Greenwich Bay (AVP 41) - Naval Cruise Book

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PetMan (jul ' 54 Model Hayburner Here in the enormously oil wealthy country of Saudi-Arabia, rests some of God ' s most forsaken land. Put together a goodly amount of sand, a smattering of hot sun, hit it hard twice with a shovel and you have Bahrain Island, which was to be our home port for four months. No matter where else we roamed, we always returned to Bah- rain. We were not the only Americans on the island however, a large oil company, Bapco, has a large plant situated near the towns of Sitra and adjoining Awaii. Many of the sailors expected to see some of the beautiful women as depicted in many of the hlol- lywood Arabian movies, but such was not the case, as all Moslem women a e required by re- ligion to keep their faces covered with a veil at all times. The Moslems believe that men may give any Road to Awall

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mmij H. BRYAN, TE2, Dallas, Texas F. BALACANAO, SD2, Cavite. P.I. P. D. TEPLEY, PH2, Cleveland, Ohio R. J. ZAZZALI, RMSN, Fairlawn, New Jersey M. L. ZUBER, YN3, Georgiana, Alabama F. ZWIEG, YNI, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin 1 - - l L Eia , ' r iBnit!: Commander Middle East Force Rear Admiral H. H. Henderson, U.S.N. ' ' ■ ' A ■ t 1

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f . t ' ' RtT ir:; f . - ir:Zr- •, m ' , ■1 ' r r ' TP-fSS-. G.B. relieves Valcour woman the evil eye, and thus make them lose their souls. Even a camera is suspected of having within it, an evil eye, so picture taking of the native women was not only taboo, but very unwise if any Arabian lads were around. The heat when we first arrived at Khor Kaliya Anchorage was almost unbearable, particularly when coming up from the air conditioned bowels of the ship. The British were very cordial in ex- tending the use of their swimming pool at Jufair for the use by our crew, which helped beat the heat for awhile anyway. They also allowed us the use of their soccer and cricket fields for softball in the afternoons. When we arrived at Bahrain, the entire crew went on tropical working hours, up at 0600 and the day ' s work was done at 1400, but even then many of the men decided it wisest to spend those long afternoons in the sack with a good book, rather than risk the tortures of the midday sun. Shopping parties were arranged almost every morning to go into Manama, which is the town about four miles from the naval base. Excellent buys in cloth were to be had in Manama, and the tailoring was wonderful, quick and in style. We traveled to several small ports in and about the Persian Gulf. We paid official calls at Muscat, where the sheik came out to the ship in his boat rowed by 5 servants, and at Dabai, both in Truclal Oman, but the liberty for the crew was extremely limited if there was any at all. On our visit to Muscat, some members of the crew scaled the rocky mountains to paint the year under the ship ' s name. It was the fourth time the Greenwich Bay has been thus represented. There was no liberty allowed into either Awall or Manama at night. The only recreation was to go to the Jufair Naval Canteen for a beer or two or to go swimming. The day before we left Jufair for the last time, an amazing phenomenon oc- curred during the championship softball game — it hailed, believe it or not it hailed. It was only the second time in the history of man that such an event had happened at Bahrain. Upon leaving, all men agreed it wasn ' t quite as bad as they had anticipated, but all in all, home was never like this. Ancient Phoenician Tomb ,;| --r.-ov jF rv --A ' ■- ' ■-. i ■-- -- ■ • ■ -rf Making plaster ' ■ ' ti -i- ' i- ■ ' ■■■■ - ' V- ' ■ ■■•■- •. 37