Thursday, August 13, 2026

Seaborn Memories!

      A friend, in conversation today, recounted the odd sensation of land after being on a cruise ship. Land seems to rock for a while.  How well I remember that sensation. While in the Marines I spent months aboard ship. The first exposure was the 28 days it took us to go from San Diego to Okinawa on a liberty ship. The trip from Okinawa to Japan didn't take very long but the sea was rough, but calm on the return trip. 

     Our battalion spent weeks aboard ship as the "Ready Battalion" in the Western Pacific. Were any military emergency to happen we could quickly deploy. We mostly floated around the South China Sea. There was a stop in Hong Kong for a few days. In the Philippines there was time ashore for jungle training. Our station was at Subic Bay. 

   The USS Princton LPH 5, (LPH=Landing Pad Helicopter) was the ship (pictured below). It was a WW II, aircraft carrier, the first Princeton was sunk in the war, converted to carry helicopters. Because of its size its ride was relatively smooth, although the South Pacific was usually calm. It was the ship that took us home from Okinawa to Long Beach, in two weeks...much faster than the liberty ship going over.  the USS Pickaway which transported us to Okinawa travelled at 13 knots, imagine 13 knots for 8000 miles.

   Every time we disembarked the ground rocked under our feet.

Takk for alt,

Al

3 guesses so far, 2 ND, 1 NB, none correct.


 This is a picture of the Princeton which I took from a helicopter. It's in the Philippine Sea. 

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