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"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.
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
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