(Army 23) Where was I on October 7, 1945?

I was on a LST in the eastern part of the West China Sea off the coast of Okinawa. I remembered that when I left Okinawa that the loading of our LST was interrupted by a huge typhoon. When I googled the typhoon I learned how big it was and that it was named Typhoon Louise. And the date that it hit Okinawa. And the terrible damage that it did.  Check this link for my blog about Louise and the old prunepicker. LST Rides Also included in this story is the tale of a long LST ride across the Pacific.

After Louise blew by we returned to the beach and finished loading our LST. Then we sailed for Inchon, Korea. We moved inland to the edge of Seoul. We were based in the large well built buildings of a school for boys. There was a large auditorium that we used for a mess hall. Our barracks were large classrooms. The toilet was a room lined with cement ditches filled with running water. It required crouching.

One of the jobs that I did in Korea was going to downtown Seoul and installing sit-down toilets over slits in the floors. We built the sit-down toilets out of wood. This was in modern office buildings. These buildings were being used for the offices of the Army Command. Officers do not like crouching to go to the toilet, either.

One time I was standing guard in a square in Seoul. I visited with boy my age (20). He could not believe that I had owned a car before going in the Army

One time I attended a concert of Korean music by the Royal Orchestra. It was in a fancy theatre downtown. The seats were small and very uncomfortable. I did not like the music.

This is when I started to drink coffee. I would come in from work in the cold and the only drink served with the evening meal was coffee. I started with half coffee and half milk. I was several years weaning myself to black coffee.

I can remember walking sentry duty. In an upstair room officers and nurses were a having a jolly party. I remember that the Les Brown recording of Sentimental Journey was playing.

At this time a lot of my time was devoted to a point system. This was a system to discharge the large numbers of military people in a fair and logical way. Before we left Okinawa all people with 85 or more points were pulled out of their units and sent home for discharge. I had 64 points. I watched all the news. I was ready to go home. You received a point for every month in the service, a point for every month overseas, 5 points for a combat landing, 5 points for every battle served in, and 5 points for service medals. My Purple Heart was worth 5 points.

Every week the points required to go home dropped. I was soon at the top of the list.

Pretty fancy place. There was even a large swimming pool.