Menifee (APA 202) - Naval Cruise Book

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Booth Tclrkinqton says we must face the future, not with courage, but with fear-fear of the weapons we possess. Is he right?

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The Nagasaki occupation was treated almost like a full-scale amphibious as- sault like Okinawa. The formation of the task force, the loading of the troops and their deadly tools, the issuing of maps, the high precedence radio traffic, the passing of secret orders, the wartime steaming formation all reminded us of the preparations for the Okinawa oper- ation. We loaded infantry of the 6th Marine Division at Saipan, veterans and prob- ably the best gang of troops we've ever had aboard. They were in fine contrast to the blowhard boots we'd just hauled to Guam from Diego. We got underway from Saipan on September l8th and arrived at Naga- saki on the 23rd. lapan is beautiful, all right: the green mountains, the terraced rice fields, the pine trees. There was, at first, little to remind us what had hap- pened there a little over a month before. H bloated corpse slowly floating by the ship changed our minds somewhat. V When orders came to move into the finger-shaped harbor around which Nagasaki is built, we thought, Now we'll see what happened. Well, we didn't. That is, we didn't really get to see just what the bomb had done. The area where the bomb exploded was largely obscured by hills. Members of the boat crew got close enough to see part of the blasted area. But all per- sonnel, including occupation troops, had orders to keep away. From the ship, we could see portions of scorched hills. Some boat crewmen saw blackened and crumbled buildings at the southern end of the area. But none got a com- plete view. The unloading of troops and equip- ment at the Nagasaki Shipyards went very smoothly, with the Menifee the first of the squadron to finish and there- by earning a flock of Well Dones. The beach party and boat crews quickly gathered up their souvenirs and we hauled our stern out of the harbor to anchor and 'wait for the slow pokes to join us. While waiting at anchor, we took a few sight-seeing boat trips around. The Iapanese stared back at us as we went along but the children smiled at us and waved. The children always wave. 'rl r 1-lr. OCCUPATION Gr' NASA SAKl ESX l 44 s

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xx 1 A -114 be A0 N XX? fb 'KK-X H- J ' f , SX ' s f f 1 To X I 'X 1 , Vffgl 'HST i Y-lg! X-rf V L V me-l fe ,-if 1. :ri 1:- L lg.- If -'W -3.3 ES.? li! ,f C7 Mog Mog was the payoff. The Navy spent much of the . f --2,44 Q war winning advanced bases V 5,--'Z so that its ships could be sup Y-G T plied and repaired quickly and :atm f fgffftffais T Fug.: 5 sent out to fight again. This re- ,k ..fl96'fJ A .p ,J fqg tgflt g moved the necessity for the long if Tm' X ge, O - , haul back to Pearl, Hustralia or 7 the States. j' 'fi Q7 I ' -T --QL y 2 - 'L Mb, Ep a 'rig ' H seldom-mentioned bypro- Z , f- duct of this strategy was the 'qi gf: ,f,Jf '1 W fact that it also cut out the fair XS: .9 J if Q5 liberty of the first place, the X 0 -D XX MDCD VV, good liberty of the second, and 1. , 1 X gy- the wonderful liberty of the C21 if 5 'Rm M-ff third. -9 Q My 1 Therefore, the Navy, doing X I J Z J what it could, set up what it X V K Q . called Fleet Recreation Cen- U gk X f f ters. Sooner or later, any base ls f F f of any importance had one. X Some, in the rear areas, had 4-9 -5- 2 Red Cross girls, beer, cokes, f juke boxes, doughnuts and box- ing rings. Others resembled Mog Mog. But Mog Mog was the payoff. Mog Mog is one of the islets of Ulithi Pltoll in the Carolines, long one of the most advanced and most secret naval anchor- ages. Ulithi is a huge and typi- cal atoll-a necklace of islets and reefs surrounding a huge lagoon. Names of the islets of Ulithi read like a fable: Waseri- meyoruuechiichi, Pugelug, Feit- abul, Lam, Flsor, Pig, Mange- jang and Elipig. Mog Mog had the recreation center and was dedicated to the drinking of beer. Pls your P-Boat skimmed the choDDY waters of Ulithi's ho- rizon reaching lagoon, you could smell two things long be- fore you reached Mog Mog -beer and urine. Hcres of co- coanut trees were interspersed with picnic-type tables set in the mud. We stopped over at Ulithi on our way to the Okinawa opera- tion. Hn entire amphibious task force-soldiers, marines, and ships' crews would be ashore at one time, inhaling tons of beer. Some, by begging, barter- ing or buying, would get enough beer to grow happy. Rnd, in that state, a considerable number 46 became suddenly inspired to climb a cocoanut tree and knock down nuts. Beer just seemed to work that way. Mon- ey meant nothing. The common price for beer was one buck straight. With too many beer just seemed to work that way. It would rain several times in the course of a three hour liber- ty. Liberty parties would come back wet, muddy, tired, but sometimes with enough beer in them to make it worthwhile. It wasn't much. But Okinawa was the next stop and beer was beer, no matter where you drank it.