i have too much on my hands to get it all done before i leave for another place. i would like to publish posts at least four times a week, if not more. i have six books in various stages of completion (none are completed) i would like to finish. i have established a “kick the bucket” check list and narrative for a guide to whomever is left behind to clean up my mess.

An Aside: My sister was the executor for our parents and aunt, and i was the same for my father-in-law and helped a Navy widow across the street. There are some excellent check lists for such things as funeral, burial, social security, other financial matters, as well as personal matters. The VA provides one that is excellent and also includes information for veterans and military retirees.

Then, there are all of the things i want to do around the house. Hang some outside lights, raise my flagpole a bit, clean up and repair some hardscape, organize the garage mess, put all of my paperwork in order.

This is all to be done while i play golf one or two times a week, would like to practice more, and go to doctors, dentists, optometrists, specialists, not to mention lab tests…aha, i’ve created another checklist.

So in this clean-up-things yesterday, i found some old treasures. Cassette tapes exchanged with dear people while i was deployed going back fifty years. In three boxes, i also found slides. i took about a gazillion when my ships were carrying Koreans to Vietnam and back to Pusan.

It is outright fun to look at them and remember. So another project has been added. Here are a few of the initial results:

The fading is bad on this one, but if you look closely, the ship tied to the Delong pier in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, is the USNS Barrett (T-AP-198). The photo was taken from the bridge of the Barrett’s sister ship, the USNS Geiger (T-AP-197). It is the only time the two were in the same port in my year, 1970, aboard. The two rotated between Pusan, Korea and several ports in Vietnam, carrying Republic of Korea troops back and forth. They were on a 22-day cycle with a six-day respite in Sasebo, Japan for maintenance, resupply, and refueling.

The Geiger was relieved by the third ship of this type, the USNS Upshur (T-AP-196) about half-way through my tour. In the late 1940s, the three were built by American President Lines to be cruise liners, but were bought by the Navy to serve as troop and dependent carriers as the Korean War began. They performed that mission in the Atlantic and the Pacific until 1965 when the mission was to carry the ROK troops and officers. The 1500 troops were berthed in below deck compartments and the officers, including my 18-personnel unit above decks, which retained the configuration of cruise liners. I was a lieutenant junior grade (LTJG) and served as executive officer of the unit. It was a wild and crazy year.

A US Navy swift boat comes alongside as Geiger enters Qui Nhon. The base was an Army base while the swift boats and harbor security was run across the bay at a Navy location with the generic name of “market time.” Several of my unit went across numerous times with the idea of giving the sailors there a bit of a morale booster. Our units, as far as i know, were the only US military in country that wore our regular khaki uniforms and carried US Dollars. We were popular.

Some time in the late spring, early summer, Jim Harding learned i was on the ship. Jim, called “Beetle” by family members and myself, was in charge of the Army’s 101st Calvary medivac helicopters (Jim, correct me if i got the title wrong) based near Qui Nhon. He showed up when we pulled into port and i hosted him with a dinner on board — those meals were exquisite. On the next go-round, he invited me out to the 101st’s base. He took me on a tour of the country side with his driver and armed guard.

A 2,000-year old Buddhist temple (Before you ask, the swaztika is not from Germany. From Wikipedia:

The swastika is also used in other Asian religions, including Buddhism and Jainism.

The swastika is a sacred symbol in Hinduism that has many meanings: 

• Direction: When facing right, the swastika represents the universe’s evolution, and when facing left, it represents the universe’s involution. 
• Good fortune: The swastika is also a symbol of prosperity, good luck, and well-being. The word “swastika” comes from the Sanskrit word svastika, which means “conducive to well-being”. 
• Spiritual purity: The swastika is also a sign of spiritual purity. 
• The swastika is also used in other Asian religions, including Buddhism and Jainism: 

Here is my Lebanon, Tennessee friend at the temple. He and his driver took me all over the countryside in a day’s outing after i had spent the night in his hutch with five or six other Army officers. After dinner of steak and beer, we went to the hutch and someone pulled out an LP album they had gotten. It was “Woodstock,” the two-record set of all of the music at the renown festival. It was the first time, i had heard the music.

Beetle is the younger brother of my best friend, Henry Harding. i practically lived at their house growing up. The three of us ran around together all of the time. Seeing him in Vietnam was one of the brightest moments of my tour.

To conclude this show and tell time, here is LTJG Jewell, executive officer of Military Sea Transport Service (MSTS, later in the year, renamed Military Sealift Command, or MSC) in fatigues, i thought Beetle got them for me, but he says he didn’t. i remain puzzled as to how i got them. i am on a hill above a Vietnamese village.

This was the only time i was outside of our port areas. The circuit of my two ships began by stopping at Qui Nhon to debark and then embark troops of the ROK Oak Leaf Division, primarily a supply division. The ship’s second stop was Nha Trang where we repeated the troop exchange. These were troops from the Tiger division, the Korean version of marines and known from their fierce fighting. i was told they had learned how to fight from the Turks during the Korean War.

More later.