When you hear of Japan what do you think of? I thought I knew, but my global geography knowledge was about to expand. In 1965 the War had only been over for 20 years. I know that sounds like a long time . But if you had 2 Atomic bombs on your ass you might develop enhanced memory. Any ways I have not even left Pensacola yet. Remember the headquarter clerk that sent me a large envelope with a lot of papers in it? Now was the time to open it. Well along with another copy of my orders was a note. It said" Hi Hope you are doing well. I am getting a hardship discharge so I will gone very soon. The enclosed orders are ok, sort of. Do not let anyone see them until you are called for your flight. Here is all you will need." Hmmmm WTF? I can do it. Just have to be cool. My father got me a miltary flight to San Francisco, Travis AFB. So far so good. I get off the plane and there are a few more military guys going overseas. So I wander in to see what is happening. I find my flight number. It was posed on a big plastic type board in grease pencil. Damn It has been rescheduled for a later date, 2 days hence. I did not want to hang out there so I jumped a bus and went into San Fransisco. I got a room at the YMCA and went to see the town. First Back in 65 YMCAs were not like they are today. Many guys used them for a cheap place to stay. I am not going to explain that anymore. So for the next couple of days I wandered all over San Fransisco. I had very little money so I just walked and walked and looked. I did not have any civilian clothes so I wore my class A uniform. People would cut you some slack if you wore your uniform. Everyone knew how little money you made.I saw fishermans wharf, china town, rode the cable cars and had a pretty good time. Little bit scary, San Fran is big damn place. Time came and I caught a bus back to Travis. My plane was going take off around 4pm or so. I played it cool and showed my orders to the proper guys and they told me to line up. Loading was going to be soon. I was pretty excited. So we all start walking out on the the tarmac headed right for a big jet, maybe a 727. Oh Yea Jet to Japan. Sweet. But wait. Damn it, we go right under the tail of the jet to a old 4 engine prop plane. Oh well at least I am on my way. We load up. It is just a cargo plane with seats bolted into it. The are a couple of woman and children dependents on board also. They tell us it will take 27 hours flying time to get to Japan. Wow Long ways I guess. Off we go, this is one noisy SOB. rattling, jumping this is going to be a long ride. I really felt bad for the little kids. It was hard on them Only 1 other Army guy on board and he was a E6 Sargent. He was drunk!!! When we got to Japan the MPs nabbed his ass. No more Sarge. He was bouncing all over the plane when he got up. They gave us a box lunch to eat after a couple of hours. I think it was a couple sandwichs and stuff. At last we make to Hawaii. It is morning and we get off for a few hours maybe 4 hours or so. I walked around some But I was tired and really did not have time to do anything. Load up!! Lets go. Next stop? Wake island. More rattling, bouncing, baby crying, people bitching 9 hours of flying. We land at Wake island and it is still morning. Wake island is a little place. Not much there so we look around real quick and get back on the plane. The plane runs down the runway and and and slams on the brakes and stops just before the end. WTH? Pilot says " No big deal Just a oil leak" So we Taxi back to the hanger area and a guy with a tall ladder comes out. Looks about like me. He has on some coveralls. He opens up the engine cover and climbs back down. He comes back in a little bit with a oil line. He climbs up and puts it on. He gives a thumbs up to the pilot and the engine fires up, he looks then closes the hatch. I start to worry a bit. 9 more hours over the ocean, hope that damn thing does not leak. At Last we land in Japan.
We land at Tachikawa. I went up the ADAC, which stands for something,but I forgot, and showed him orders to go to Chitose. "Oh Hell Chitose that is way up north. We only go up there once a week, we just went yesterday". Well Damn I have a week to kill on a Air Force Base. I was to stay in the transit quarters. Not bad Much better than anything the Army had. But I was dead broke and there was not much to do. The next day I met another ASAer headed to Chitose . His name was Malseckee. He was a very good guy and we wasted the next week watching bowling, shooting pool and reading. The week went by very slowly but the day came when the plane to Chitose was ready. Hokkaido is the long way from Tokyo. i would guess close to 400 miles. Very rural and not very populated. Nothing like southern Japan. Not even close.
I miss spelled the hell out of "Malseckee" sorry
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