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Author: "I bet
it was sometimes very difficult."
Harv: "One time we
started towing out the barges with troops and equipment on them, but
believe it or not we even had a few pursuing N Koreans on there as well!
They were either captured or killed, but it was just our job to get the
heck out of Dodge. It wasn't unusual for that to happen during a routine
tow. This went on for some time ( I don't remember how long), before we
got orders to go back to Pearl.
Author: "You
were stationed there?"
Harv: "No, my ship was
many hundred hours over the time specified for dry-dock and a complete
overhaul. She needed it and believe me, it was quite a job to keep that
tug running at peak performance."
"Eventually we went back to Japan (Tokyo) and then
headed back to Pearl. Two days out of Japan we ran into a typhoon. That
was tough as our little ship was tossed around like a cork. Oh yes I
forgot to tell you that our skipper was A Lt. Commander and he would do
anything for that other half stripe! In fact, he even volunteered us to
sweep mines at different places...(Looking disgusted)... that is a NO NO
for
metal hulled ships...but we did it."
Author: "I can
see why metal would not be exactly the best overall materials to
use....(laughs). "
Harv: "(laughs)...we
just cleared the storm, and our gracious skipper radioed Japan to see if
we could help to clear any beached ships etc. Of course the answer was
Yes, so back to Japan we went...and you guessed it!...we went back thru
part of that same blessed storm!"
"Anyway we pulled off several beached crafts and
that finally being done, we returned to Pearl and into
dry-dock."
Author: "That
must have been some relief finally?"
Harv: "What a break,
the whole crew was given free reign of Honolulu any time we wanted. The
ship was going to be in dry-dock for at least three weeks, so the Navy
kindly brought my wife and daughter over to Honolulu. We put up is a
very nice hotel and had the time of our lives. The whole crew fought to
baby sit for us when we wanted it. We were so happy for three weeks, but
then the ship was finished and my family went home."
Author: "So
then it was once again time to shove off."
Harv: "Yep. Our first
job was to tow a floating dry-dock (big enough to hold the Battleship
Missouri) to a place called Caveat, in the Philippines. We were at sea
for 43 days...what a drag that was, but luckily the weather and the
ocean was with us. We had three days shore leave, but one day was enough
for me as there was nothing there but pimps, prostitutes and con men."
(Cont...)
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