ALOT OF WORK LEFT ON THIS PAGE

                       On this page you will see in as much as possible a skyline or photo of the ports that I have visited while as an enlisted man and a civil mariner working for Military Sealift Command , the photo above is that of Manama Bahrain. Manama was the last port I saw before I left Military Sealift in 1998. I think I had been there several times with the final being aboard USNS KILAUEA T-AE-26.  When ever we called at the port we took on fresh produce and some times fuel  mainly fuel was taken on at the port of Jebel Ali in Dubai. When ever I was on a reefer ship we delivered stores to the flag ship docked there. I have called on Manama aboard the following ships; USNS WALTER S.DIEHL T-AO 193, USNS SPICA T-AFS 9, USNS SAN JOSE T-AFS 7, USNS GUADALUPE  T-AO 200 and I may have been there on the USNS PECOS T-AO 197. Bahrain serves as the HQ for MSCSWA and if it still serves the purpose USS LA SALLE AGF3  was  the flag ship for the US NAVY'S 6TH FLEET. The last time I was there the Seabees were working on a footer for a huge building.  Since I have dealt with the Bahrain subject here I will not list it below. In each frame there will be a story about my time in that port. Thanks to the advent of Google Earth an areal view can provided . For Manama click here.

ADAK, ALASKA       Suffice it to say that this is the aerial picture of  Adak. I could find no others on the web that were descriptive enough. Now I do remember this clearly. Both times I joined the USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND T- AGM 23 I not only called on the port but had to fly into it via an AMC (Air Mobility Command) charter out of Elmendorf Air Force Base. Now on that charter freight flies first class and passengers fly in coach ; hard for a terrorist to high jack those flights. When I first went there in 1991 ADAK was still in full status. In 1994 thanks to BRAC and the so called peace dividend ADAK started to deactivate and right after the new High School was built. Yes it was very cold  and a big squall hit there in 1994 that started to cause one of the forward mooring lines to fray. Back then flying into Adak required a military clearance there was no such thing as tourism.	ANCHORAGE,ALASKA           Before I was on a ship that called on Anchorage I used to live nearby in Eagle River which falls within the municipality of Anchorage. I even had worked for Stanley Smith security patrolling the Sealand Terminal within the port and I did this every Thursday  night.  The one and only ship that I was on that called there was the USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND  T-AGM 23. You should have seen the headlines, " American Spy ship calls on Anchorage". The tides ranged at about 36 feet so when ever we returned to the ship on low tide we had to climb down a ladder to go aboard . I had my nephew LJ living out in Wasilla so I rented a car and went out to bring him back for a tour of the engine room and pilot house. He was an Air Force brat though and the closest he got to ships was joining the Marines.  Now this is exactly why I am putting this website  together because while I went there on the O.I. the memory is unsure if I went there the first time aboard in 1991 or the 2nd time in 1994.	BALTIMORE,MARYLAND   Darn isn't this ironic. This is another port that was only visited while I was aboard the USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND T-AGM 23. In fact this is the port that we called on right after we left Port Canaveral in Florida . The only time O.I. went there  while I was aboard was in 1994. This was the port that my relief arrived at. I had rented a car from Alamo rental car at BWI Air Port and drove home to Florida to collect my wife and daughter and then we went on a driving tour on up to Nova Scotia to visit some friends of my wife that had been down that year to Bush Gardens while I was at sea. I bought my first mobile phone at a Sears there just north of Baltimore. I think that was the best cell phone service I ever had. When at sea I could not use it but kept on paying the monthly service for it and the usage balance just kept on building up until I used it again, however that first bill was astronomical since I had used it while roaming and had called my Mom from Peggy's Cove. The Aerial view will be not of the whole port but just centered at the berth we had tied up at.
BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY    This is really starting to get frustrating. You see the times that I called on Bayonne it was to the Naval Supply Depot or Military Ocean Terminal as it was also known. Now as far as I can see this has to be the view of the depot , at least the buildings look to be the standard warehouse that was found in all the Navy Supply Depots that I have been to. It seems that our friends at BRAC had this on their hit list as well. Supposedly all this is supposed to save the tax payer money to sort of stream line the military effort all around. In my opinion this will eventually lead to another Pearl Scenario where we have all of our eggs in one basket. I do not believe that these folks have really calculated how much it will cost to put all this stuff back when we need it again. Any how I have called on Bayonne  while aboard the USNS AEOLUS T-ARC3  and USNS MIZAR T-AGOR 11. I went in there on the Aeolus in 1981 and the Mizar in 1989 both were special project ships as we call them. Now if you are a working tourist like me you just had to see the Big Apple. I saw the twin towers both times. I went on the tour of the Statue of Liberty and of course saw Times Square. The movies have a way of hyping the square, however up close and personal it's not all that impressive, nothing but a bunch of shops selling the same items much like what I saw in Glasgow Scotland when I was there.	PORT CANAVERAL,FLORIDA  The only time I ever called on this port by ship was aboard the USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND T-AGM 23. This visit took place in 1994 while my wife and daughter were on the plane back from Hong Kong. Any guess what I would do since my wife and had our home in Tampa at that time? You got it. I caught a cab to Cocoa Beach and rented an Alamo rental car and drove to the house the night the ship got in. I returned the next morning to Canaveral with my loved ones and gave them a tour of the ship. The chief engineer was nice enough to let me spend the day and night with my family and I took them home the next day. We went into Canaveral at the behest of Space Command who had the control of the ship from Patrick Air Force Base . Now the port is mainly a cruise ship haven but then it was mostly an industrial and fishing port . Some of the old ships were there like the  USNS RANGE SENTINEL T-AGM 22 which was stricken for scrap in 1997. Now here is a bit of history for you. The O.I. was the last ship that JFK toured before he flew off to Dallas on that fateful day and he toured it while it was berthed at Canaveral.	CEBU CITY, PHILIPPINES         This is a port that we anchored at. I believe that I was on board the USNS PECOS  T-AO197  We had taken a water taxi from the ship to Mactan Island of course I had my wife's family to visit there so I made some time of taking two of my nieces to the movies. We had either watched a James Bond movie or a Jackie Chan film. That was over ten years ago and the memory tends to get selective of what it deems important to keep detailed information on. One of the nieces I took to the movies is here in Tampa, Florida only 2 miles away. Ironically Cebu began to surpass Manila in trade. Cebu City is the 2nd largest Metropolitan area in the Philippines.  I still have family there. My niece Susan has her boys there with her mother and her oldest boy Edward had a baby girl which makes me a great great Uncle. My sister in law Lolith owns a beauty parlor called Tri-Sis in the Lakandula market area.
DIEGO GARCIA     I guess when it comes to Degar as some of us have come to call it, being on board a tanker has it's benefits though not always. Degar as you can see is an atoll. The 1st time I went there was in 1979 while aboard the USNS NAVASOTA T-AO106. I can remember that day on November 24th clearly some of us were sitting in the lounge waiting  for chow when the Chief Mate came down and gave us the word. "Sorry boys, Mombasa is out the Embassy in Tehran has been attacked and hostages taken.".  We had just got underway from Degar an hour before. The USS SAN JOSE  was anchored out there and I ran into a few guys that had been in the Navy with me aboard the KILAUEA. Degar was not part of the circuit during Westpac when I was in the Regular Navy. Degar was a stop for the reefer ships on our way out to the Arabian Gulf . It was during my third employment with MSCPAC that I got to Degar most of the time. I saw Degar while I was aboard USNS SAN JOSE, USNS SPICA and the USNS KILAUEA. On most occasions the ship would be at anchor . There are some places to eat on the Island now that did not exist back in '79 and it really has been built up. Reefer stores would be flown in by C-5A's from Guam for the reefer ships to restock for the fleet that they were supporting. Sometimes we would go in with a tanker to take on fuel which had been delivered one of the point to points earlier in the week. These tankers were crewed by union seamen and operated by IMO there was one other contractor that provided the service but I no longer recall their name. .	FUJAIRAH,UAE                 I have only been to Fujairah twice the first time it was aboard the USNS WALTER S DIEHL T-AO193 which was the only time that I went ashore and toured the place. The second time I went there was aboard the USNS KILAUEA and I had on call duty so I had to stay aboard there is not much there. It had a small town with most of the shops being staffed by pretty Filipina girls. If you like breathing sand around the clock and feeling the heat during the day then the place is for you. It was not as lively as Dubai or Manama.	GLASGOW,SCOTLAND    Time has a way of eroding place names and so it is difficult at times to find descriptions on the web of say the King George the 5th Docks in Glasgow. I was there twice aboard the USNS MIZAR T-AGOR 11during 1989. Both times we had gone in for fuel and limited repair periods. Now to let you know, the unions hold the power of commerce in Scotland. Forget about shopping anytime after 5pm it just is not going to happen unless it's for groceries. I was very lucky that I went ashore early after the ship tied up or I never would have been able to stumble on my first SLR camera. I found a shop that was selling Russian made Zenith SLR cameras for the equivalent of $59.00 and I bought one. I needed some cash after the '89 quake hit in Oakland and I sold the camera to a collector for $400.00. The camera came in handy because that weekend wild Bill and I hopped a train and went playing tourists in Edinburg. We spent the day there, we even met a nice lady from the Borders at the Camera Obscura and took her picture. She was the guide in the place. When ever we came into the KG5 I went into Glasgow and ate dinner at the local Pizza Hut. I made acquaintances with a couple of the lassies there but never had a date with them. I noticed something about the ladies there. Women here in the US start to let themselves go after they have their children and start losing their attractiveness; unless it has changed there since 1989 I did not see that in the Scottish women. Even pushing baby carriages around they looked just as if they were going on their first date.                 The second time we came in to KG5 Wild Bill and I made a dash down to London along with another friend. It was a good time. We took a tour all over the place and even saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Bill and I were heading back to Glasgow that night while the other fellow decided he would take the train to France. I had lost track of Bill and saw the play Brigadoon at the Victoria Theatre. When the play got out I found that I had missed the train so I wound up taking a bus back to Glasgow instead.
CHARLESTON SC     Charleston was not really a port that I called on. However  in 1981 I did join the recently transferred USS KILAUEA there after transferring off the USNS AEOLUS T-ARC3. The KILAUEA was being refit for civilian manning as the USNS KILAUEA. During this period I did not live aboard ship We started living in hotels on per diem and I had rented a car. Soon I found it much better just to rent a furnished apartment. I was prepared to spend at least six months with the ship and see her sail for the first time. We were berthed at a dock which was operated by Braswell Shipyard. The chief electrician working with me was a Japanese immigrant by the name of Fuji. I would work with him one more time during my third employment with MSC. There was a third engineer by the name of Robinson and another 2nd Electrician by the name of JJ Jordan. JJ was from Ft.Worth Texas and he used to ride in the Rodeos as a black cow boy. JJ and Robinson lived out in Hanahan. Robinson owned a Jaguar and the police would regularly pull them over thinking that they had stolen the car. I guess the local police at that time had never seen a rich black person. I had made the comment to the guys before ; "Next time they pull you over tell them, hey ya'll were driving Roll's Royce's out in Oakland."         I had flown off to Dallas Love Field from Charleston and made that fateful mistake of marrying the wrong woman. I was not back to the ship for 2 weeks before she started threatening suicide if I did not return to Dallas. Well I gave in and wound up in a life of poverty for 9 years. Of course she did not like it when I lost that lucrative income. There had been Christian advisors in Charleston imploring me that I wait on God and not marry this woman and I did not listen. I spent a total of 3 months on my 2nd employment with MSC. I was lucky that they hired me back in 1989. I did get out to Patriots Point and see the Saratoga exhibit, the SS SAVANAH was on display there at the time. I also toured downtown Charleston and saw the Citadel.	BREMERTON,WA        I have only been to Bremerton one time and that was during the Navy days aboard USS KILAUEA AE-26. Just like all of the great government owned yards this one fell on the BRAC axe. The yard was not to far from the ferry terminal to Seattle so that's what I did  when I was not on duty. They did have a good movie theatre there downtown so I did catch a movie while I was there. I think we went to Bremerton to deliver ammo to one of the carriers in port which I think might have been the old Connie (USS CONSTELLATION CV-64). I used to have pictures of all these places while I was in the Regular Navy but they got lost in storage in San Antonio after my first job with Military Sealift Command. I am having to find these on the web. Other than the ferry ride to Seattle and the walk around town nothing really memorable occurred .	CHEATHAM ANNEX,VA     I have been to Cheatham on 3 different ships that I recall. Two of the ships I joined at Cheatham. In the foreground you can see a white ship  this is more than likely the USNS ZEUS  a built for the purpose cable layer that replaced the USNS AEOLUS and USNS NEPTUNE . In 1981 I joined the USNS AEOLUS at Cheatham. I was broke when I joined it. They sent us to the ship without enough advance per diem . Thankfully the guy that was joining the ship as carpenter helped me out until the ship came in. They had flown us from Oakland to Norfolk to join the ship on a Monday morning and it did not arrive until Thursday of that week. I had the joy of driving one of the rental vans out to the ship when it did arrive.  The advantage of having been at Cheatham was not shopping , no this was another place that you had to take time off during the day to accomplish any thing like that. However Bush Gardens at Williamsburg was within just about 7 miles . It was not quite so grown up back then nor was it 8 years later when I joined the USNS MIZAR T-AGOR11 but when we came through there on a tour of Yorktown in 2007 it seemed as though we were in the middle of a gold rush it had built up so much.  When I joined MIZAR I could not believe my eyes. I thought I was coming to a fishing boat, I had never been on such a small vessel in my life. MIZAR was a ship that I had to serve as a Wiper on in order to get promoted back to electrician. I had taken what was available to get my foot back in the door. One eyed Bob was the 1st Engineer and Tommy Thompson was the Chief Engineer .
CHINHAE, SOUTH KOREA    This is another Port that there are just no good photos of . This is the small aerial photo of where I believe that we berthed at when ever a ship I was on called here. Again so much has changed. All the times that I was there it was under control of the US Army and we did not have NDF or DFM there when we took on fuel but rather Mogas a close cousin of JP5. When I was in the Navy I got here twice on the USS KILAUEA  but I did not get to go ashore back then we were only there for a few hours. I would suppose that there are no surface shots of this place due to photography restrictions. The few times I went to Chinhae I had been used to seeing drab green Quonset huts. In fact the famous historical MASH that the TV show was based on had been located there. Remnants of that MASH were there in the mid 70's . All that remained in the 90's was an historical marker. A new medical facility had been built. During the MSC years I called on Chinhae aboard the USNS KILAUEA and if memory serves aboard USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND. The ships actually spent some time there and so one time I was able to go check out Chinhae  proper and bought one of those animal print blankets. Looking down from the air I see that so much has changed that the Quonset huts no longer appear to be there. One thing that puzzles me is that both in the 70's and the 90's we had stopped at Pusan first and then transited around to Chinhae. By air it appears that the two cities are only 30 miles apart yet when we departed Pusan it seemed as if it took us 12 hours to transit. Perhaps it is due to drastic tides that the transit has to take so long.	CONCORD NWS CALIFORNIA         Hey folks I happened to find a picture isn't that amazing. It seems someone has been in the business of pulling down photos of these historical areas.. I have never called on this station in my MSC years. This was like the KILAUEA'S home port when I was in the Navy. We spent a lot of time here either loading or unloading. The piers are designed in an oval configuration for the access of rail cars. After my 1st year in the Navy and aboard the KILAUEA when ever the ship was berthed in Concord  (actually Port Chicago) I would attend His Way Church. The church was founded by a Navy Chaplain and started out in a Bob's Big Boy restaurant. I really liked that crowd. They had been meeting in a South Western Bell Telephone maintenance barn when I first attended. They had like a co-op of shops around it. There was Jacob's Well where folks could get a meal listening to Gospel Music. The Chili was excellent and so was the coffee. When ever I wasn't off goofing around and not on duty I would volunteer my time to wash pots and help clean the place. It was a nice place to relax and read. We had some very talented singers in the church and even some talented musicians. A guy by the name of Bill Woods was the music minister. One year they produced a vinyl record album called HIS WAY SINGS. I have not been able to find a copy of this anywhere so if you are aware of anyone who might have a copy of it I would pay for a CD. One thing important about Concord NWS, no one was allowed to walk anywhere past the pier parking lot. The Marines guarding the base had orders to shoot anyone on sight. Rumor was that a guy from the USS SHASTA lost his life this way. The base was posted with signs warning folks that trespassing was prohibited and violators would be shot on site. The government just could not take the chance of some malcontent coming on the base and setting off an explosion. The only residents of the town after 1970 were cows.	ABU DHABI UAE     I had tried to keep this in some kind of alphabetical order but my mind just could not get things in order and it would be a pain to keep on moving items from one table to the other. Abu Dhabi is a port that I have only been to twice. The first time was during the first gulf war when I was aboard the WALTER S DIEHL. This place is the UAE's capital as well as an Emirate. One nice thing that I remember is that there would always be a pizza truck that would arrive right after the gangway ladder was secured to the pier. I really never got around Abu Dhabi that much. One year I was flying out of Dubai to spend part of my leave with my wife in the Philippines she had already flew there from the states. The Phil consulate was in Abu Dhabi so I had to take a cab with a few of the other guys from Dubai to go for my visa since the rules for US visitors had changed due to the base closures. Most of my experience was with Dubai. My nieces even had a cousin working at the Duty Free there.
APRA HARBOUR GUAM      This is the only deep water port for the Island Territory of Guam USA. There are different piers within the port. On the breakwater side is the commercial port which brings in consumer commodities and military supplies. The fuel pier sits right across the quay from  the commercial port. Further into the harbor and closest to what is called Marine Drive the Navy Supply Pier can be found. Entering the port on the Starboard side is the Ammo Pier. Each time I was on the KILAUEA both in the Navy and MSC the Ammo Pier was our dock. However in 1975 the first time I saw Guam we had gone to the fuel dock. I had never seen such a sight of pristine clear turquoise blue water. I would have to say that my first visit to Guam was the least boring. I really did not see much of the Island but I did visit some of the night spots. The most memorable was the club called the Korean Village. There was an all girl band playing there with the exception of the keyboard which was played by a guy. One of the girls came up to me and I sang one those romance songs that  Ray Price made into an easy listening tune. I sang the verse "Lay your head upon my shoulder".      I was a young single sailor back then and they were so very beautiful. In the 90's Guam was our home port for the forward deployed Fast Store ships. I was assigned to the SAN JOSE and the SPICA there. When these ships were regular Navy they were home ported in ports near major stateside Supply Centers all of these ships just like the KILAUEA carried sea knight helicopters. There were two sea knights per ship and en-route to Westpac the choppers would join the ships from a North Island NAS squadron. With the forward deployed ships the choppers now fly out from Anderson Air Base on Guam.  Now these are special animals because Navy families are never allowed to accompany the Tankers or special project ships. Now this may have changed since I left in 1998. There was a plan on the books that would eliminate the MILDEPT on all of our ships. I do not know if that took place. Most of our MSC supply types had gotten their experience in the regular Navy. I ran up my Sear's Credit Card over the months that I found myself on Guam. The bus out to Agana just was not convenient. When I did not want to go into town I would ride my bike to the Navy Exchange or to the Pizza Hut that was only 2 miles from the base.        Historically the Pan Am clipper seaplanes stopped at Guam for fuel on their way to Japan or Hong Kong. The facility  though no longer standing stood on the site of the base welfare and recreation yacht club. There is an historical marker at the spot. In the aerial photo you will notice a runway this was the site of a Naval Air Station at one time for propeller driven air craft. Occasionally a helicopter will land there. There had been a rumor of possibly reactivating the field and modernizing it but as of 1998 all naval air craft were flying out of Anderson  AB. In reality this was the only place on the Island where you could run a car over 50 miles per hour.	DUBAI UAE     There are a few Ports associated with Dubai. Jebel Ali and Mina Rashid are the two major ones. The picture is that of Port Rashid I had been in this port two times and since this is the one near downtown Dubai we have come to call it Dubai Port. The first time I arrived was during the first Gulf War aboard the USNS WALTER S DIEHL. The one thing that stands out in my first experience was the presence of a converted container ship that was hauling sheep for the local live stock markets. The sheep were boarded live at ports in Australia and New Zealand. This would later be a big controversy in Australia over the loss of sheep en-route to the gulf. Just like here in the US where live chickens are trucked to the processor and some are thrown off the truck on the way and die, so it was for live sheep on their way to the gulf some would die and be thrown overboard along the way. One year when transiting the Indian Ocean on the way to the gulf one of the ships I was on was 3 miles off the stern of one of the sheep haulers and we did see a trail of dead sheep in the calm waters. Dubai is more tolerant of westerners than other Arabian states. . It really was quite a scene, there were some Ro-Ro's in port with Army gear aboard. Under orders of Central Command and Comfithfleet  no enlisted personal were allowed outside of the port. Technically it applied to us but not effectively since we had Merchant Mariner Documents and the restriction did not apply to Merchant Mariners. The restriction was in place due to the fear of troops being attacked by Iraqi sympathizers . In that day Al Qaida  was not part of the vernacular. The other reason according to cab drivers was that an Italian sailor had become obnoxious with one of the locals and he was killed because of the provocation.	HAIFA ISRAEL     I have only been in this port in 1994 during my 2nd tour aboard USNS OBERVATION ISLAND. We came into the port for fuel , stores and a small repair period. Here I was in the Holy Land and my wife was on the other side of the planet in Hong Kong  with my daughter. Hey I found Pizza but just like the Arab states the pepperoni had to be made from beef. No pork here. After we finished with the fuel detail I went ashore and found a rental car agency and headed down to Jerusalem. Being a Christian and a general history buff I felt kind of a peace being in the land of Abraham and David. It was a nice drive. Haifa is just north of Tel Aviv. It is a multi lane highway running south but there are stop lights to contend with all the way to Tel Aviv . The highway is more like a freeway running the rest of the way to Jerusalem, much like Alaska 1 from Eagle River through Anchorage. I did not get out of my car except in Tel Aviv at a gas station to get a soft drink and some snacks. I did drive around in Jerusalem and tried to go to Bethlehem. I drove through a check point and after what I saw I decided it would be safer for me to go back the way I came. So I never did see the city of David. The next day after I returned the car I took a van taxi to a grocery and found that many of the items in the store had been imported from Canada vice the US. During my road trip returning to Haifa I had the fortune of giving a ride to a couple of weekend warriors. They dispelled some myths that had been reported in the American press about women in combat roles. Truth was all women in the Israeli military worked in support roles at that time.
FREEMANTLE, AUSTRALIA        I had the pleasure of visiting this port while aboard the WALTER S DIEHL on my second tour of that ship and also while I was on SPICA. I think that the last time I saw the port was in 1996. This is one of the ports that was involved in shipping live sheep to the Arabian Gulf in fact one of the sheep ships was there when we arrived. We had always heard the tale when I was in the regular Navy that girls would be waiting on the pier for the chance of meeting up with a sailor. I guess that the tale was not true. We saw no such thing in Townsville either. Sorry folks you will not find an Outback steak house here and they do not know what chicken on the barbie is. One thing that remains is that these people still love Americans and the help that we gave them during World War II . There is a train that runs from Freemantle to Perth proper and I took it being the tourist that I am. Perth is a good walking city much like down town San Diego. They do not call them Chevrolets in Australia they are called Vauxhauls and Burger Kings are called Hungry Jacks.  I liked the street preachers I heard and even spoke with one. Kind of ironic that Australia is sending missionaries to us when we are sending folks to them.  I did enjoy my visits there but forget about shopping after working hours it just is not going to happen. Just like Great Britain the unions have a strangle hold on the economy.	HAMILTON, BERMUDA      When on a cable layer and hurricanes abound Bermuda is the place to be. I was on the AEOLUS in 1981 when the ship came in to get out of bad weather. We docked here one night then moved over to St Georges the next day. There are two things you need to know about Bermuda. Never let the stacks blow black smoke (ouch that's what we did in St Georges) and never ever look back. Bermuda is not a tropical island it is considered to be in the temperate zone. It is 700 miles due east of Cape Hatteras North Carolina. The English who discovered the place ship wrecked here. They were not even looking for the place, they were trying to get to the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. They wound up living off of Sea 'Turkles' according to a journal of one of the survivors who made it back to England. They did manage to build a ship to get back to England but some of the folks stayed and it wound becoming one of those plantation outposts that the African slaves outnumbered the white owners.  The roads are narrow and have deadly curves hence do not look back. The most popular way of getting around is by Moped or Scooter.      There is only one natural aquifer or reservoir for the Island group so rain water is collected off the white painted roofs and runs into a cistern in the basement of the home, hence do not smoke black. Darn them boilers!	KEELUNG ,TAIWAN    I came to this port courtesy of USS KILAUEA on my final Navy WestPac in 1978. This is the only place where we could not have the ladies aboard the ship. They had to wait in the boat . I have very fond memories of Keelung because I was single and the ladies were kind of loose. There was an embassy compound in Taipei where the center of activity for Military folks took place. This was considered to be an R&R port. A young lady had made friends with me at the China Seas club in the compound and I invited her in. She paid for every thing, the  drinks and even the slot machines. She was a very beautiful girl and if I could have gotten away with it I would have smuggled her in my sea bag back to the states. But that was 12 years before I met my current wife. One of the fears that the local officials had was that the girls were working as spies for the Red Chinese. I have never been back there thanks to Jimmy Carter so I do not know how things are there now. Back then there was a big GM plant along the highway from Keelung to Taipei and our route took us along the perimeter of the Taipei airport , there were anti aircraft guns in towers all along the fence line. If you wanted a Chilton book you could get it for 1/4 the price in Keelung but just try to take it  back into the states. You could even get US NAVY tech manuals there, wonder who was supplying the originals since those books are classified.   I almost married one of those girls. She called herself Maria. I had to call it off though.
NAS ALAMEDA CALIFORNIA    In early 1975 after we had left Mare Island we came to Alameda for a couple of weeks aboard the USS KILAUEA I never berthed here while sailing with MSC. The SAN JOSE returned from Westpac the day that we moored here. One of the Nuke Carriers came in here one time and we could not get back to the ship because they were taking on Nuclear fuel or they were transferring special weapons to us. We could not return to the ship until about 0600 so no sleep that night. Alameda is in close proximity to Oakland so I would take the city bus to downtown to catch the movies and go to the local USO. I was the minority in Oakland, I had come from a small town in New York before joining the Navy and I had never seen so many black folk in all my life. I missed that old theatre in the 90's when I returned to that area. I think the one I went to was called the Roxie and they sold pizza in the window outside of the theater. The downtown theaters just could not compete with the multi screen jobs opening at the malls . The Navy used run passenger planes out of Alameda between Pearl and San Diego. You can find a write up about it on Wikipedia I believe.	MANILA PHILIPPINES      This really is not the picture I would have used  but it seems that nothing survives of the personal pictures that I took whenever I was in Manila. The first time I came to Manila was aboard USS KILAUEA  in 1975. Manila just like Hong Kong and Keelung was an anchorage port. We were always by nature in Quarantine for the nature of our cargo. Now back in the Navy days we would take one of our own boats to a short fleet landing near the Embassy. I can recall Manila only in 1975 for the USS KILAUEA during the Navy days. I do believe that when the USNS NAVASOTA returned from the I.O. in 1980  that we called on Manila prior to berthing at Subic. I know that Manila was a port call for the USNS GUADALUPE and I had rejoined the USNS SAN JOSE in Manila after burying my wife's Mom in Cebu in 1996. My wife and I were actually on the same plane into Manila. She would fly back to the states few days after SAN JOSE set sail.  I had only been with the SAN JOSE about 2 weeks when I got the word about Mama's death. Thing about it was that we had visited there just a few months before.  But my wife and I used to live in Manila and we still had family there. I think it was while on the GUADALUPE that my nephew Ryan, my niece Jennifer and Brother in Law Jose came to visit the ship with me.  Ryan got sick on the way back because a Typhoon was starting to brew in the South China Sea and the waves were starting to build. I had Cruise Jackets made for my wife and daughter while we there on the GUADALUPE.	NAS NORTH ISLAND CALIFORNIA     North Island started out as an Army Air Corp Field and it serves the distinction of being an historical back drop for Naval Aviation. North Island not only berths Air Craft Carriers sorry that was not the ENTERPRISE in the Voyage Home of Star Trek fame that you saw supposedly in Alameda rather it was the USS RANGER berthed at North Island . North Island has two berths central to the ships that I have have been on that berthed there. First is the ammo pier that we on the USS KILAUEA would berth at when servicing the Naval Magazine. And another  berth at North Island to wait for the fuel dock to open up across the sound. The KILAUEA had berthed at this pier whenever it was not at the ammo pier. This is where we would have a barge deliver us fuel. We would berth at North Island when ever we came down to San Diego except when it anchored out to conduct REFTRA drills in 1975. It was the RAPPAHANACK that had to wait for the fuel berth to open and I believe that I was there in 1995. I did not think the liberty was all that great there in the 70's and in the 90's it was better to be berthed at the Broadway Supply Pier. There had always been way to much walking involved  getting off the NAS. I do not recall during my Navy years ever berthing at the 32nd street Complex but I may be wrong.
MARE ISLAND ,CALIFORNIA    This photo is a little bit large. This is a little bit of Google Earth magic since I have no photos that survive the period I spent there. This is where I first joined the USS KILAUEA AE-26 in 1974. The place was kind of crazy. Who would of thought that you could see a girl going topless in a Navy Club but that's one of the things I saw back then. That was one of those corrupting influences of the Navy life. I broke my arm riding a bike off this base ,the spot will be shown on the aerial page. This is another place we berthed at when we were not handling ammo. Now right across that dock is where the old USS HECTOR AR-7 was tied up at. Hector had a hospital and a dentist. I was sent there for a dental work up the first week I was aboard . It was also where I went for my broken arm to be set. There really was not much that went on at Mare Island it was more or less a place where the ships came in for repair availabilities and San Francisco Bay berth rotations.  When ever I was here I either caught the slow local Greyhound to Oakland or San Francisco but when I got involved with HIS WAY I always managed to catch rides to and from Concord.   Concord was only about 25 miles away. Needless to say out side of boot camp this is where my Naval career started.	NORFOLK, VIRGINIA   I never saw Norfolk during my enlistment, I was strictly a west coast sailor then. On the other hand Norfolk was a port of call during the later 2 of my employments with Military Sealift Command- Pacific. All three of the special project ships I had been on came to Norfolk at one time or the other. The first ship was the USNS AEOLUS T-ARC 3 which I had flown to Norfolk to meet but wound up going to Cheatham Annex to board. We did however berth at the N.O.B on occasion. The other two ships were the USNS MIZAR T-AGOR 11 and USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND T-AGM 23.  I served aboard AEOLUS in 1981, the MIZAR in 1989 and while I was aboard O.I. in 1994 we berthed at Norfolk for a short time before proceeding out to the Med.   In 1981 I took advantage of the time at N.O.B to play tourist and so I took the Hampton Roads boat tour and went to see the board walk at Virginia Beach. To much has changed since those first days. I had taken my wife and kids on a trip to Norfolk in 2007 on our US HERITAGE tour.We saw the Battle Ship Wisconsin which was berthed at the Naval Museum  and I took them on the boat tour once again. Virginia Beach however had changed so much that we could not see the board walk with all of it's tourist traps anymore. There were just to many high rise Condo's and Resort Hotels that had built on the water front.	NEWINGTON. NEW HAMPSHIRE   Twice while I was aboard USNS AEOLUS.I saw this berth at Simplex Wire and Cable up the river from Portsmouth Navy Yard. This is where we would come to load cable or discharge cable for the SOSUS program one of those nice little secrets that the traitor Warrant Officer  Walker sold to the Soviets. Most of the switch gear aboard the ship had been designed by an Electrical Engineer named Bill Clews. I actually got to have lunch with him at the Mall which was just less than a mile from the facility.  This was in 1981, Being the tourist that I am I had to see the sights so I went and saw the Cabella's store in Kittery Maine and I took the tours of the Portsmouth Harbor and even went out and saw an Island owned by the Congregational Church. I met a young lady that was studying to be a lawyer at Brown University. The name has slipped my memory. All the pictures I had of those days were lost long ago. And this  is why again we are looking at an Aerial Shot . It seems that no one finds the Newington Port glamorous enough to take a picture of so all that basically exists is of Portsmouth itself. One night while there I took a cab out to get some pizza . I think we went about four miles to find one. I had gone inside to order and I have to say that I was rather embarrassed , There was this girl that could not have been anymore than 15 years old in the store with nothing but a fishnet top on. This is one of those things that sticks with you. She said  "you'll have to  excuse my uniform, I've been playing softball". Mean while it was hard to do business with the ladies behind the counter and all the young guys were staring at her..
NSC OAKLAND CA        This is the result of BRAC run amok. There is absolutely nothing remaining that would identify this as NSC OAKLAND what is even more frustrating is that there are no archive photos anywhere on the net showing the seaward approach to the piers. When  looking at the closer aerial shot one can only guess where our piers were and it would seem the entire wharf area was filled in to make a wetland and park. This is the most irresponsible use of military real estate I have ever seen. The KILAUEA berthed here when I was in the Navy for a couple of days while we were waiting to berth at NAS ALAMEDA back in 1975. I joined the USNS MARS Circa 1993 at NSC OAKLAND also while aboard USNS OBSERVATION ISLAND in 1991 we called at Oakland prior to my departing the ship in San Diego.            When I was in the Navy NSC OAKLAND was not considered a happening place. We would catch the bus over to Treasure Island which had the liveliest EM club in the whole bay area or head to Oakland City Center or to Market Street in San Francisco where we could catch a movie or hang out at the USO. Of course Military Sealift Command Pacific  had it's home at NSC OAKLAND. Every day if I was not on leave or assigned to a ship I was required to be on hand in what we called the pool at Building 310 which is where the HQ was. Most of us would have preferred to sit at home and have them detail us to our assignments rather than sit there. It was not until 1990 that MSC started to fully compensate CIVMARS for lodging and meals while waiting for our assignments. The folks who lived within 50 miles of Building 310 were not entitled to that compensation. MSCPAC CIVMARS have homes all over the world. Many lived in the Philippines , a few in Japan, a couple in Guam, maybe one or two in South Korea. We could have folks from every state in the Union. Where ever the guys were from one thing was certain, we wanted nothing to do with MSCLANT even for those living on the eastern seaboard the preference was the Pacific command. Ninety percent of MSCPAC ships were deployed to the Far East which worked out better for those of us who wanted a good time ashore.	NAPLES ITALY       Veal Parmesan anyone? Mom got kind of defensive when I told her that this local food did not come loaded with onions and peppers and it was not one of those processed ground meat type of dishes either . I found this meal at USS Naples which is a service club for merchant mariners. I was on the OBSERVATION ISLAND in 1994 when we called on Naples. We had come in to take on fuel and spend the weekend. Do not try to order the Pepperoni Pizza here that you are so used to in the US what you will get is a pizza full of peppers and not much else. While I was enjoying myself here my wife was in Hong Kong visiting with our relatives there. Of course you gotta see Rome. I took the train to Roma and arrived late in the afternoon. I found a rather reasonable hotel and spent the night and took the tour first thing in the morning. The TV was kind of strange, there was only one channel that they were showing and it kept on repeating a rather   risqué commercial of a lady putting on pantyhose.     I saw quite a lot on that tour. We got to go by the  coliseum , the Trevi fountain, the circus maximus and of course the Vatican. A word to wise never ever take a tripod with you to take pictures at the vatican my interest as a Baptist was not religious but I wanted to do a study of the architecture. The Swiss Guards kind of freak out when someone sets up a tripod after someone tried to assassinate the former Pope. Need to fill up the car with gas? You need only pull up on the sidewalk. That's right no provision had been made for an off street pull off. Incidentally Naples proved to be the most dangerous place in the world that I know of for crossing the street.	PATTAYA BEACH THAILAND  Pattaya is not really a port, however it owes it's existence totally to the need for US Service Men to have a place for rest and recreation from the early days of the Viet Nam conflict. In 1952 there were perhaps a total of 52 families plying their efforts at fishing. Now it is one of Thailand's premier Beach Resorts and a huge metropolis in it's own right. Pattaya is a political subdivision of the province of Chonburi. The prevailing religion is Budism. My first experience with Pattaya came after the 1979 Hostage Crisis while I was aboard the USNS NAVASOTA. I would then see it again two more times. The USNS WALTER S DIEHL  called at Pattaya after supporting operation Desert Storm in 1991. I think that the next time I saw Pattaya would be while I was aboard USNS GUADALUPE. You will notice the speed boats lined up at the shore line. These fast craft not only serve the tourist trade but also ferry crew members from ship to shore.  There was a standing order from the THAI ADMIRALTY that whenever US SHIPS called that hotels had to provide a lodging discount. So we would pay usually no more than $28.00 US for a 5 star hotel room that would normally run $100.00 plus stateside. It may seem to the average observer that Pattaya is like any beach resort town in the US. If you assumed so you stand corrected because Pattaya never allowed building on the beach itself , hotels had to build on the land side of the road allowing total public access of the beach. It is unfortunate but Pattaya got hit by the great Tsunami . Now for all those that are reluctant to pledge allegiance to the  flag of the United States of America and think that you have that right do not presume that you have that same liberty when visiting Thailand. When you go to watch a movie there is a short trailer in which you must stand to honor the King failure to do so even for foreigners is a crime in Thailand. It is a shame that we no longer require the salute to the Star Spangled banner in movie theaters here in the US.  Back in the day when electrician mates and IC electricians had the duty we had to start off with the Star Spangled banner with the nights first movie. I have not seen that practice in our theaters since I was a child. However I did see it in the Philippines and Canada .      The last time I saw Pattaya there was a crazy 50'ish European Lady walking down the strand with it all hanging out for the world to see. While Pattaya is a place where young ladies seek the company of men and vice a versa they would never expose themselves like this in Public.
PORTLAND OREGON      I saw Portland on only one ship and that was during my third employment with Military Sealift Command. I was aboard USNS KAWISHIWI at that time and we had come to Portland to enter the Swann Island Ship Yard on the south side of the River. Portland did not prove to be one of those tourist trap towns like Seattle or San Francisco. While in the shipyard I would spend my free time going to the local mall in Jentzen Beach. I had gone on one date there with a girl I  met in a cafe, this is before I met my wife . The girl was kind of flakey so not much became of it. I did get around to see the sights including Mt St Helens. This occurred in early 1990. The NEPTUNE  was in the yard at the time so I went over to visit Chief Engineer Tommy Thompson who had been my CHENG aboard USNS MIZAR. Tommy died a few months later according to news that I received.	PHUKET BEACH THAILAND     When we talk about Phuket what we really mean is Patong Beach because that is where the entertainment is. However the movie theaters are in Phuket Proper. When visiting Patong we would anchor off of Phuket and take a bus down to Patong which was always arranged by a ship agent contracted with Military Sealift. I only got to see this place when I was aboard the USNS PECOS and I was not aboard that ship very long before I would have to go home and attend to the birth of my son. For all intensive purposes Patong was much like Pattaya. One of the Bond girls was from Patong  or at least she looked like it. I have a thing for faces, I may not remember their names but once I see them I remember their face. When  transiting the coast to Phuket the islands used as a back drop in the Bond Film Man with the Golden Gun become quite  recognizable . The particular Island in question was actually named James Bond island in order to boost the tourist trade.