Delta (AR 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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The place was Long Beach, California on 22 July 1965. The crew were formed at Quarters for leaving port, and all the lines had been singled up. On the pier, small knots of women and children were anxiously looking up for a last smile from daddy, or a last kiss thrown from their husbands and sweet- hearts. In a few minutes, the whistle sounded, the order was given to cast off all lines, and DELTA began to back slowly away from the pier for the last time. Long Beach was now behind us, and the next thing in sight was the Orient. We weren't sure just where we'd be going, but we knew we'd not be home again for eight long months. We didn't know what we'd see, but we knew that we were going to work, and hard, to keep our fellow ships in the best possible condition for whatever action they might en.. counter. We knew that for eight months, we were going to visit many different ports, see many new and strange sights, shop for odd and interesting bargains in the far corners of the world, and write a lot of long letters home. . If we knew we were going to work hard, we also knew we were going to play hard, too. Though we knew we'd be lonely and home- sick, we also knew that we'd be making new friends in new places. Most of us were look- ing forward to it, too, for we also knew that the harder we worked, the faster the time would pass, and the sooner we'd be steaming in under the Golden Gate to our new home port in Alameda and our loved ones.

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