schmoozit said:
Semper Fi, bro.
Still hanging here after becoming a sillyvilian again. Love it. I got here a little later than you; Jan. '89. Haven't been "home" yet either, except for a couple vacations. I've lived here darn near half my life now.
Hmmm. NIS? Oh wait, they changed the name. NCIS? Those was the only civilian employees near where *I* was. Except for Special Services and the guys at AFRTS and the PX, but they were mostly dependents at the PX.
I worked and lived right where you did. The same base theatre is still in use. I took the family to watch Nemo there, in fact. I was a desk-jockey with 1st MAW, but at the Headquaters and Group levels, so I lived and worked on Foster and Butler. I never worked on Futenma, but had to go there quite a lot.
Swing with the Wing, as we used to say! I was 3rd FSSG, but FAP'd over to MP Bn, MCB Camp Butler (Foster & Butler, never understood the difference). I used to eat chow over at Kadena, though, much better mess facilities. And watch the Habu come in. You could always tell when the super-secret SR-71 was going to land at Kadena AB. The Okinawan civilians would be lining the road for miles with their Nikons and long telephoto lenses and tripods. They loved that plane, and they got the word long before we did.
I used to stand gate duty at Futenma. Once, I got called to stop a loud party on base - turned out to be a 'wet down' party - buncha officers shooting bottle rockets at each other. That was a lotta fun, I can tell ya. Corporal of Marines trying to tell Captains, Majors, and Light Birds what to do. I gotta .45, and they're shooting bottle rockets at me, drunk as hell. I finally called my Provost, who called their OOD, and that was that.
I also got called once in the middle of the night - a C5 landed at Futenma. Not supposed to be able to do that - landing strip wasn't long enough. They had something on board that was designated 'vital to national security'. They issued us Remington sawed off shotguns and instructions to shoot & kill anyone who crossed the field towards the plane except the CG of the base - no challenge, no nothing - just aim and fire. We stood in a circle around that bird all night. In the morning, the CG showed up and supervised them strapping JATO rockets to the side of the thing. Ever see a C5 Galaxy take off with JATO rockets? What a sight! Seems to defy the laws of physics - this huge slow thing rising nearly straight up in the air.
I lived & worked at the PMO, behind the Field House, across from the Base Theater. I suppose it is still there?
Yup. The Okinawans are crazy. They are so used to typhoons that it takes a hellatiously strong one to get them to stay indoors.
It was all I could do to keep the JSG's from putting cans of beenie-weenie in the microwave to watch the sparks fly off the can. Tok-san Ba-ka.
Beeru, O kudasai! Tak-san beeru! Gate Two street, Kitamae town, what a time.
Oh yeah! You're right, cinder blocks with steel reinforcements are most common. Though, many, many, people now just have their houses made completely from poured concrete.
Missed out on that innovation...but the roads were paved of tarmac made with crushed coral - very slick in the rain! And the roads wrapped around the turtle-back graves and shrines - can't move them! And the big mirrors mounted on street corners so you could see around 'em! I drove a big green 1978 Plymouth Fury III with a 440 engine and a police pursuit package and standard (US) left-hand drive on Okinawan streets. Hah! Used to get challenged by the local teens (they all wanted to be Elvis back then) in their Fairlady Z's - at stoplights, I'd suck their headlights out. Big raw American power. Ug!
Take it easy, and let me know if you need anything from the "Rock".
Brent
About the only thing I miss from das rock is the Audio Sale they used to have at the Field House once a year. Bought my Luxman amp, Teac tape deck, and AR speakers there - still have 'em. But the Yen was 350 to the dollar - things were dirt cheap over there.
I was part of the security detail for Cheap Trick when they came over with the USO. Also Happy Days crew (minus Henry Winkler). Pablo Cruise, Kansas, and so on. Those were fun days. I started a riot by getting in a fight at the Field House with some body builder jarhead who would not put out his cigarette - Bun E. Carlos stopped the show and pointed me out wrestling with this dude - thought it was the funniest thing ever that he was swinging me around like a whip. He was a nice guy, though.
We all had mama-sans who did our uniforms, that was nice. I think it was $3 a week. And a guy came by all the time with pictures of suits and cloth swatches, he had suits made to order and delivered them - $100. I had a bunch of them made in the 18 months I was there, but I weighed 165 then. Now I weigh 275. Sigh.
Thanks again for the memories - I have to get some of my old photos out and scan them - good times!
Semper Fi,
Bill Mattocks
