Jack Sloan 1986
“A RARE TREAT”
It was a rare treat for us to see a “Movie”. I believe it was shortly after the Hollandia invasion we were anchored overnight about five miles off the New Guinea coast at the mouth of a small river, with our troops on the western side and the Japanese troops on the eastern side of the river. We had received a “Wild Western” movie, which was to be shown topside on the FO’C’S’LE at dusk.
The crew gathered and Jerry Asble SC1c strummed his Guitar for us while we were waiting for the movie to start. No sooner had the movie started, when an artillery duel broke out between the Japanese and our troops along the river. No one was interested in the real live artillery duel raging before us but we sure wanted to watch the “shoot-em-up” movie! After about an hour the firing ashore ceased and we sailed bright and early the next morning to resume to the war.
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“My oil tank runneth over. “
An incident that gave us a few chuckles in 1944 while at sea off the New Guinea coast was the time while fueling alongside a tanker a fuel line came out of the fuel tank in the forward mess hall.
An exasperated Chief was standing ankle deep in oil with his crew using rags, trying to mop up the oil. Our Chief Electrician Mate came part way down the ladder into the mess hall and said: “Whats the matter Burton you spill a little oil?” and with that he hastily departed from the area because if he had stuck around he would have been used as a mop to pick up the oil!