General Leroy Eltinge (AP 154) - Naval Cruise Book

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V S i 4 N Y WY W

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We sailed to the China coast, up the Yangtze river for a few miles and then turned off to the Hwangpoo river arriving at the Nanlcing'Yusen'Kaishi Mail Wharf in Shanghai on the 28th. There was a liherty port! Along Nanking Road and Buhhling Well Road were curio shops galore, And you could jump into a riclcsha or a pedicah and go out to the night clubs of Canton Road or Yu Yuen Road. There Were the White Russians with their vodka. Yes, there was plenty to do in Shanghai-every street had something new for us. We fought our way through the crowds and enjoyed it all. Especially New Year's eve. But it couldn't last forever. We sailed on january 6th, hound for Manila since we hadn't taken on a full load of troops at Shanghai. But when we got to Manila there were no troops for us so we took aboard a few merchant seamen and the next day, the 9th, sailed out of the harbor, past Corregidor and Bataan and headed southward. We sailed south of Luzon, through San Bernadino straits and then over to Seattle. That was the trip we had the Eltinge Top: Aiiring Bunting Left fo rigfzf: Coifay Hoiei on file Bunn, H M. S. Ceyion, Wangpo River Chinese funks Left to rigizi: N Y Pier, Shanghai Buinhoaf on Waiigpo River Eyegiass Lifverfy, Waiigpo Siyie

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Left: Saddle Island, Entrance fo Yangtze River Shanghai Street Scenes Right: CO1'7'Qg7.ClIO1', Bafaan Antics on Hatch No. 6 with music by the Rockin, Red Dogsn and skits by Rotatin' Sam. We had fairly good weather that trip so the show drew large crowds. But after we passed north of Hawaii and started heading north, the going got a little rough. We came into Seattle on the morning of the 26th and after debarking our navy passengers, went down to Tacoma, where we remained until the 28th, to debark troops. Qn returning to Seattle we anchored out in the stream for two weeks and finally went into the Todd yards on Harbor Island. Liberty in Seattle was fairly good, it would have been better if it weren' t for Seattle's eager Shore Patrol. Scuttlebutt said we were going to the East Coast for decommissioning but when our orders came, they said we were going to Jinsen, Korea. We sailed on March 3rd with a load of replacement troops, they threw many a longing glance back as the shore receded behind us. Qnce again we passed just north of Hawaii and sailed on about the same course as we had before, just south of Kyushu, the large, southern japanese island. This time, however, we turned northward, sailing up through the Yellow Sea to Jinsen on the western coast of Korea. We could see immediately, when we arrived on the 19th, that Korea wasn,t much of a place, the troops knew they,d be spending about a year there and were pretty unhappy about it. They were ferried to the beach in boats as there were no docking facilities for large ships and then for a few days we just sat around. Regular liberty wasn't granted since there was so little to do in Jinsen, but the army arranged a trip to Seoul, the capital, for us. The train that took us was old and dirty. Since there was little glass in the windows, it was cold. The 20 mile trip took two hours as the train was slow jinsen, Korea . . . March IQ, ZQ46