Epping Forest (LSD 4) - Naval Cruise Book

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in the States, we left for Inchon, Korea. In- chon was quite an experience. For us it meant G.Q. at least three times per day. After ten days in Inchon we got an unexpected lucky break. We loaded LCD ' s and steamed to Nagasaki for two liberties. Nagasaki must have known that we were coming because the people welcomed us with open arms. We had port and starboard liberty, one-half of the crew went on shore patrol. The next night the situation was reversed. When we finally steamed back to Inchon the crew was really beat — liberty one night followed by shore patrol the next night seemed to be too much even for the most hardy. In Inchon we unloaded the LCD ' s and em- barked troops for a big Marlex operation. In the next few days we practiced every exer- cise for which the LSD was ever intended. It was by participating in training operations such as this that we realized the value of the teamwork and training that is so necessary for the success of any large military operation. After the Marlex we headed for Camp Mc- Gill and Yokosuka — in a round about way. We went via Inchon picking up some LCD ' s to take back to Camp McGill. It was a weary crew and a weary ship that finally found its way to Yokosuka on Christ- mas Eve in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-two. We had packed a lot of sea miles and experiences into the two short months since first arriving in Yokosuka. This time we were to get some very welcome R R , and the ship was also due for a little rest and overhaul. For the first time since arriving in the Far East, except for the two days in Nagasaki, we were to be tied up to a pier. After riding VP ' s to the beach for lib-

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erty it was a welcome treat to be able to walk off the gangway directly onto a dock. Christmas and New Year ' s away from the States was not exactly what any of us wanted, but in WESTPAC spending the holidays in Yokosuka was about as good as we could ex- pect. We bought china, Japanese records, suits and sport clothes, almost everything imaginable while we were in Yokosuka. When we left Yokosuka about the middle of January it was with much sadness in our hearts for the friends and good times we had left behind. And we looked forward in antici- pation to our next visit there. The next few weeks we spent in operations in and around Camp McGili, finally ending up in Nogoya, Japan. In Nagoya we found a thoroughly modern city, rivaling even some of the bigger cities in America. From Nogoya we went bock to our old standby port, Sasebo. Sasebo had none of the glamor of the bigger Japanese cities, it does not have the recreational facilities of Yokosuka, it did