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Master and Commander
Posts: 1107
Location: Tucson AZ | Subject: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
I figured I'd start a new thread, since some of us seem to have hijacked the Blue vs U.S. weather thread by digressing about the Alliance Club, anti-nuke demonstrations, and other Yokosuka memories from the 1960s.
A number of you duplicated my experience in either late 1965, or mid-1966 (can't remember which port call it was), of being 'trapped' off-base by massive anti-nuke boat demonstrations / riots. None of the respondents date recollections align with mine, so I suspect such demonstrations were a semi-regular feature throughout the mid- to late-60s.
More than one of witnessed the goings-on from the Alliance Club, the block-sized Navy Exchange building located across the 'boulevard' from the Main Base Gate.
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Senior Crew
Posts: 184
Location: ConroeTexas | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
Well Flapper, My memory aint any better, I remember when I was on Growler (a regulus boat, sometime around '61, '62 after a BarPac patrol, the Greyback, our sister sub, pulled into Yoko and rammed out their missle and run it up along side the pier. caused quite a scare and all missle boats were banned from port for a time.
the beagle doc |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
What I recall of my 8 months in Yoko is the cab ride to the bottle buyin place, the stroll down the "Alley" to the place we hung out in.... The Acorn Club.... being treated to several parties by different bar owners, a couple of sweeties that I met there, being restricted to base while the commies paraded past the main gate, eating a fine meal at the EM Club at an unbelievably low price, buying some nice suits from James S. Lee....a commie tailor who would try to get intell from you, buying an Akai tape recorder and shipping it back home for free, staying out past curfew and having to wait until the main gate opened at 0600 hrs to get back in and while waiting hearing a motor bike wreck that took me awhile to locate the Japanese citizen....drunk as a skunk... and getiing an ambulance to come get him, some sweetie school teacher wanting to get the young sailor boysan to marry her and take her back to the states...... no way baby I ain't that dumb!!!, and cheap booze at the bottle store!!!  |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
Oh, I forgot....being pulled in for shore patrol duty in Hanodi Choi.... The red light district with the bars down stairs and the whore houses upstairs, and being punched in the mouth by some drunk sailor who waited outside the Taj Mahal for the next guy to walk out of the place.It turned out to be me!!!!  |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1107
Location: Tucson AZ | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
BTDT, almost! My stint as SP was in Olongapo ... same sorts of craziness back then.
Sailors felt free to cast aside all the niceties of civilized behavior west of the International Dateline in the 'Nam era. I know I took some of the shackles off, crossing over the line.
On my carrier (Kitty Hawk) I can remember having duty and watching guys head out on liberty in 'ready for inspection' dress whites ... and, at the witching hour, seeing them returning with trashed, bloody, muddy, torn uniforms, hatless, even a few shoeless. Shiners, busted or bloodied noses and mouths. A few literally carried by shipmates.
Them were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end...
Edited by Flapper 2009-03-05 5:30 PM
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Senior Crew
Posts: 184
Location: ConroeTexas | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
Back in '56 before my sub says I spent a little over a month in the Yoko hospital, still had my APA-27 liberty card, so I and a marine buddy would wait till dark and climb over the hospital fence and scoot right thru the main gate, at that time the gate was always open. I got to know the little gal that run the White Hat club, (in that alley beside the em club) it was a sub bar and was only officially open when a sub was in port. At that time enlisted men could only buy one fifth of booze a month and a chief could buy 5. I got some of the chief's at the hospital who didnt drink to buy me their quota and I would give them to the bar gal and I could drink free and stay with her at her place, all I had to do was take her to bingo at the em club every night, and then stop at the pachinko (sp) parlor afterwards. man she was a gambling fool. but she was good in other ways, and I was livin the life of Riley all for free. finally the Hospital got wise to us and our missing charts and shipped us out, back to the old George Clymer.
the beagle doc
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1323
Location: Oxnard, CA | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
I remember having SP duty in Olongapo, and seeing an Australian sailor come back through the gate with nothing but his shoes, underpants, hat, ID and liberty card, and a mile wide smile on his face. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9164
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
All I can remember of the SP's in 1968 Yokosuka is they all had Kitty Hawk rockers on their shoulders and they hated submarine sailors. They didn't like your haircut, they didn't like your shoeshine, didn't like your tailored gabardines, didn't like your beard or mustache didn't like how you rolled your hat or where you worn your neckerchief. They just didn't like you or anything about you.
Kitty Hawk left no warm glow with me. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1107
Location: Tucson AZ | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
re: no warm fuzzies about 's**tty Kitty' ...
What can I say, Ric? I didn't go there by choice. But, as the Bible says, 'when in Rome ...'
When I graduated from Nuke School in '65, there weren't enough sub billets for qualified guys like yours truly. So BuPers stashed us in target billets until sub spots opened up. By '68, Kitty Hawk wasn't the same ship, crew-wise.
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Plankowner
Posts: 9164
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
I wasn't blaming you, just was my only experience with the KH. Just like we'd get SP's from other parts of Pearl poking around on Sub Base once in a while.
They'd start hauling over guys for dumb stuff like wearing Wellingtons or no T shirt or a non reg belt. Had two first class , no dolphins stop me. One wanted to write me up for the boots bit. Told them it was OK with my skipper and he wore them too, in fact most of the boat did. They asked what boat I was attached to. I told them to turn around and look at the boat about 30 feet away, (I was in front of the base laundry.) They wrote me up. I told them it was a waste of time as it wouldn't past the Yeo. They wanted to argue about that too. Never heard about it. Ever. If you screwed up too bad the COB would have seem it before the CO or XO anyway. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1602
| Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
In '68 the SP's didn't like it if we twirled those yoyo's they sold that glowed as they went up and down. We were easy to pick out because in Yoko we could wear civies. In Hong Kong we had to wear our uniforms. Things for our boat would have gotten worse after our Big Swede Engineman pushed the airedale SP with his shoe into the water when the SP made the mistake of walking in front of him as they were walking our brow to bring him back. Swede got only 45 days restriction (lucky him) and the Pickerel headed out two days later for our 45 day patrol. I heard they didn't want us back in Yoko. Worked out well as we went to Sasebo, Kobe, and Okinawa when we came back from our mission. Swede got off real easy, especially when the SP lost his '45 while he was thrashing in the water - divers got it the next day. Lots of good memories of buying a fifth of Seagram 7 for about a $1.60. We learned quickly how to beat the daily 500 yen setup cost at the New Yokosuka bar - we drank the bottle each night. That EM Club was great - the Josans loved the slot machines and steak and champagne dinners. We were too stupid to realize the bar ripped us off everytime they converted our yenzies to MPC for the EM club. Can anybody remember the bar across the alley from the New Yokosuka Bar. I witnessed the dance of the flaming tolet paper there and watched shipmates drinking flaming absin or 151 rum there also? Was it the Starlite Club, whatever it was it made the New Yokosuka seem plush. Drinking the flaming drinks looked pretty scary, and the danger was increased because a few guys sported beards.
Edited by Gil 2009-03-07 7:07 AM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 2191
Location: Port Ludlow, WA (the Olympic Penninsula) | Subject: RE: 60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
The USS Scamp SSN-588 back in '65 (?) was "supposed to be" the first nuc to go into Japan. We had already planned how we were going to throw dead fish over the side, green dye - you name it... But as luck would have it, our relief boat coming into Naha, Okinawa didn't board the pilot and banged up her screw coming into port (name withheld due to the idiot Nav). Needless to say, after only a week in, we went back to the Vlad area for another 60 day stint... |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1107
Location: Tucson AZ | Subject: RE: Starlight? Ric?
Gil - 2009-03-07 7:56 AM
{SNIP}
Can anybody remember the bar across the alley from the New Yokosuka Bar. I witnessed the dance of the flaming tolet paper there and watched shipmates drinking flaming absin or 151 rum there also? Was it the Starlite Club, whatever it was it made the New Yokosuka seem plush. Drinking the flaming drinks looked pretty scary, and the danger was increased because a few guys sported beards.
I think it may have been the Starlight, Gil. Of course, forty-some years later with some 'hard steaming' and a tad of CRS ... who knows?
Ric, was it you who's posted (several times) a street view of the area around Thieves Alley that shows either the Starlight or the White Hat?
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Plankowner
Posts: 9164
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Starlight? Ric?
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60s era Yokosuka demonstrations/riots against 'nukes'
