Here is another installment from Doug Keith AKA golfnut. Attched is picture taken when I was on Okinawa in the 26th Fighter Squadron, 301st Fighter Wing.
Thanks,
Doug
In 1946 I had a friend at Perrin Air Force Base who had been in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and had been in the Battle of Bastogne. He had re-enlisted in the Air Force. He was a real nice guy, but you could tell from his demeanor that you wouldn't want to cross him. So I made sure that I was his good friend! I tried to get him to tell me about his experience at Bastogne but about all I could ever get out of him was, "It was cold!"
Duty at Perrin was almost like being on vacation but it lasted only two or three months before they shut down the base completely and I was transferred to Randolph Field at San Antonio. That place was bad news: strict inspections every week-end and a lot of other chicken..... After a short time I volunteered to go overseas was transferred to Okinawa.
In November of 1946 before I went overseas I was on leave and at home at Forsan, Texas. Little did I realize that the most important thing in my life was about to happen! One afternoon I was sitting in a small old fashioned drug store having a cup of coffee at the counter when a group of girls came in. In a few minutes someone came up behind me, put their hands over my eyes and said "Guess Who?". It was Bobbye Louise Cathcart, all of sixteen years old and I fell in love immediately! We dated just a few times while I was home. Most all of our courtship from then on was "long distance" (via letters) , but a year and a half later we were married.
In January of 1947 I came home again on leave but this time on my way overseas. I went to Hamilton Field near San Rafael, California, stayed there about a month and then boarded a troop ship. I sure was sorry that I had volunteered to go overseas because I was already missing Bobbye. When we departed from San Francisco and sailed under the Golden Gate bridge I stood at the railing on the ship's stern and watched the Golden Gate bridge disappear. I do believe I had never felt so lonely and blue in all my life because I had no idea how long it would be before I would be home and back with my "true love" again. I think that might be called that dreaded disease called 'lovesickness."
We were in a storm about a week out into the Pacific and a ship twenty or thirty miles behind us sank. A lot of the people got seasick, but it didn't bother me. A few days later our ship had engine trouble we slowed down almost to a standstill for a couple of days. Fortunately the weather was calm and beautiful by then. We finally got to Guam, stayed there about three days and then went to Okinawa. Altogether it took 28 days to get from San Francisco to Okinawa. That troopship trip was something I would never want to do again. The "bunks", single sheets of canvas, were stacked about five high. When you got into one you could hardly raise up because the one above you was so close. We were also quartered right down in the bowels of the ship. During that trip I promised myself that someday I would go on a cruise with a real nice stateroom and all, but so far that hasn't happened yet.
When we got to Okinawa I was sent to Kadena Air Base where I did practically nothing for a few weeks except play poker and slog around in the mud. Then I was transferred down to Naha, the capital of Okinawa which at that time was nothing but concrete rubble because of the bombing and fighting that took place there during the invasion of the island. I was in the 26th Fighter Squadron of the 301st Fighter Wing.
Our mess hall consisted to two quonset huts put together to form a "T". The bottom part of the tee was the kitchen. We had several Okinawans working there. Almost all of them were just a little over 5 feet tall, but one of the girls was about 6 ft. tall. We called her Tarzan because she was not only tall but was strong as could be. One day during lunch something happend in the kitchen and fire erupted out of there like a bomb had gone off. We scattered outside posthaste and here came Tarzan with a big arm load of metal mess trays she was saving. I bet those things weighed 200 lbs. and she was carrying them like they were napkins! Needless to say, she got a hearty round of applause and a standing ovation!
I "inherited" a one-man life raft that had a clear (see-thru) bottom on it which I used to paddle out into the surf and look at all the marine life.....and also could see the wreckage of many airplanes that had been shot down. Happily some of them were Japanese!
I did get mail and packages from Bobbye almost every day - and she also used to send me Chocolate Toll House Cookies! Wow! were they ever good! I was sent back to the States in November of 1947 and was standing out on the deck of the ship at night and this time at the front when the Golden Gate Bridge came into view. A beautiful full moon was shining and looked like it was just sitting right on top of the bridge. Most beautiful sight I had seen in a long time! We pulled into San Franciso around midnight and weighed anchor right out in the middle of the harbor. We could stand on the rail and see people just a short distance away dining in "fancy" restaurants at Fisherman's Wharf. There was some discussion about jumping ship and going to dinner!
The next morning we disembarked and got right on to a ferry that took us several miles to a place called Camp Stoneman. Two or three days after we were there they told us that if we had enough money to get home we could leave the next day otherwise we would have to wait several more days till we got paid. I had met a guy from Dallas, Texas and we counted our money. Between the two of us I think we had about $10. So we decided we could hitchhike all the way to Texas and we took off early the next morning after getting our orders. We managed to get rides all the way south down to San Bernadino near Los Angeles with no trouble. One man that picked us up even paid for a big dinner for us and invited us to go home with him at some place called Laguna Beach. We told him thanks, but no thanks, and then started hitchhiking east.
Some screwball in an old car picked us up and took us up to the very top of the Sierra Nevada mountains to Tehachipi (sp?). It was just about freezing up there and all we had on was our summer uniforms. We went into a cafe for a cup of coffee. About three or four servicemen were in there and apparently had been drinking booze. We finished our coffee, walked outside and heard a train whistle blowing. We decided that if it was a passenger train we would try to get on it no matter what direction is was going.....anything to get out of that freezing mountain weather.
Fortunately it was going east and the first stop was just a few miles - to place in the Mojave desert. We immediately found that the desert at 2am is pretty cold too. We got out on the highway to hitchhike, but there was no traffic. After a couple of hours the men we had seen up in Tehachipi came roaring up and stopped at a roadside cafe across the street. A few minutes later one of them came over to us, found out what we were trying to do and told us there was a plane leaving from the nearby (about 15 miles away) air base headed for Oklahoma City. He made a phone call from the cafe and found that if we hurried we could catch the plane. I think the one that had been drinking the most was the driver and he drove about 90 mph which convinced me we would never make it to the base alive. But we made it and got a ride all the way from California to Oklahoma City (Tinker Air Base) on a B29 Bomber that had been converted into a freighter.
We got to Oklahoma in just a few hours and then started hitchhiking south toward Dallas. At some point not too far from Dallas we had to part ways. He was going on into Dallas and I needed to head west to Big Spring. By that time we had still had about $4 or $5 left. He gave me most of his money, said he would be home soon. I hitchhiked all day and all night finally arriving in Big Spring early in the morning. I got out on the road to Forsan which was about 15 miles away and several people who knew me just passed right on by and waved. I guess they thought I was an official town greeter or something. I had just about decided I was gonna have to walk the last leg of fifteen miles to Forsan when Pop came driving by heading into Big Spring. He glanced over at me, did a double take, hit the brakes and slid about 50 feet, turned around and came back for me. That was some homecoming! What had really surprised him was that I hadn't told them when I was coming home and as far as they knew I was still on Okinawa.
First thing I did when I got home to Forsan was to call Bobbye to let her know I was home. She was going to school in Lubbock, about 100 miles away at the time, but we were reunited within a day. The good ole Air Force told me I could get my choice of initial assignment when I got back so I chose Carswell Air Force Base in Ft. Worth since at that time it was the nearest base to my home. I soon found out however that I wasn't going to get to stay there. Within a couple of weeks they shipped me to Smokey Hill Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas. That was one of the Strategic Air Command bases and at that time (1947) the Cold War was beginning to heat up. They were actually prepared and I think really expected, to have to go to war at any moment and therefore kept some armed B29s in the air at all times. We were on constant standby status which meant that at any moment we should be prepared for anything.
I managed to get several 3-day passes to go home (and to Lubbock where Bobbye was going to school). One time I got a pass that was supposed to last from Sunday thru Tuesday. I decided to leave on Friday - and found out when I got back on Wednesday (a day late) that all personnel had been called in to work on Saturday and I wasn't there! A few days later an officer called us to a meeting and started chewing us out (don't remember why), but when he got to me he said "And you! You left a day early and got back a day late!" I thought for sure I was headed for a court martial for being AWOL, but he was a real nice guy and let me get away with it. Just said "Don't you ever do that again!".