 1905 but it did turn heads.
    The earth shook and California came close to sliding into the ocean in 1906 but when the dust settled only San Fransisco was a pile of rubble having endured a powerful magnitude 8 earthquake.
    Henry Ford advanced the world into a new era in 1908 when he introduced the " Model T " automobile. The poor man's car.
    By far the major events of the early 20th century had to be the arrival of " Halley's Comet " in 1910 and the sinking of the unsinkable " H.M.S.Titanic " on her maiden voyage in 1912. Here we are 100 years later and the Titanic still mystifies people. First discovered in 1705, Halley's Comet reappears every 75 -76 years and has already been around again on schedule, by my calculation my grand daughter will get to see it about 50 years from now.
    Henry Ford again headlined the news when he revolutionized productivity in 1913 with his moving assembly line for producing his cars. The man had some great ideas to build his cars faster, one idea was in painting, you could have any color car you wanted as long as it was " black ". Think of the time saved mixing paint. Another time saving device in 1913 was the advent of the " zipper ", no more fooling around with trying to slip a button into a tiny hole.
    All of time saved meant more work which meant more money in your pocket. It was not long before the government decided they had better use of that excess money so in 1913 they came up with the most hated government agency to date the " IRS " .
    In 1914 the " Big Ditch " was completed thus the " Panama Canal " was open for business. This was a boom for shipping as they no longer had to round the tip of South America.
    1914 also brought forth a scourge of history with beginning of World War I, Europe was once again involved in conflict. The US tried to stay neutral but in 1917 the country entered the war under the command of General " Black Jack " Pershing. This was the war to end all wars.
    As the war lingered an even worse scourge reared it's ugly head in 1918, the " Spanish Flu " quickly spread world wide and killed an estimated 21 plus million people before fading away.
    After almost 5 years of trench warfare, WWI came to an end in 1919. The death toll totaled 16 million with another 20 million wounded - combatants and civilians.

                                                                    1920's

     1920, the " Roaring Twenties ", started out with the first commercial radio broadcast, people were sitting around a little wooden box listening to news, sports, music and mysteries. It was like TV only there was no picture. Also in 1920 the League of Nations or NATO was founded and women were given the right to vote much to the dismay of a lot of men.
     But the worse thing to happen to the men folk of 1920 was " Prohibition ". For the next 13 years you could not " legally " buy booze in the US. This opened up a whole new industry " bootlegging ".
    Now that people couldn't drink their attentions often turned to other venues of entertainment. Although motion pictures had been around for some time and were very popular, the advent of talking motion pictures came into being in 1923. Also an event of note : William Luther Riggan was born ( my Dad ).
    One of the highlights of the movie theater was the news reel. Highlights of news and current affairs from around the world would be shown every week and the 1920's were full of news.
              1926 - the first liquid fueled rocket was fired ( the space race was on ), Floye Jean Wade ( my Mom ) made her appearance in this world
              1927 - television was invented though it would be another 20 years before appearing in the nations households
              1927 - Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic
              1928 - Penicillin, the best thing since sliced bread was discovered and oh! someone figured out how to commercially slice bread
              1929 - prosperity ended in the US with the crash of the stock market, greed from all walks of life sent the nation into the despairs of the " Great Depression ", repercussions spread world wide.

                                                                   1930's


    Despite the soup kitchens and unemployment lines time marched forward to the next decade, the 1930's.
    In 1932 science split the atom, the importance of this feat would not be realized for another 10 years. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who would lead the nation thru some of the worst years in history, was elected as the 32nd President of the United States. Happy days were here again.
    1933 found FDR taking office, Prohibition ends and Flier Wiley Post flies around the world in 8 1/2 days. Though aviation is still in it's infancy events are about to happen that will quickly push it into the future.
    The worst possible news of 1933 was that Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany.
    On a lighter note, Monopoly hit the market in 1934 families now had something to do besides listen to the radio at night.
    In 1935 FDR was successful in passing the " Social Security Act "allowing millions of Americans the ability to slip into old age with some dignity.
    Not to be out done, aviatrix Amelia Earhart attempts to fly solo around the world in 1937, she was last heard from somewhere over the Pacific. Mystery still clouds her memory.
    In 1938, radio actor and later movie star, Orson Wells presented a radio play of H.G.Wells novel War of the Worlds. Even though the station announced that the broadcast was a play many people panicked and ran amok in the belief that Martians were invading the nation. People do seem to hear only what they want to hear.
     The computer age started in 1939, the first one had miles of wiring, vacuum tubes, flashing lights and required enormous amounts of space, it was not pocket compatible but boy could it add.
     1939 finds the advancement of aviation in full swing when the first commercial flight crosses the Atlantic. The excitement was short lived when Hitler invaded Poland marking the beginning of WWII. Again America chose to be neutral even though we manufactured and shipped weapons and material to the allied powers.

                                                                  1940's

    1940 found Americans on the move to prosperity, the light at the end of the tunnel was a little brighter. The female population rejoiced with the invention of " Nylon Stockings ",now every woman had smooth beautiful youthful legs. The problem was that the hem line for skirts was still below the knee.
    While the country was involved with helping England, Russia and France with war materials, the Japanese, who were conquering most of Asia, kept insisting they were peace loving and wanted nothing to do with war. Then on December 7th, 1941, the Japanese Naval Fleet attacked, without warning, our Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Some 3,000 people died, mostly Naval personnel many of whom died while trapped in sinking ships such as the battle ship USS Arizona.
    After the bombing of Pearl Harbor America naturally declared war on Japan but because Japan was a member of the Axis powers Germany and Italy declared war on America. The world was truly at war. America was not as prepared for war as they needed to be, it took time to build up the needed equipment, material,supplies, train the men and get everything to where it was needed. In the mean time US personnel fought battles in the Pacific, North Africa and Italy to name a few.
    In 1942 a substance called "Duct Tape " was invented for the war effort, today there is a roll in every tool box, home and business, new uses pop up every day.
    Finally " D - Day ", June 6, 1944 Allied forces started to take back the European Continent from the Axis powers, meanwhile the island hopping campaign in the Pacific continued.
    1945 found us still fighting on two fronts but we were winning, then the news came that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who had lead our nation  since 1933, had died suddenly in Georgia, April 12. German forces surrendered May 8, 1945.
     Japanese forces being more fanatical took more convincing, America had been secretly working on an "Atomic Bomb " and in August of 1945 we dropped one on Hiroshima, Japan. The death and destruction was unbelievable but it took the destruction of Nagasaki, Japan to convince the Japanese to surrender in August 1945. American deaths from the war totalled more that 418,500, world wide deaths ran into the tens of millions.
    The world is at peace again, the machinery used to build weapons are now turning out more practical things such as the " Bikini " bathing suit and " disposable diapers " they hit the market place in 1946. You have to wonder about the relationship of these two inventions as they coincided with the post war " baby boom ".
    1947 was a significant year, pilot Chuck Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier and I came kicking and screaming into this life on May 5th, little brother Pat followed me fifteen months later
    The decade ended nicely in 1949 with the first non stop flight around the world, ah progress.

                                                                   1950's


     The new decade brought forth new inventions and new happenings, in 1950 the first credit card was created and a new war was started when Communist forces of North Korea invaded South Korea.
     In 1952 a vaccine for Polio was discovered and a world wide disease was on the verge of eradication.
     1953 gave us another discovery which is more in use today than it was then, DNA. Everybody has it and everybody is different. 1953 also brought Howard Clinton Riggan into the family on September 12th, like I needed another brother.

     The most significant event of 1955 was the birth of my little sister Vickie Lynn Riggan, dad finally got the girl he always wanted.
     The instigator of many family fights was invented in 1956, the " TV remote " it also created a new type of human - " couch potato ".
     The big news came in 1957 when the Russians put a satellite in earth orbit, " Sputnik " circled the earth emitting a beeping sound and the space race was on.

     For the Riggan family, the decade ended with the birth of little brother Ronnie Ray Riggan on July 31, 1958, this was the point at which mom and dad figured out that enough is enough.

                                                                       1960's


    The 1960's started off with the roar of rocket engines sending men into space. Russia beat us into orbit when they sent Yuri Gagarin into the atmosphere as the first man in space April 12, 1961. The US followed by sending Alan Sheppard as the first free man into space May 5, 1961.
     Also in 1961 the Berlin Wall was built and divided Communist Europe from free Europe and John F Kennedy took office as the 35th president of the United States. He was the first Catholic to hold the office.
    Russia decided to install ICBM missiles in Cuba in 1962 and for a short time the world sat on the edge of it's seat as the new president forced the removal of the missiles. WWIII was averted.
    In November 1962 John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Tx.
    Grandpa Riggan died in 1963, his was the first funeral I attended and I still miss him.
    The smiley face first appeared in 1964. President Lyndon Johnson got the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 and in 1965 he sent US troops in force to stem the tide of Communism in a far away place called Vietnam. America was at war again. In 1965 a 2nd generation of the Riggan family  ( yours truly ) entered military service for the next four years, GO NAVY.
     1966 gave us the first hand held calculator, all it would do was math problems but it was better than trying to work them in your head.
    1967 saw the worlds first heart transplant and the first super bowl football game.
     The decade ended on a high note in 1969 when Neil Armstrong full filled President Kennedy's promise and walked on the moon, " one small step for man - one giant leap for mankind ".


                                                                      1970's

     The 1970's found the space race still in full swing only it was no longer a race, the Russians never made it to the moon but we kept going back. The general public was not as excited any more , space was no longer news worthy but some people just couldn't give up on the possibilities yet to be found in space.
     1972 found us laying Granny Riggan to rest, she was 82
     The Internet was developed in 1973, this was probably the most significant event of the 70's.
     For those of us who were there the biggest event was the end of the Vietnam war in 1973. Vietnam was never a war, it was a conflict, I never understood the difference as people died either way. Just over 58,000 names of Americans killed in the conflict are engraved on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial.
     In 1974 a marvel of the office was introduced, the " post it note ". They stuck to paper, paint, metal, plastic and glass, they came in various sizes and eventually in colors. They were stuck all over the place with written reminders to do or not do things.
     Also in 1974, Congress was in the process of impeaching President Richard Nixon when he stepped down and was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford who took over as president.
     Women the world over mourned the death of rock and roll star Elvis Presley in 1977, more than 30 yrs later fans still gather at Graceland in Memphis ,Tn for the anniversary of his death.
     The first test tube baby was born in 1978.


                                             1980's

     The 1980's seemed to be the age of technology, the personal computer invented in 1976 was now finding it's way into homes around the world. My first born Michael Daniel Riggan was born July 10, I was a proud Papa. 1982 was a good year, my youngest son Clay Kenneth was born August 24, before he could settle down we were on the move again, by 1990 we would move cross country five or six times.
     The first mobile phone hit the market in 1983, you had to wear a shoulder strap to carry it around and monthly bills exceeding $1000.00 were not unheard of.
     Space capsules gave way to the space shuttle which would carry personnel and cargo in to space and return safely to earth and sent back into space  quickly. We lived in Titusville, Fla in April of 1981 , With Danny on my shoulder, I watched the first space shuttle Columbia rise above the tree line behind my house April 4th , it was loud and the ground shook but it was amazing . In 1983 Sally Ride would be the first woman in space.
     1985 was a painful year for the Riggan family, in August Dad and Grandpa Wade passed away within days of each other. Granny Wade lived another 2 years and died in 1987 at the age of 88, the last of an era. Mom lived on until 2005, now it was up to the baby boomer generation to carry on. 

     

     I am still experiencing the events and inventions of my time, technology changes our lives almost overnight and the nation is still involved in conflicts around the world, people are still dying for a cause. Seems as though people learn about history but no one seems to learn from it.

     I started this to show the changes through out a persons lifetime and I have concluded that time will continue on, people or no people. Time never slows down and never changes.
     I was watching a science program the other day and scientist have determined that our sun will die in 5 billion years but before that the Galaxy Andromeda will collide with our Milky Way in 4 billion years. Either way the earth and life as we know it will cease to exist in 4 or 5 billion years that allows for a lot of generations of mankind and I can't help but wonder what will become of the Riggan clan. I know where we come from but where we are going.







                                                   
    

   
   
         
   
  



   

More Fairytales And Sea Stories

     




    Back in the 60's there was a TV show called McHale's Navy starring Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway. It was about a PT boat crew and their madcap adventures in the Pacific during WWII.  As comedies go it was at times quite funny.  Little did I know that I would belong to a group that at times reminded me of McHale's Navy.
    I received orders to ACDIV 13 in June 1967, shortly before Linda and I were married and I joined up with them in November.  ACDIV 13 was part of an amphibious assault group that roamed the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam.  Our group consisted of four LCM 8 and four LCM 6 landing craft commonly referred to as " Mike " boats.  When ordered we would load up Marines and all of their equipment and carry them to the beach, it was just like the movies of the D-Day Landings at Normandy during WWII.  During the next 18 months I served two tours in the war zone and we landed the Marines twice.  The rest of the time we performed odd jobs as necessary and got in and out of mischief quite often.
     We were a rag tag group not part of the ship's company ( I think that at times the ship's captain was glad of that ) and we were assigned to several different ships.  We were led by an officer fresh from OCS, he was usually an Ensign. There were 3rd and 2nd class petty officers assigned as boat coxswains for each boat.  Although I spent time on both LCM6's and 8's I spent most of my time on LCM8's.  This was a steel hulled, flat bottom landing craft about 60 ft. long 20 ft wide and weighed in at about 120 tons with a load capacity of 60 tons.
    The following stories are some of the escapades I was in - some of them would have made a good script for a TV show.

   A Day At The Beach

   The four LCM8's were loaded with an M-60 tank on each boat and were ordered to land them on a particular beach somewhere south of Da Nang. I think you need to know that an M-60 tank has a crew of 4 and weighs about 60 tons which is the limit for our boats. You also need to know that we drew about 5- 6ft of water with that much weight.
    As you close in on the beach it was not uncommon to run aground on a sandbar.  The LCM8 was equipped with four 671 GMC diesel engines which could boost us over most any sandbar - it was not uncommon to cross several sandbars. As we approached the beach each boat was about 75 -100 yards apart.  On this day we crossed 4 sandbars till we could go no further.  I looked down the beach and saw that the other boats were off loading their tanks and appeared to be in line with us and the dry sand of the beach was about 20 - 30 ft away. We lowered the bow ramp and I gave the go ahead sign to the driver,with his head sticking out of the drivers hatch, he slowly started forward as the rest of the tank crew sat atop the turret. As the tank neared the water the driver went faster, the nose plowing into the water that washed over the front of the tank. All of a sudden the tank disappeared beneath the surface with only about 3 ft of the whip antenna above the waves. The tank crew were swimming around with an amazed look on their faces and a few moments later the driver finally bobbed to the surface spitting salt water.
    Seems the last sandbar was not the last sandbar and there was a deep hole on the other side. The crew was not in a good mood as they swam ashore. It took 2 M-60 tanks, an M-60 tank retriever, and 4 UDT divers three days to locate and pull the tank ashore.

    Flight Of The Bumble Bee

   During a particularly bad storm which had us rolling out of our bunks for a couple of days, an old LST loaded with ammunition of all types broached stern first on a stretch of beach.   Imagine a ship designed for assault landings in WWII and never really intended for more than one landing, but was still in use some 25 yrs later in Vietnam. Well there it was with it's ass in the jungle and surf crashing against the bow. They said 80% of the compartments were flooded which should have qualified it as scrap but some one who wanted to make a name for themselves convinced the powers that be the ship could be salvaged and made right again. Who were we to argue?   The Navy spent a month removing the ammo via helicopter to a large ship just offshore. Ocean going fleet tugs started doing their thing getting the ship ready to tow off the beach and that's when we came in. Seems the tugs had a mast that was too high for helicopters to get close enough pick up equipment and carry it to the LST, where as we could come alongside the tug to pickup whatever was needed. We would then run in to the beach to drop off the material.
    This is where things got fun. We didn't go all the way into the beach.  We stopped in the surf along side the bow of the LST and secured our boat with a 4" hemp line, called a hawser, to our stern bollard. The LST would lower a jib boom crane down to us and we would place the ends of the cargo net on the hook so they could haul away and lift the cargo to their deck. Problem number one was that the surf was running about 8ft or better as another storm was moving in. The heavy surf made the boat move around like a cork in the water, in this case a cork in the ocean - a very upset ocean. There were times that I would be hanging by one arm to the crane's hook because the boat fell out from under me when the surf went out. There were times when I looked up and saw nothing but a wall of water in every direction.  At one point the surf was so bad that we couldn't get enough power to back out.  We got turned around side ways in the surf, almost tipped over and wound up going out forward with the waves soaking us . This was the only time I ever put on a life jacket without being told.
    While all of this was going on there was a helicopter ferrying personnel from the LST to a ship just offshore and back again. This was one of the older fat choppers not the Huey's they used for troops and gunships.
    We were taking a break at the time and watching all of the action when someone said, " look at the chopper."  There it was having just lifted off from the bow of the LST and the wheels were dragging in the water just beyond the surf line. We listened to the radio and learned that the the pilot could not regain full power and therefore could not lift out of the water.  Much discussion went on about what to do.  After the pilot tried everything he knew it was suggested that the pilot run the chopper thru the surf and on to the beach - but it was determined the surf was too  high ( we could have told them that ).
    The chopper continued to move around the water.  It reminded me of a bumble bee going from flower to flower and all the while it continued to lose power. Finally it was decided that the chopper would come close to a large ship that had large cranes that could swing outboard and pick up the chopper. The pilot was told to get close to the ship and turn off the engine then apply the rotor brake to stop the rotor from turning. Once the rotor stopped, the personnel in the chopper could bail out and we could rush in and tie a rope to the chopper to keep it from sinking. We would then tow the chopper to the ship. They said the chopper was designed to float for 10 min.
    What is that old saying about " best laid plans of mice and men ?"
    As the chopper moved into position we followed it and were ready with ropes. The pilot shut down the engine and as the rotor started to slow he hit the brake - which didn't work. The blades continued to turn as the chopper sank deeper into the water.  The blades hit the water and splintered into pieces and the chopper started to sink lower in the water. The personnel bailed out in the nick of time as the chopper disappeared, it went down like a rock. The pilot swam up to our boat and as I helped him aboard he asked if we got the chopper.  When I told him no he asked how long it floated.  I snapped my fingers and said " about that long ".
    UDT searched for four days and never found it.  The currents were fierce and swept it away.


Sometimes You Should Have Stayed In Bed
                                                                                                                               
    Ever have one of those days where you would have been better off had you stayed in bed ?  You know, the kind of day where nothing you do seems to come out in your favor. Well let me tell you about George ( actually I never knew his real name but George will do ).  George was a Boatswain Mate from one of the fleet tugs assisting on the salvage of the aforementioned LST.  George had been aboard the LST off loading the ammo when he got sand in his lungs and developed pneumonia. This got him 30 days bed rest on one of the large ships assigned to the LST debacle.
    I first met George on the day he was released from sick bay and was returning to his fleet tug.  Still a little weak and pale, he was eager to return to his duties. The ship put George on a helicopter like the one that sank and sent him out to be lowered to his tug.  Ah but wait, the tug has a tall mast that will not allow the chopper to lower things to the deck so the next best thing is to lower George to our boat and we will take him along side his tug.
     This is where I meet George. The chopper is overhead hovering about 25 ft up, I looked up and saw George sitting on the edge of a hatch in the bottom of the chopper with his legs dangling in air. The chopper crew is placing a harness under his arms that is attached to a hook and steel cable. George yells down to me to catch his bundle of clothes as he throws them down. I bent over to retrieve the clothing and there was George just laying there on his back with the harness and about 10 inches of cable still attached.
    As the chopper flew off I got down beside George to see if he was still breathing.  He moaned in severe pain, unable to move. We ran our boat over to the ship George had flown from  as they had a doctor aboard.  The ship lowered a Jacobs ladder from a hatch in the hull and the doctor and a corpsman climbed down. The doctor checked George out and determined that among other things he had a dislocated shoulder which had to be set so they could wrap him in a special litter to keep him immobilized. The only means to get him aboard ship was to haul him up with one of the cranes.
    Having diagnosed George's condition, the doctor explained to me and the corpsman how we were going to put George's shoulder back in place. George still in pain was not happy with the doctor's diagnosis and treatment regimen. George cussed the doctor as well as any sailor I ever heard, his vocabulary was quite extensive, George even threatened to kick the ass of everyone involved with the setting of his shoulder, also the crew of the helicopter. Undeterred and oblivious to the verbal abuse aimed at him, the doctor ran a sheet under George's armpit and gave the ends to me and told me to place my foot against George's shoulder. The corpsman was told to grab George's right arm and put his foot in George's armpit. All the while George, still in pain and cussing like a sailor, was now screaming and crying.
    The doctor grabbed George's dislocated left arm put his foot in his arm pit and on the count of three we all pushed or pulled as required.  George screamed loudly then there was a loud snapping sound that made me wonder if we might have pulled too hard. The breath went out of George and his body relaxed. After several sighs George was profusely thanking the doctor and was now prepared to show his gratitude by kissing the doctor's ass rather than kick it.  He even offered to have the doctor's baby.
    We wrapped George up in the litter and hooked him to the crane.  The last I saw of George he was dangling from the crane about 50 ft in the air.  I wondered if he was worried about another rope breaking. We heard later that George had some back injuries and a broken bone somewhere but he was going to be OK.  He was back in bed where he probably should have stayed that day.


The Worst Of Times

   Some times things happen that makes you shake your head and wonder if God is so smart why did he create stupid people.
    We were assigned duty aboard a new LPD - I can't remember the name. The ship had an officer in charge of the well deck who was quite proud of it's condition. The paint on the bulkhead was fresh and without scars, the timbers lining the well deck were new and had few splinters, the well deck was immaculate.  He also had his own version of tie off lines which had us a little scared.  Instead of the normal 2 inch nylon lines with an eye splice in one end, he had a 1 inch steel cable about 18 inches long attached to the nylon rope, the cable had eyes in both ends held together with about 2+ lbs of compressed lead or steel for each eye. We complained about these tie off lines but to no avail.
    When bringing Mike boats into a ship's well deck they are married together in pairs.  In other words, two boats are tied together side by side. The coxswains use only the outboard engines for power.  Now you have 240 tons of boat plus any cargo entering an enclosed space. There is probably 15 ft  of side clearance but it doesn't look like it.
    An amphibious assault ship has the capability to ballast down allowing water to enter the well deck and the Mike boats can float in.  Sounds like a simple process but it's not.  Depending on the condition of the seas and the experience of the well deck crew, entering a ship can be the most dangerous thing we would do all day.
    The officer in charge of this particular well deck had his own ideas about boat handling. He would ballast down in stages bringing our boats in inches at a time.  He used the action of the ocean swells to lift us up and move us forward. This was the way things were suppose to go, but then you had to keep an eye out for that rogue swell - the one swell that was bigger than the rest and came out of no where.
    The well deck crew of this ship worked on very narrow catwalks about 20 ft above the deck.  From there they would pass us the tie off lines which we applied to our cleats and bollards. When done correctly the lines were placed in such a fashion that the boat would not move until the tension was released.
    On this particular day we were the first two boats to come in.  There was very little water in the well deck and we bottomed out often until more water was brought in. The seas were running about 4ft which is not bad.  As the line handlers moved their lines forward the boats followed on the next swell . When the boats were in position, the line handlers took out the slack and tied off to their cleats.
    Out of nowhere a rogue swell hit us and shifted us forward.   The swell raised us high into the air, the line handlers took in the slack and then the swell was gone.  All 120 tons of our boat combined with the boat we were married to and the shortness of the tie off line created a catastrophic moment in time.
    When nylon rope stretches beyond it's limit and breaks it behaves like a rubber band, it returns to it's point of origin - the cleat on the catwalk. The force of the returning rope can break bones and put dents in steel bulkheads all by itself, add in several pounds of steel cable on the end and you have a deadly weapon.
    When that rogue swell lifted us up and moved us forward the line handlers took out the slack in an attempt to hold us in position. When the swell dropped us on the deck a steel eye attached to our cleat broke.  It was no match for the 120 tons of boat it was trying to hold back. The nylon line reacted as it was supposed to and returned to the cleat on the catwalk.  It carried with it the hunk of steel wire.
     On the narrow catwalk there was no time to react much less room to move out of the way. The line handler of that line was struck in the forehead by the wire rope and the force slammed him into the bulkhead behind. The boy's skull was crushed both front and back, he died instantly.
    None of us knew the boy ( I call him a boy because we were all still young enough to meet that qualification ). We learned later that the boy was due to be discharged soon.  He was going to fly back the the states in 30 days.  He left a young wife and baby boy.
    I never fired a weapon while I was in Vietnam, never saw the enemy, but on that day I had a hand in taking the life of that boy. He went home early in a body bag.  His son grew up without a father.  I learned how cruel and senseless life can be.













   

Pay Attention , Son

                     



    One of the functions of being a parent is teaching certain skills to your kids - little things that only you know and can pass down to the next generation.  Things that will be more useful in life than anything ever taught in school.  In this my parents were a flowing fountain of knowledge which was passed along to me starting at an early age.
    For instance - when my brother Pat and I got old enough and tall enough to push the power mower with all four wheels on the ground ( I was about 9 - 10 ), Dad taught us how to mow the grass. This is a very useful skill which I continue to use today although I do it on a riding mower.  Brother Pat , having a higher form of intelligence,  just moved to Arizona where they don't have grass.
    Dad taught me how to check the oil, wrap the starter cord around the motor pulley, adjust the throttle and choke then pull hard on the cord. This procedure didn't always produce the desired results so you needed to know how to check the spark plug for spark and here again Dad was the Mr. Wizard.  He gave me the spark plug to hold while he pulled hard on the starter cord. The next thing that happened was that the jolt I received from the spark plug sent me rolling backwards across the lawn.  My fingers felt as if a firecracker had exploded in them and were numb for a long time.  It didn't seem funny to me but Dad got a good laugh out of it.
    Driving was a skill Dad had down pat, after all he used to be a cab driver after the war and Mom couldn't teach me because she didn't know how to drive. The first time Dad tried to teach me to drive a car I was still in grade school and only by stretching would my toes touch the pedals. I told this story in an earlier posting and to keep from repeating let's just say that it was a good thing that bush was there to stop us. He waited until I was about 16 to try again.
    Dad taught me a multitude of things - how to bait a fish hook and how to slide your hand around a fish's  body to lay down the fins so you wouldn't get punctured while taking the hook out. He taught me to tie knots although the only one I can remember is the bowline. He taught me to drive a boat and water ski.  I haven't water skied since I was about fifty but fishing is a great past time.  Hopefully I will advance to Catching before I get too old and arthritic to work the reel.  From him I developed a love of the water and respect for the things it could do.
    Dad was a butcher - the best in the business. A walk past the meat dept of a grocery store today reminds me of Dad, there is an aroma that permeates a butcher shop and when I smell it I want to look around for Dad. Once in a bourbon induced moment of melancholy he told me his dream was to open his own butcher shop and have his sons work beside him as he taught them the trade. He taught me to use a knife but evidently not well enough.  Turns out brother Clint was the only one with the skill of a butcher. Dad never realized his dream but I know that for a short time he was proud to have Clint working next to him.
    Now Mom on the other hand taught me much more valuable skills to insure my survival.  Dad may have taught me drive a car but Mom showed me how to open the cans of food I bought from the store and prepare them for consumption.  Any fool can drive a car but can he cook?
    Actually Mom passed along her knowledge because she had five kids and needed help in a big way. My only sister was still a baby by the time I was nine but I could peel, cook and mash potatoes, make toast ( with out a toaster ) and fry Bologna. Making biscuits from scratch is an art form which I never developed - mine could be used for hockey pucks.
    Doing laundry is always a useful skill and someday I must get Linda to show me how to use the more modern machines. I learned to wash clothes using a wringer washing machine. It was portable and could easily be rolled to any part of the kitchen. After the clothes went thru the agitation process and were rinsed you had to swing the roller section over the tub and insert a steady stream of clothes thru the rollers where the water would be compressed from them. The drier was located in the back yard and consisted of a series of wire lines (4 or 5 ) strung from one " T " shaped post to another. In the summer time clothes dried fast, in the winter they just froze. The term " rain water soft " came from leaving the clothes on the line during a storm and allowing them to dry afterwards.
    Once the clothes were brought in from the clothes line, things like sheets and towels were folded the rest went into a basket for ironing this too was a lesson to be learned. There were no wash and wear or perma press clothes in the 1950's.  If you wanted a smooth look it had to be ironed with a steam iron. Mom's steam iron consisted of a regular iron and a coke bottle full of water with a sprinkler head, it was ironic that you took the time to dry clothes and then you poured water on them so you could iron them. I was pretty good at ironing - pretty much anything you wore on your body had to be ironed, jeans, shirts, Sunday go to meeting clothes. The one thing I hated to iron was Dad's handkerchiefs, let's face it,  here was an item that was going to be stuffed folded into a back pocket and pulled out so you could blow your nose into it and then all wadded up stuffed back into the rear pocket where the snot would dry and harden. Dad went thru a handkerchief every day whether he had a cold or not.
    I didn't realize until years later just how much I learned from my parents.  Much was ingrained in me without any realization that I was being taught. So many things in life quickly become mundane, everyday routine things that if you think about them you probably won't remember when or where you picked them up. I guess some things have a way of rubbing off on you when you least expect it.
    Recently my sons have eluded to skills that up until now I would have sworn they would never have - the interest was never there . Much of their informative years I traveled and worked long hours, yet some of this new found knowledge had to have come from me but I don't remember passing it along or that they were listening at the time.  Linda must have told them stories.
    Generations of parents have passed their knowledge, skills and demeanor to their sons and daughters whether they knew they were or not. The lessons are at times hard and painful but the outcome can be useful and memories boundless if you paid attention.
   
   
   

The Dawn Of Battle

                      The Dawn Of Battle




     Going to war is not the same for every one.  Some people are in the thick of battle every day, some people are in the war zone but they are safely tucked away in an office setting  or in a support group and only hear the sound of battle in the distance.
     As for myself, I always seemed to be skirting the perimeter of war. It was sort of like the second string football player who patiently waited his turn at fame and glory ( I don't care who says otherwise - there is nothing glorious about war ).
     My outfit was part of an amphibious assault task force. The task force carried around a battalion of Marines and their equipment, always on the ready to take them in to some unknown stretch of beach or up a winding river. One day things finally started to pop.
     About noon our fearless leader gathered us together and told us that we would be making a landing the next morning on a beach south of Da Nang - a place that supposedly had not seen friendly forces in quite some time. This was going to be a major operation the likes of which had not been seen since the Korean war.  Well, this got our attention.
    When we got back to our boats we found that things had started to move. Gunners mates from the ship were hauling away our two fifty caliber machine guns to be cleaned and tested.  We were told to build sandbag barriers around our gun mounts and the con of the boat. The ship returned our fifty calibers and gave us two additional ones for mounts on the bow.  The Marines provided us with trained personnel to man them.
    The entire ship was alive and busy with preparations for battle. The Marines loaded artillery shells into their tanks, cleaned their weapons and ran their engines. Each of us went to the armory and drew side arms, rifles and flack jackets this was something we had never done before.  Preparations went on into the night.
     Sometime around two in the morning each of our boats was loaded with 200 Marines. Two hours later the ship ballasted down and we sailed off into the night. There was no moon, no ambient light from stars or shore - it was the blackest night I have ever known. We were guided to our station by radio ( the ship tracked us on radar ) and there we went into an oval pattern about 3 miles from shore.
     The Marines had a tracked assault vehicle they called an armored personnel carrier. The thing was basically a steel box on tracks, totally sealed, carried 25 troops and weighed about 62 tons.  Once in the water only about two feet of it stuck out of the water ( talk about a low profile ).  Each of our boats carried a P-250 pump, should one of the personnel carriers start to take on water we were to pull along side and start pumping it out. The way we saw it was by the time we found the carrier in the dark it would most likely be on it's way to the bottom, it doesn't take much water to get a 62 ton box to sink. Anyway, the personnel carriers were in an oval pattern about 100 yards in front of us.   They were going to be the first to hit the beach.
     This was one miserable night - no light, the wind was blowing about 10 - 15 mph, the salt spray was soaking everyone, and the Marines packed in like sardines were getting bitchy. All of a sudden there was a loud explosion that spooked the hell out of everybody. Turns out there was a destroyer about a mile further out that was firing it's guns over our heads.  Then the sky lights up with rockets sailing over our heads. There was an LST converted to a rocket launcher working with the destroyer.  Soon all of the ships of our task force opened up with a barrage on the beach. The battle lines were drawn.
     We had no idea what was going to happen next but we knew the Navy was serious and we were getting worried.
     As the dawn light started to appear on the eastern sky we got ready to go in. Out of nowhere came 2 Phantom jets.  They flew so low to the water that they kicked up a rooster tail. They headed for the beach and for the next 20 minutes or so we watched as they climbed and dove towards the jungle behind the beach dropping napalm bombs and firing rockets. The jets departed and were replaced by 2 Cobra helicopters.  They took on the appearance of pissed off Humming birds as they bounced around the area firing their rockets and machine guns.
    Finally we got orders to go.  We were about 100 yards behind the APC's and watched as they hit the beach and off loaded their Marines who ran towards the jungle. When we arrived and dropped our ramps the Marines we carried walked off to join their brothers - no rush.
    We returned to the ship and started supplying the Marines with all of their equipment, everything from tanks to cranes. It took us two days to get everything ashore. During the first day the Navy brought in it's big guns - a battle ship, can't remember whether it was the USS New Jersey or the USS Missouri.  Which ever it was they sat out at sea so far that all you could see was a silhouette but when she fired her guns you knew it.
    For a week we stayed on our boats eating C- rations dated in the late 1940's, soaked to the bone and tired. Every now and then they would bring us in for a hot meal but mostly the break from C- rations was cold dried sandwiches whipped up by the ship's highly trained chefs. I was so tired one day that I laid down on the wet steel deck and went to sleep in the rain.
    The week long operation was over and we pulled the Marines back to the ship. We were so tired when we hit our compartment we just took off our wet dungarees and hung them on the end of our racks. The next morning they were dry and so stiff from the salt water we had to whack them against the table to loosen them up.
    This was as close to the real war as we got, we didn't dodge bullets and dive into fox holes.  Instead we faced the possibility of being crushed between boats, falling overboard in a night ops or picking up a serious case of pneumonia.
    After all was said and done I can't say that I felt any different towards the war. Even though I was in the war zone, the war was still a distant sound coming from the nearby jungles. My war was the stories the Marines told us and laughed about as they used humor to hide their fear and sorrow.  They didn't want to talk of the fire fights and death.  In retrospect,  I think we were OK with the humorous side.