USS Cambria (LPA 36) - Naval Cruise Book

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Apes Mountain to starboard — the Roek to port. We had steamed 14.5 miles farther from home every hour for eleven days. Then, on 12 September, we raised the Straits, gat e- way to Sixth Fleet stamping grounds. This was the beginning. We were joining the sprinkler system over the powder maga- zines of the Near East and Balkans. We were the amphibious portion of a huge, we-hoped-tough, western bloc check valve. And wc all knew it.

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■ ■ m » mmnmmm Steer Zero Nine Zero! A long watery way, go our small boy dropped by for a large dark.

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PA ORAN I A September — two days past the Rock. Oran, Algeria on the Dark Continent our first port-of-call. No giraffes. No sultans. No harems. A French Admiral. And kids with dirty knees and a built-in love for the American Tobacco Company. Kids who smiled fast, talked fast, cleaned pockets fast and ran fast. Kids with the marks of war and malnutrition on them. We went alongside at Mers-el-kebir near the white cliffs. Chartered buses took us into town. Once there we wandered amongst date palms, coconut palms and palm palms. We found leather- faced men with wire-brush beards strolling in double-breasted sheets. We saw tattooed women ' heading ' home the family supper. We ate camel steaks and drank warm beer . . . and paralyzed our digestive systems. But there was far more new than old in the Africa we saw. Modern cars, modern appliances modern dress dominated the main streets. It was a mixed-up town of ' Quarters ' that would never add up to halves. It was nice to have visited. It was nice to leave.