I don't
understand just why I am continuing with this project, as I went for
50
+yrs. without talking about the wars I was in, but do to the asking ,
badgering and threats from from my #2 daughter and my son-in-law
James,
I agreed to do what I could.
A few
memories
of a lighter note came to mind, so I thought I would share them with
you. One was when we finally moved onto North Africa and were ordered
NOT to drink the water. As we went ashore, this order left us nothing
to
drink but wine and another liquor; I can't remember the name of. That
was my first taste of ANY alcoholic beverage in my life! It
wasn't as
bad as I thought it would be. LOL!!
I
do remember
that it was always hot and dry there. Very sandy and dusty as well. I
can't remember any time while out on the Mediterranean of any really
bad
weather, but sometimes the swells were pretty high. Yet on an LST that
was considered rough weather enough.
After the
fighting eventually moved farther west and things calmed down and we
went back to Arzew from delivering troops, tanks etc. I was given a
weekend pass, and luckily the skipper let me have his station wagon
for
the weekend. So my closest Buddy and I drove south into the desert to a
place called Sidi Bel Abbis. This place was the headquarters of the
famous French Foreign Legion. As we drove up to the gates of their
complex, we stopped and tried to decide whether to go on, or to turn
back.
Why you
ask?
Well the
guards
at the gate looked to be the meanest men we had ever seen, and we had
no
idea as to how they felt about Yankee sailors...but we went on and I
want to say that I never remember being more warmly greeted or shown
such decent respect, or ever given a better time. They treated us
royalty and showed us everything about the French Foreign Legion. THEY
ARE ONE GREAT OUTFIT!
Lastly,
one more
surprising thing happened while in Oran. My buddy and I went to a very
modern decent looking hotel to get something to eat. Boy what a shock
this turned out to be!!!! This beautiful modern building had no
plumbing
and no running water whatsoever. It was decided by us that it was
nothing more than a big fancy outhouse. LOL!
And if you
thought that was funny, listen to Harv tell you in his own words about
another wild time he had during the Invasion of North Afrika!:
