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Plankowner
Posts: 9163
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
A bunch of us were trapped in the Alliance Club when a massive protest demonstration was put one by people protesting a nuke boat that came in;
That wasn't late March or early April of 1968 was it? Could have been us. |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 217
| Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
Flapper, I was there. And, it wasn’t a nuke boat that caused the uproar. It was the Pickerel, which came in on batteries. I was a lookout as we came in, and a news helicopter overflew us. It mistook us for a nuke because we had no exhaust. Later that night, while at the Club Alliance, I saw us on TV.
I remember being on the roof of the Club Alliance, and watching the riot. Don’t ask me how we got up there, or why. I remember seeing overturned police cars burning. I also remember taking a cab back to the base, and just outside the main gate getting caught in the demonstrators, who beat on the windows until the riot police laid into them with those long batons they had.
The riot police were very good at what they did. I recall that for several days after the riot they exercised and drilled just inside the main gate of the base.
Who knows? Maybe we bumped into each other that night.
This was in late 66 or early 67. |
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Old Salt
Posts: 489
Location: San Freakcisco CA area | Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
BONEFISH damn near caused me to miss Christmas leave in 60 when she came into Yokosuka in early December. I'm not sure that this was the first B-Girl visit to Japan but with that advanced hull design, the JNs thought she was a nuke and the whole base was locked down for several days. I don't remember for sure but I seem to recall that they were dumping their exhaust thru the snorkle exhaust mast and that really got the locals' skivvies all knotted up because the lack of exhaust and cooling water overboard "confirmed" that they were a nuke boat.
I swear, Sun Laundry had a better intelligence network than CIA. Maneuvering watch coming up Sagami Wan was several hours long but even with hull numbers painted out, the greeting at the sub pier in Yoko was always spectacular, complete with WELCOME USS WHATEVERFISH banners and at least 4 of those 3-wheeled delivery vans ready to pick up your laundry - or deliver whatever you left behind from the last time in port. Despite the fact the town was going nuts with anti-nuke boat demonstrations and the gates were barricaded shut, Tony Shima and his laundry girls were pierside when BONEFISH pulled in.
Whoever organized those protests could pull off a 5-star production in the bat of an eyelash. If you were in Tokyo or Yokohama and saw thousands of school kids headed towards the train, you knew damn well Yokosuka was just about to start boiling. I was there for the USS TOM GREEN COUNTY incident if anyone recalls that one - a drunken sailor murdered a Japanese policeman and those demonstrations were real, I do mean REAL. Yokosuka Sasebo, and even Iwakuni were nailed shut, trucks parked inside against the gates, high pressure fire hoses rigged, and Marines being brought in from Okinawa to reinforce the base companies. The Japanese riot police [omarisan] were poetry in motion with those nightsticks they used.
Really rough life, but someone had to do it, right?
Edited by SOB490 2009-03-05 6:12 AM
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Senior Crew
Posts: 225
Location: San Diego, CA | Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
The Barbel pulled into Yokosuka in '67 and we had to make lots of smoke so the population wouldn't think we were a nuke. We had tours come through so they could see that we had diesel engines.
Of course when we were re-fueling, we pumped some fuel into the harbor which made them very mad. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1602
| Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
I got on the Pickerel in mid 67, and I missed this event. Was it in Hong Kong or Yoko? Scrivener, is this where you and your '45 defended the Pickerel in Hong Kong Harbor as top side watch? Where was the Club Alliance? I thought I hit every bar in Pearl, Yokosuka, and all the bars in the Wanchi district of Hong Kong - I was looking for Suzie Wong. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9163
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
We were there in the spring of 1968 and were a nuc. The Japanese kept "patrol" on us with a small boat dragging what looked like a Clorox bottle behind them hoping to find nuclear contamination. The day a bunch of us hopped the train to Tokyo was the day of our "riot". We could see them forming up in the side streets.
I remember learning you had to walk down the center of the street in Thieves Alley or you risked getting yanked to the the shops. The guys standing in the doorways had to keep one foot inside their shops by law and if they could reach you you were fair game to be a "customer". When you got loaded and were staggering down the street you could end up buying almost anything. |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 217
| Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
Gil,
The best I can recall, it was in late 66. We left Yokosuka for Pearl in January, 67. I don't think it happened in January, because on the night in question I ran an errand for a shipmate who was restricted because he was behind in his quals. By January we had all qualified.
Club Alliance was in Yokosuka, real close to Thieves Ally.  |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
| Subject: RE: Lovely weather you have here...
Hey, The Ronquil was there from about Aug 1966 until we hit San Diego on 22 Feb, 1967. We were in that big dry dock having our bottom painted right after we got to Yokosuka. Due to the rain our 7 day dry docking turned into about a 13 day one. They would sand blast, it would rain, they would sand blast, it would rain, wait to dry, sand bast, and over and over for almost two weeks. Hard on a guy who had budgeted his funds for a week and then having to stretch them into two weeks.
One night , right after moving to the dry dock, the SP's offered us a ride back from the White Hat and as we rode we sang bawdy sailor songs about the parentage or lack of, of the SP's. They were not real happy with us. We got to the Sub nest and they escorted us across to our boat. When we reached the last boat, about 4 out, there was no Ronquil which mystified us and pissed off the SP's. Suddenly I remembered, we had moved that afternoon so back in the wagon we went. Talk about some pissed off SP's getting more pissed off when we asked them why they didn't know where to take us.LOL It was fun but did start a cruise long feud with them. I think I received in total about 4 free SP rides that cruise.
Club Alliance was on the main road in front of the base, to the right, and Submarine Alley, a spur of Thieves Alley, was right behind it. Stop in either the Acey/Ducy for a bottle or Club Alliance for a bottle. Or get one at each. Something about a ration card. If I remember a fifth of Bacardi was about .95 or a quart about $1.15 and a bottle of Coke for mix was twenty five cents. You could stretch a quart of Coke for about three quarts of rum. Being able to check your bottle was a real gift. One night I checked a quart of BAcardi, about two inches left in it, and the next night I handed them my claim check and they gave ma one about two thirds full. Sort of magical and I thought I woudl try again the next night. Unfortunately it didn't always work that way and I only got a half bottle of Ten High which sold for about 45 cents a fifth. Bad trade.LOL
The walk back to the base at the witcihng hour was an obstacle course of lighted yo-yo's, magic boxes that would snatch a coin off it, and other Japanese treasures for the foks back home.
The exchange rate at Club Alliance was around 365/370y to a dollar.
T.Spoon, DBF and thinking about a Nikka Mezou, skosh lemon(sp) |
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Lovely weather you have here...
