Jim, my brothers story on my return stateside from Okinawa proves fiction is still alive and well.. While I personally have never met an embellishment I didn't like, here's the real deal.
I remind you, in the 40's and 50's all enlisted men had to assume they were lower than a whales belly, and officers ran supreme...... in their head. When I was shipped to Okinawa on a troop ship fit for scrap we sailed the fringe of a typhoon. Knifing through thirty or forty foot waves I knew if we went to Davy Jones Locker the Pentagon would never be notified, since that cattle bobber had few, if any, Air Force or Army officers onboard. Understand, my complex was brother orientated.
When I was shipped back stateside from Okinawa I again got herded on another stressed out troop ship. I let my brother in Japan know we were scheduled to arrive at the Yokohama seaport on such a day, and would be in port for four days while they jammed in more enlisted slugs before heading east. Some time after docking at Yokohama I got a page on the ships loud speaker system to report with my duffle bag to the gangway. Sure enough, my big deal "officer" brother had pulled strings and I was excused to join he and his wife for the weekend. Told when to be back onboard I walked back up the gangplank and waved goodbye to my hotshot bro standing on the dock. As soon as I reported in the Air Police grabbed my bones for being AWOL, and off I was escorted to the holding area of the ships slammer. I joined a bunch of bloody enlisted drunks whom, by the looks of them, apparently lost a fight in a Yokohama Port bar. After what seemed a couple of hours in the brig holding area I was released. My brother, who saw me taken by the AP's, or someone else, straightened out the confusion. During the time I was in jail limbo the "in charges" had assigned all other troops crap details on the sail back to San Francisco, so I actually lucked out being temporary AWOL. I was then myself some kind of a onboard "big deal", since I had no crap detail, the envy of the ships cattle. I assure you hot kitchen/latrine duty was not a fun job, considering seasickness. Having nothing to do all the way back I read books on HOW TO BE AN OFFICER and thought fondly of my brother. But, I soon gained my senses, remembering he beat me up all the time as kids. Dat, dats the end of that story. Pudge
PS I didn't copy all others, because I didn't want to bore them
Emailed Sept. 12
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