Hurricanes in the eastern hemisphere are called typhoons. Having lived through one, all of the reporting of Hurricane Matthew brings back memories. It's been a long time so some details escape me.
It was during my time in the Marines and happened in 1961. Our battalion left Camp Pendleton, CA in June and relocated to the Island of Okinawa, Japan. We were stationed at Camp Suikran an army base on the southern end of the island. The barracks were two stories high and made of poured concrete, so, quite secure in a typhoon. So secure, in fact, that Marines living in Quonset hut barracks stayed with us for the duration of the storm.
As storms go it was rather moderate with sustained winds slightly less than 100 mph. For about 24 hours the wind blew furiously from the south. We all moved to the north side of the barracks away from the potential danger from broken windows. Rather abruptly the wind died down and the sun came out as the eye of the storm passed over. Then about 12 hours later the wind resumed from the north, lasted another 24 hours and then it was over. There didn't seem to be much damage on base but civilian structures were a mess.
When the storm approached all the Navy ships in the harbor put out to sea to ride it out. I was in some storms at sea but never a typhoon. It must have been some ride.
We didn't go hungry during the storm becasue each barracks was equipped with its own kitchen. One company, consisting of four platoons and support personnel, was housed in each building. It was the only time I experienced company level dining and it was the least tasty food. Usually dining was on the battalion level and the cooking was better. However, Marine Corps food was never as good as the Navy's. We always ate better when we ate with the Navy, for example, aboard ship. Marines never received the level of financial support as did the other branches of the military and that was demonstrated in Navy mess halls.
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