50 Years Ago Today
I took the above photo exactly 50 years ago today. Our ship was in port at Sasebo, Japan, and I had the day off. The person on the left is Pete Biddle, who was my roommate and best friend on the Hopewell. The other two men are Vietnamese naval officers who were assigned to us on temporary duty during some of the time that we were on the "gun line" off the coast of Viet Nam. Later that year, a month or so after the Vietnamese officers had returned to their permanent duty stations, we learned that the man on the left (whose name I can no longer remember) was killed. I never learned how it happened, or if I did I no longer remember hearing about it. He was the more sociable of the two, and had made several friends in our wardroom. We learned of his death shortly before heading back to the States, and it cast a pall over our entire ship as we headed home.
Now, all these years later, I still remember a perfect day that Pete and I spent with our Vietnamese brothers-in-arms. And ever since then I've had a warm spot in my heart for Japan, particularly the people and beautiful places in and around Sasebo. For me, it was the best day of our cruise . . . until the day we returned home, of course.
I went down to Sasebo once to visit a friend that was living there. I imagine it's changed quite a bit since you were there, but the Navy ships are still there. Loooks like you guys were enjoying yourselves that day, I see a can of Kirin beer on the table. Have you been to Japan since then?
Outside of one other stop in Japan on our way home later that year, I've never had another opportunity to visit there. However, I still drink Kirin :-).