Pine Island (AV 12) - Naval Cruise Book

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L V -1:11 7' ..., f.f'f f3Q , , t 1, 'irifrr' . V, f t. .,.. Q., . , .-.. 1, ,,,, ,, W if , , k,.,W ., ,W , V, . ,,.,. W. . ,, ' IN ES 1 .ez 1 V2 jf'-gi K, :.,f:iEi?5lY'fil'05 :,2a,., g z -, With a- thunderous roar the anchor chain rolling out after the mighty anchor announced the .arrival of the Pine Island to thebeautiful harbor of Manila, long a place in the memories of the Americans for its fine -old cathedrals, built by the Spanish that long ago ruled the islands, the beautiful parks and gardens that only a prosperous city can produce, and the ease with which living can be accomplished. All this has greatly changed since the advent of World Wars II. In looking around the harbor many rusting hulks of beached vvarships of the once invincible Japanese fleet may beseen Where they were driven in a frenzied haste to escape the punishment from our carrier planes that were bent on their destruction by rockets, bombs or straffing. The city of Manila shows the devastat- ing punishment' it received from the battles fought Within its Walls when our soldiers and Marines ousted the Well fortified japanese. Many cathedrals that once stood up maj-estically against the skyline are no more, in their places are crumbled masonry Walls now covered with tropical jungle plants. I A good city can not be held back and this is shown today by the determined effort of the good people of Manila, reconstructing the city, ,73

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During our second stay in Yokosuka the crew madeit a point to enjoy themselves to the utmost with sightseeing being the main item on the agenda. The instant liberty commenced they rushed outside the gates of the large former Japanese Naval Base 'and hopped into ricki- shaws for,a'short ride into the railroad station for a comfortable ride to Tokyo,.the capital of Japan andalso its. most famous city, Yokohama, another famous city, was but a ,fifteen minute ride from' Tokyo in the same direction. It is famous as nbeingthe, port of entry for all the tourists into Japan from the United. States. At Tokyo 'sightseeing began in earnest and the' camera enthusiast had an exceptional time photo! graphing themany historic sights of this famous' city. The Imperial Palace. heading the list with its beautiful gardens and fine old architecture. Probably the Daiflchi building was the next building to be photographed as it Was the head- quarters forthe United Nations Commander-in- Chief, General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur. He was generally seen hopping out of his large black' Cadillac during the day. We were always sure to see a good number of our men atthe Main PX in Tokyo, looking at all the wonderful gifts offered for sale and ondisplay. Many of the items were too nice to resist and we had to dig down deep into the greenbacks We were saving, for that thirty day leave back inthe States. Or maybe' we could be seen on the Ginza, that famous street known the World over as the most fascinating shopping' center in Japan. Here the merchants and street Vendors expected the customer to haggle over the price. Those thatypaid the first price asked were sure to betaken. The others that enjoyed bargaining would manage to get the price down to at least half that asked. y Such was Tokyo with its wonderful bargains that nearly everyone returned to the ship laden with bundles from fishing poles to extremely sheer black nightgowns. , J. Kostal, FN . A 1

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to a .better citytthan it was. before. 'Many finel' stores, office buildings, hotels and homes are seen under construction, with a fine system of broad new ' boulevards to handle the great number 'of automobiles every modern city will expect to handle .vin the future.- The best way to 1 sightsee- Manila, as evidenced by the Pine Islanders, ,Was by a little two wheel-wagon powered by a pint-size pony that races all out' for the entire two or three hours that the trip. may take. The guide proved to 'bef one that knew his city thoroughly, he explained every bit of the history of the city, but proved to be a crafty individual, for when it came time to pay the scallywag off, he' asked for two to three times more than the. amount agreed upon prior to the trip. He was banking on the fact. that the average American will pay up, but quick, when a goodly ,size crowd accumulates to see what allithe excitement is about. ' Many ofthe crew were anxious to tour the outskirts of the city and did so against warning that the Huks were threatening to take the city of Manila. Every main road into the city was lined' with armored vehicles, 5 the banks and important buildings were protected by troops with rifles and machine guns. Some of our men felt fairly safe riding the buses from Manila to Cavite City but they were a little on the ,nervous side 'in the dark and lonely sections when the bus stopped to discharge passengers, not knowing whether- a band of' Huks would request the Americans to step outside for a little lead poison- ing. As it turned out the attempted raid never turned out and we were left pretty much to ourselves. The money changers proved to be a bunch of pests when they learned that we had just arrived with a bunch of greenbacks. They were more than anxious to get their hands on this money by offering three and in some cases three and a half pesos foreach American dollar bill 'while the official rate of exchange was two, pesos for each one dollar bill. Some of the men took advantage of this rate of exchange until they realized that the money would eventually wind up in the hands of the Communists. For the souvenir hunters of our good ship the Manila prices seemed to be fantastically high especially when compared to the extremely low prices asked for the same merchandise in japan, 74 As an example, it wasn't unusual to see the side- walk vendors opening a package of Camels or Chesterfields to sell one cigarette at af time for five centavos, the cost of the entire pack would be in excess of' what the purchaser had on his person at that time. t r The Ship Service Store and the PX did a brisk business with those men that forgot to pack their swim suits in the States and were now buying bathing suits and sport shirts in order to take advantage of the wonderful tropical sunshine and beaches. The tradesmen that boarded the ship did a landslide business with those that desired a stainless steel belt buckle engraved with the name of the ship and the various ports visited. r The swim suits were quickly put to use at the swimming pools on the base or the clubs and- hotels in Manila. After a long and hard day travelling around the dirty streets of Manila and trying to cram everything in, for the four short days that we were in Manila nothing seemed finer than to take a nice swim in the early evening, or may be to sit on the terrace overlooking the beautiful bay under the stars watching that magnificent sunset, that only Manila is famous for the world over, while listening to the sweet strains of soft music enjoying a nice tall, cool Tom Collins. C J. H. Boulger. Lt.,