The Apache sentinel., 1944-11-24

Sentinel. He has continued to send
us material since going overseas.
It was early in March and the
sun was hazy when we were aboard
a huge vessel in a California harbor.
Shortly after the time struck a GER
tain hour the vessel, clumSy-like,
moved toward the middle of the bay
and through the Golden Gate as the
tune of praise the Lord and Pass
the Ammunition" was played by the
Delta Rhythm Boys" My excite
ment of being on ship soon died,
and a strange feeling which was in
explainable until now, came over me
all at once I thought of home,
mother, dad, and my brothers, Sis
ters, other kin, and my friends. No
longer could I look at the beautiful
water and other ships. had to look
back. l saw San Francisco! Look!
I said to myself. Will I ever see it
again? Then tears began to bank
in my eyes, when an urge forced me
to look forward and trye to forget
what I was leaving far behind for
a while I looked far into the direc-
tion we were headed.
After a few minutes began to
sense a feeling of dizziness and my
stomach was becoming upset. So I
realized I had better go to the Ia
trine. And for the first time I un-
derstood the meaning of being "sea
SICK" and believe me, was sea
sick. 1t took two of the latrine bowls
to supply me- I had plenty Of COM
pany, too.
For a while the latrines were not
big enough. This lasted for about
four hours and then 1 went to bed.
woke up the next morning feeling
the same way, and for days. Then
finally 1 got accustomed to ship
riding and didn't feel so bad, so I
began to get acquainted with sea
life. There were programs, public
addresses, radio and the talent
among ourselves, which was very
good, and, of course, the news. Food
was served twice daily, and it was
about a week before I could eat a
full meal and keep it on my stom-
ach.
The ships store was opened twice
daily and I was on the ship three
weeks before I could get to the Win
dow before it closed, due to the
length of the line Everyone had
money and didn't mind spending it..
So the one who was fortunate
enough to get to the window would
stock up and charge what they
wanted for their goods. Three cent
candy bars were selling fast at fif-
teen cents a bar. Chewing gum was
selling for twenty-five ments pack
age. The boys would rather pay this
price than to get in the line.
There were different ship drills
in case of emergency, which was
fun to me- There was a blackOut
each evening at o'clock; also
set back of the time fifteen min
utes. No one was allowed on the
deck after blackout time. The NCOs
of each unit were privileged to visit
all of the ships departments and
its operations, with the exception OF
a few which were censored for mill
tary reasons.
The sun rose and the sun went
down as days turned into weeks.
What did we see? Water, water
Blue water and flying fish. More
water than I ever dreamed in my
worst n i g h m ar e S of drowning.
Thoughts of all kinds came and
passed during the long nights. I
prayed often. The greater the dam
ger, the braver became. There was
a slight celebration when we crossed
the equator, followed in a few days
by the mourning of funeral, which
gave me still another nightmare the
following night. AS We journeyed
on into the unknown each day felt
a little better and safer. Finally one
day when was really feeling good,
I noticed everyone running. I looked
and behold, there were alrplaneS
coming like a streak. started run
ming, too, until one came over and
I noticed they were ours. And soon
after this we were rejoicing as we
saw land. When we reached the is
land we stopped here few days,
but did not get off.
Due to security reasons I cannot
mention the name of this island.
We had very swell time while here,
as we had boxing teams for amuse-
ment. Soon once again time spoke
u