Sea Stories

Kenehoe Bay
We had lost our shiney new Navy LT. It was dark already. I was standing on the hood of the jeep next to Chief Towbar. He was instructing me on the plan like he was calling a play. He was saying "Hobson you have one job right now. It needs to be done and we need to get out of here." He shoved me up and through the louvered window of the hanger and I sort of slid down the wall on the inside. There was a catwalk overhead where the SGT of the watch kept his office. I waited in the dark for a minute to make sure I had not been noticed. There were several motors in this space but only one was still spewing oil. That's mine. I slid under the rack and quickly sniped the safety wire on the main fuel control linkage and worked the bolt that secured the device. It took just a minute and was done.

Now I have to get out. I was stacking pallets end on end to climb up to the window. "I was wondering when you would be back" he said, as I froze in the dark. It was the SGT. He gave me a thumbs up and I realized this was not an ordinary Marine. I scrambled up my makeshift ladder out the window and away. I'm thinking now he probably left that window open for us. Orders had prohibited his being able to give us the part we needed, however he didn't mind at all if we took it.