Tortuga (LSD 26) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 32 text:

SEOUL, THE CAPITAL OF KOREA, IUST 25 MILES NORTH OF INCHON LET'S TAKE A QUICK LOOK AT IT The capitol is burned out . . . and 116 'LY ' G r . 1' Q1 'X afe 6 Us are Meets avec The S keg n 4, The railroad station is still standing ' . 4 . and some of the shrines I 1 ,QQ-LL-iA,,q 1 f ' V f ,l, ,f., f , ., ,.,, , , 4 , '2iZiif1I'55f f I ' , ' ':'7-Mi, WfZ?f:-:S-fwfr 7f:f,'Tf 27 7'1:f7':-fzzgf, ,, f . , ,I 4 ,. ,Dwi- f, f , ff-ffyfwwzv wf,4.4f4,f.v.,,, fw-l,,,?sw,.,' , .,.. f,,..wA4..1M4,. . 1 .45 -V 142-4 f '-:.: . 'f- 41- Q , I7 up , -The-:tanks rumble . . . through the ruined city . . . ,but the little girls still smlle Page Thirty

Page 31 text:

While most of us had been saving our money at Inchon, it seemed that our anchor had been doing a little col- lecting on its own. So much, and to tell you the truth the Navy frowns on this sort of thing, that we couldn't pull the darn thing up when we tried the first time. We dragged anchor a little bit one afternoon, and that was when we got the bad news. Now what does a ship's crew do when they find anchor chain is twisted and they can't pull the anchor up? Well . . . they don't let any grass grow under their feet until they can. Oh, yes, we finally did it . . . but just take a look at the anchor when it did come out of the water. BOSN Shel- ley had to go over the side with a blow torch and cut the cable, line, and mis- cellaneous scrap iron away. We thought for a while that we might have to steam around and around in circles until the anchor chain got untwisted, but fortun- ately that wasn't necessary . . . and a good thing, too. If that had happened you could have heard the laughter from other Navy ships all the way to Tokyo. We just didn't deserve such troubles . . . after all, we'd only been minding our own business! Our two months at Inchon went by faster than most of us had expected, and there we were in early June strain- ing our eyes for the WHETSTONE' and thinking longingly of going back to Japan. Well, we thought as we final- ly got underway and watched Inchon fade away into the Korean haze, that's the last we'll see of that place. Ha! But I'm getting ahead of myself, so 1et's get on to Japan in June and I'll tell you about a strange and wonderful Far East custom . . . R 8z R! Americans take to it like ducks to water . . . and after I tell you about it I think you'll see why. Hammond, Bilan, and part of the ROK Army just look at it! The USS TOLEDO on guard' Page Twenty-Nine

Page 33 text:

One of the many reasons why none of us felt sorry for the poor boys on Ocupation duty in Japan was the network of rest hotels found all over the islands. Japan's finest tourist hotels have been turned over to the Armed Forces exclusively for their use in enjoying a little R 8x R . . . Rest and Recreation, if you want to call it that. Exhausted as we were from the grueling days at Inchon, we jumped on this bandwagon as soon as we hit Yokosuka again '. . . and everybody came back asking for more. No wonder . . . for-8.50 a day it made Ri1ey's life look monotonous. Like Hank says, We never had it so good! Most of these R 8x R Hotels are located well away from Japan's main cities, in beautiful mountain or seashore country, and the Shore Patrol somehow manages to forget all about them. You get up in the morning when and if you please . . . and from then on the day is yours to ,sight-see, swim in hotel pools, play games, fish, loaf, drink, or loaf. The Jap- anese hellp in the hotels gives you such good service that before long you're too lazy even to scratch a match for yourself . . . and there's no tipping! Dun- garees without hats are the uniform of the day, and who's to' worry about keeping a shine on the shoes? Ah, so . . . could I use a large dose of this! While some of us were off on R 8z R, the others still on board enjoyed watching Japanese laborers swarming over the well deck like ants and disappear- ing into our ballast tanks for a majorcleaning and repainting job. The general sentiment was, 'Tm glad it's them and not me! . . . for this job is just about one of the dirtiest the Navy has to offer. fAll right, I know about B Division cleaning the boilerslj. Lnflj ,slime 1, we-l..'h' fir?-i I ygi? J' Q .Qs in ,, s , f' Q ' tiff We V Q mR6INH R 4. R J APAN Rest Hotel Restees Page Thirty-One