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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: Yokosuka in the 60's!
This must have been early one morning. I never saw the street that empty. It was packed with people.
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Old Salt
Posts: 272
Location: Vista, Ca. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Being the youngster I am, I didn't get to Yoko until 1972. But from what I remember the streets were a little cleaner that the one in the picture - no matter what the time of day or night. Seems like Mamasan was always sweeping the front stoop. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
I remember you had to walk in the middle of the street or the door hawkers would pull you into the shops.
They had to keep one foot inside the shop so if they couldn't reach you you were safe.
The Starlight was the Flasher bar while we were there. |
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Old Salt
Posts: 272
Location: Vista, Ca. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Oh yes, I remember the Starlight well. I think most every boat gravitated there. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
I'm pretty sure I remember that our Rec Fund bought the bar for the time we were there. First time I ever saw bottle beer in quarts. |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 226
Location: San Diego, CA | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
They had Yokosuka Dolphins that looked good on white uniforms.
Had a buddy that was in Yokosuka in the late 90's. Didn't recognize the place. It was all modernized with fancy hotels and restaurants.
He did get to tour a Japanese boat with the help of a nice Officer.
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
I have a set of what were called Westpac Dolphins. They have a Guppy bow. The story is they were only available there. Don't know if that is still true or was true at the time but I never saw them anyplace else.
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Senior Crew
Posts: 183
| Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
60+ years and the memories still bring a smile...Exciting place for a young 19 year old.
carl browning
FT2(SS)
USS Barbero SSG 317 |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Almost like a carnival midway. The lights and noise. The shops and vendors trying to get your attention. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1605
| Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Our bar was right on the alley directly across from the Starlite - the New Yokosuka. Went into the Starlite more than a few times. Saw two things there I never saw before or since: The dance of the flaming toilet paper, and two crew members pour absinthe down their throats that they had lit - what made it even more dramatic was they both had post Westpac excursion beards.
Didn't see Yokosuka much in the early morning. The base gate closed at midnight and the only time I saw early morning was the time I got backdoored at the New Yokosuka and spent the night in a hotel. I got back to the Pickerel when the gate opened in the morning just before muster.
In '68 we could wear civies, and the skimmers couldn't. We got there in January of '68 banged up from a stormy transit from Pearl and had Yoko pretty much to ourselves - the fleet was out because of the Pueblo, but by the time we got out of drydock the Kitty Hawk, and the fleet had returned. It got so we took the short train ride to Yokohama to escape the crowd.
Edited by Gil 2023-10-02 2:57 PM
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Kitty Hawk SP's were all over us boat sailors. They didn't like our gaberdines, neckerchiefs, (have a greasy snake from Seven Seas), hair cuts, beards and mustaches, shoeshines and especially our dolphins. They put as many SP's on the beach as we did in 2 duty sections of crew. Yeoman was tossing so many chits he was getting a sore wrist. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1605
| Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
In Yokosuka I bought an {atomic yo yo) in the alley from one of the street hawkers. When you yo-yoed it would glow. For some reason the SP's said I had to put it away, or they'd take me in. I guess because I was wearing civies it pissed them off.
Our first class engineman got brought back to the boat. One of the three SP's made the mistake of walking in front of him from the brow to the our deck, Johannes was beyond drunk and used his just raised foot to push the front SP over the side. The 2nd class Airedale lost his .45 in the water he was thrashing around. We pulled him out of the water. Our OOD became our hero when he refused to turn Johannes over to the Marines that came after divers couldn't recover the SP's .45. I was told he knew they'd beat him up once they got him off the boat.
Johannes got confined to the boat for I think 50 days, but the Pickerel was leaving the following week for a 45 day excursion. I had been talking to the topside watch when this happened. The Airedale looked like Barnie Fife, and despite how serious everything was it was hard not to laugh. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
We were one boat out from the pier in Yokosuka. I was sitting in the crewsmess BSing and there was a ruckus topside. Suddenly there was the announcement of "Man Overboard, Man Overboard. Doc just fell in!!"
Our Master Chief Corpsman got snockered and walk right over the side coming aboard. Pretty quick he was standing the Crewsmess dripping wet in his dress blues looking "surprised"! He was saluting and stepped off the gangway and kept going until he contacted the cable lifeline and just flipped right over it and down the hull. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2672
Location: New Jersey | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
HHmmmnn. Sounds like those nucs were more dangerous tied up at the pier then anywhere else...Glad I was on a smoke boat. 
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Only a single lifeline that was rigged to a track down the portside. Hull is round and smooth, nothing to hang onto. also a couple of months of slime coating the hull. Just like deer guts on a door knob! |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1605
| Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
Ric,I don't remember a nuc boat in Yokosuka. Wasn't that a problem with the Japanese.
One year before my Westpac the the Pickerel entered Hong Kong, and my shipmate George got the topside watch after it tied up. There were protests because some thought the Pickerel was a nuc. I heard they had to start a diesel just to calm things a little.
A year later when we hit Hong Kong there were no protests, but it was the only place we couldn't wear civies, and it was the only place I experienced Cinderella Liberty.
Me and a buddy took a train from Sasebo to Kyoto. and Nagasaki to sightsee. There were protests going on, everywhere we went while Yokosuka, Yokohama, and Sasebo had none that we saw in '68. The protests were over Operation Rolling Thunder and particularly B-52's bombing North Vietnam. We stuck out glaringly trying to get away from these quickly assembled crowds. |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 226
Location: San Diego, CA | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
When the Barbel pulled in 1967, we had the diesels make as much smoke as possible to keep the anti-nuc protesters from being upset.
It was funny that during open boat tours, Japanese citizens could go into our torpedo room even though our Philippino stewards could not go into the room because we had MK 45 torpedoes on board. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Yokosuka in the 60's!
We were followed into the harbor by a small boat towing what looked like a Klorox bottle. It had radiation detectors in I guess. They circled us the whole time we were there. Of course they never found anything. There was a planned protest when we were there but a bunch of us had taken the train to Tokyo and missed it.
What might have made a difference for us that in 1966 after we got to Hawaii we had a high level diplomatic tour by the Japanese Minister of Defense. I don't know how we got our clearance to enter. |
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Yokosuka in the 60's!
