RECOLLECTIONS

Chester Hill 1988

“STRANGE SIGHTS IN NEW GUINEA WATERS.”

I don’t remember just where we were – except in those warm, exotic, equatorial seas – or what our mission was at the time. It was midday, bright sun almost overhead, and quiet seas. Hot as blazes, as usual in those months in the USS Swanson. There ahead of us, really almost underfoot by then, a lookout spotted them. What is the word for literally dozens of huge snakes swimming in formation in a synchronized undulation many miles from land in the briny deep? For want of the proper word I’ll just call them a whole regiment of SEA SNAKES. They were brilliantly colored in a fantastic collection of every color you can image. They were long creatures – I would estimate 18 to 20 feet judging by our 34 foot beam. They were swimming with heads out of the water, and as we passed through their ranks they opened their huge mouths wide and we felt they were they were hissing at us, but I will not embellish this tale to claim that we could actually hear them, which we could not. If the sight had not been so fantastically eerie it would have been nothing short of beautiful. AH, New Guinea!

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RECOLLECTION

Jack Sloan 1986

“JAPANESE OCCUPATION CURRENCY FOR AUSTRALIA”

In February 1944 shortly after our arrival in Buna, New Guinea, two of our officers went ashore and obtained captured Japanese souvenirs for our crew. The Japanese had prepared for the occupation of Australia by stock piling warehouses in New Guinea with Japanese occupation currency for Australia, along with an ample stock of condoms (small size), propaganda leaflets aimed at American troops. The leaflets were very crude, vulgar and intended to destroy the morale of American service men. We were amused and enjoyed reading the leaflets!