The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1945-09-06

Japs but the Army has built them
up again, not in their original stone
. and masonry form of course, but in
sturdy portable steel bridges. Peo-
pie cross the canals on walks about
10" wide, which have been added as
sort of afterthought to the main
structure
One of the most startling sights
in the former business district is a
building with one wall blown com
pletely away. Now all of the con-
crete floors, at least six of them.
have settled down until they hang
on the other wall like a broken
branch does on a tree. The floors
are cracked in places slightly, but
if they could be lifted up they
would still be serviceable. can't
understand how a bomb could have
removed that one wall so neatly
but still have left the rest of the
building comparatively unchanged.
The floors actually overlap each
other like shingles, they have set
tied so evenlX<on one end
Ensign Erickson goes on two days
later, August II and describes their
VI Day.
We celebrated the news of ia
pans surrender two days ago with
big fireworks display and "busi-
ness as usual ! suppose the peo-
pie back in the States staged big
celebration, knocking off work and
having parades etc. like they did
at We Day. As mentioned, the ships
in this bay just shot off some fire.
works for a while and then we all
continued with the regular days
work. We are having this Let
painted, and the crew went right on
painting after the one half hours
display was over. Right now we are
lying in dry-dock FLOATING in the
middle of the bay) getting the
sides and bottom scraped and paint
ed. Our orders are to continue as
originally planned. Some day I'll
have to tell you all about the
plans. Right now censorship reg
ulations still prohibit mention of
impending moves, repairs and other
work. You see Japan may have Of
fered to surrender on the 18th and
been accepted then but there is still
fighting going on in the Philippines
and on other islands, the Japs are
still sending planes against our
fleet which is near Japan. Appar-
emily. there are still a lot of Japs
who still need to be convinced that
our atomic bomb is a reality and
that we will not hesitate to use it.
This Let duty is quite all right.
So far. I've stood one 4hour watch
and I've quite bit Of tramping
around after supplies and that is
all. We officers only stand regular
watches while the ship is moving
(under Way). At such a time we
have the conn, in Navy terminol-
ogy, that means that the officer on
watch gives all the orders to the
steersman and to the engine room
for changes in course and speed. He
is directly responsible for the safety
of the whole ship. So that requires
a good deal of vigilance A person
has to be on his toes all the time.
You see we were steaming in
convoy and were supposed to keep
just 100 yards from the ship ahead
and 200 yards from the ships on
the side, 1t just takes a few seconds
to collide with one of them If some
thing goes wrong. For instance, on
my watch, at about 500 in the
morning all the ships in the col
umn ahead Of us stopped suddenly
and without warning. When it's SO
dark, you can't tell whether that
dark object ahead is moving or not
SO you are usually right on top of
the other ship before even motto
ing that it has stopped. | had to stop
all engines couple of times to
keep from ramming our bow into
the stern of the vessel ahead 1t
was rather fun however and it
wasn't at all hard to stay awake
on that 4-8 watch.
Don't expect me to get out of
the Navy for quite a while yet
Even though the war is over, there
is still a lot of work to be done
out here and I'm afraid the Let's
are going to be kept busy