According to my memory, because I was very sick with double pneumonia running a very high temperature and they (the ship on it's way to New Zealand in January '67) were trying to get to a port quickly. Our ordinary course would have been to continue on the line we were By the time we got to Kwajalen I was better from the intravenous penicillan and other drugs so we left port and continued south. I contracted this disease because I was sunning every day on the bow, and I was warned about sun overexposure in the tropics. My hard head has gotten me in trouble many times since.
When we were in Manus I played basketball against the Aussies, they took me out of the game at half time because I had already scored 20 pts. I met and drank with an Aussie E.M. and we struck up a friendship. He took me by jeep out to an airfield with hundreds of abandoned fighter planes with the jungle growing up around them. An incredible sight. Then we drank more and he deposited me at the landing. By that time we had swaped uniforms so when I got back to the ship I was written up by the deck officer. Not the first time either.
When we were in Auckland I was hanging out with the Chief Boats in a hotel and we were very drunk. We arrived back at Devonport very late but saw a pub that was open we stayed a while longer then on to the ship passing the NZ mess hall where the guys came out and gave us their shots of rum for lunch. We obviously needed that. We rolled and stumbled back to the ship after noon, were arrested and went to Captains Mast out to sea that afternoon. Our only saving grace that we did not all get busted was the Chief Boats. But I was not allowed to go for RM2 because of this incident. Yes I remember Auckland well!
While in Yokosuka our radio shack decided to have a party over at some hotel, as I recall. I decided that I would make martini's, my parents favorite drink at home. Got the Comm officer to get me some Vermouth and I got some gin and off we went with olives to the hotel. Got very drunk, once again, and I had made very strong martinis.
We tried to do our normal thing and booze and cruise the hotel for ladies. To drunk to do much I took a cab back to the ship which was in drydock. Got to the top of the long gangway with a short thick railing and tripped and rolled all the way down the gangway to the quarterdeck of the Spangler. The watch escorted me to my rack and that was that. But looking back on that event and considering the drop into the dry dock I am lucky to be alive.
When we were in Osaka, Richard Ralph and I went on a trip to Takarazaka, Nara and Kyoto (I thought by ourselves). We fell in love with the girls at the Opera, marveled at the Buda in Nara and toured around several of the palaces of the Japanese royalty, went to a tea ceremony and in general saw a part of Japan that was quite exquisite. Back in Osaka we walked up to a policeman that spoke English and asked him where we could get some great food. "Oh, my family always eats at this restaurant it is great." We had a Sukayaki dinner, then got neck rubs and sat back. Ralph says to me, I am still hungry. I said, Yeah, lets do it again. So we surprised our waiters by doing the whole thing all over again. Never ever forget that meal.