Pocono (AGC 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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On to St. Thomas where we anchored out in the har- bor. Charlotte Amalie, the only town on St. Thomas, is a well known Nfree portn affording excellent shopping. The many shops are filled with all types of imported articles -china, watches, cameras, per- fume and crystal. While .here several groups of school children and Boy Scouts visited the ship for a tour.and refreshments. But we only stayed a short time here. Next stop on our journey was San Juan, capitol of Puerto Rico and one of the oldest cities in the western Hemisphere.p Its cosmopolitan pace was in direct contrast to the smaller quieter ports we previously visited. We spent four days touring in such interesting and historic places as Morro Castle and Old San Juan. We left San Juan early one morning and hopped down the coast to the Naval Sta- tion at Roosevelt Roads for a three day visit. The good weather was still with us, an the golf, fish- ing, and swimming were excellent. Our final port visit of the trip was to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It gave us a chance to see the place where we would later in the year spend three weeks in intensive training..

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:fi 1 V, , , C Y Llgf' A , ., xx.k- . I xxx ff x 'pg C 0 N ff iff! ig M 68 Lfffllfff ,f - fm,-' '- . ,-wr , 2, '14M...... ...... ....-,.,...f.:,.- Early January found POCONO in Nor- folk at the end of the Christmas leave period. It was a cold winter in Virginia, and the news that we would embark COMPHIBLANT for a Caribbean cruise was welcome in- deed. VADM L.M. MUSTIN, Commander Amphibious Forces,Atlantic,embark- ed with his staff in late January, y land we sailed for more sunny wea- ther. First stop on our five week trip was Key West, Florida, where we were treated to four days in P the famous Florida su . We left Key West and pointed our bow toward the Virgin Islands. But our track carried us past Vieques, a small island southwest of Puerto Rico where various joint Navy-Mar- ine Corps exercises were being conducted. VADM Mustin's decision to go ashore and observe some of these maneuvers gave us the oppor- tunity to practice at flight quar- ters. It proved to be highly val- uable training'as there was little chance to work with a helicopter later on in the year. Our flight deck gives us the capability to p deploy with a helicopter detach- . ment if necessary. l We finally arrived in St. Croix in the evening, and berthed at the pier in Fredericksted, one of the two major towns on the .islind. Here we spent four days sight- seeing and relaxing in the sun. The local USO in Fredericksted is very active and proved to be a good starting point for any trips. Several of the large resort hotels gave free passes to the USO for distribution to arriving ships. The COMPHIBLANT band presented a concert the last night in port and the large turn-out was a measure of the hospitality we were shown in St. Croix. .agp , 4 I r 4 , I

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Our visit to Guantanamo Bay complete,we finally brought VADM Mustin's barge aboard and set our course for Norfolk. On the way back CAPT Barkley invited VADM Mustin to inspect the crew during personnel inspection. At the conclusion of the inspection, VADM Mustin said that he was as pleased with appearance as he had been with our performance during the entire trip. As we got further north the weather turned colder and colder, but when we finally arrived in Norfolk, the warm welcome of dependents on the pier took the nip and edge out of the wind. It was great to be hom p Mwmwws A AUIIIIUL OUI' e again. W isa p g4UY ,i NW A 3 swgipg .1 N, J. i 1 32, ,Q s g at E, , N. is r aye N' A 'f fi .g ., , I my , W'-,..,.,..,,,.,,,,,,n x ' , f uw t - .XS t W W,-mW,Mm,,45 pppp , fe o......,,,W ,,.,,g w - . ....w..,,..., ..,, , f my V .Q N., A , 5 ' ' f WV, Z , ,, H b ' ' Q4-.,.,,, , f 1 , 13. - ,,, - K .-,,,,,,, ,. ' W ,M35 W -'f 1557? ,J!'lYx' .ti K K