A Chevy Man

We were taken by bus to Pusan in the southern part of the country where there was a deep water port. We laid around playing sand volleyball before being shipped out on Oct. 8, 1953, after being only three months in Korea.

It was a 13-day trip aboard ship going home and after my two sea voyages to and from Hawaii (plus the commuter trip from Japan to Korea) I was an old hand. A captain friend who had been doing PIO work with the Triple Nickel (555th Battalion) was on the same ship home. He said he would get me work on the ship’s newspaper so I wouldn’t have to pull compartment cleanup duty.

He also said not to worry about any other assignment I might get and to just ignore it because it took two or three days to find anybody aboard a ship with 3,000 troops. By that time he would have me lined up on the newspaper.

The duty roster showed I was one of six officers assigned to one compartment with the responsibility of order, cleanliness, et cetera. On a 13-day trip that meant we would actually only be responsible every six days or at most, two times during the voyage.

The compartment to which I was assigned was filled with non-commissioned officers on their way home for discharge. They knew the score and could take care of themselves. Because of this and the promise of my captain friend, I disregarded the orders.

With nothing to do all day, card games flourished. Our open poker games on deck were halted, however. Enlisted men were prohibited from gambling (at least in plain view) so the commanding officer felt we should not do it either.

The ship’s doctor sat in on our game and he found an empty stateroom we could use so we transferred the action there. The sessions ran late into the night and with no duties to perform, I sacked in most mornings the first few days out.

About the fourth morning a captain routed me out from my bunk and asked me where I had been for three days. My excuse was that I was waiting for the job on the newspaper to come through. That didn’t cut any ice and he was ready to court-martial me for dereliction of duty right then and there.

After he cooled off, I pointed out we were all on our way home for discharge and hoped he would reconsider and take the circumstances into account. He reluctantly agreed to give it some consideration but in the meantime, instead of being one of six on duty for the compartments, I would be the only one. For the rest of the trip, I had to show up at 7 a.m. every day to inspect the area.

The work on the newspaper never materialized but the irate captain never mentioned the incident again so I dodged that bullet. The poker games proved profitable and with what I had won in Korea, the total came to more than $1,500. That provided me with the money to buy a 1951 Chevy when I got home.