Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, and Mallorca are all islands. Add in the deployments to Key West, Puerto Rico, and the Azores, Crew LK-10 has been to seven Islands in less that three years. Yes there is magic in being on an island!
A strange event occurred while we were in Decimomannu, Sardina. The Navy in all its wisdom, transferred AE3 Curtis Lambert to the LST USS Alameda County. LST stands for landing ship tank. The tank bay can be configured to sleep 1000's of troops. An LST is the ship you see in the movies where the Army and Marine guys are running off the ship through the surf and onto the invasion beach. Now why would an aircraft electrician be ordered to duty on a ship with no airplanes? Walking up the gangplank and trying to remember what you are supposed to do and say when when reporting to a ship? It's been almost three years since we were taught that in boot camp! The saluting the flag on the aft end of the ship part is easy and remembering what to say to the duty officer is more challenging. In the movies they say, "Reporting as ordered" and that worked just fine. The guy's immediate reaction is, "What are they sending you here for?" "I have no idea but here are the orders." Clearly they don't know what to do with an aircraft electrician. Personnel issues me a chow hall pass for food and some bunk linen for a bed in the troop bunk compartment. There's only person sleeping in the cavernous tank/troop bay. It's lonely down there! Nothing to do day or night, no one to talk to, boring! No duties are assigned. Thankfully. Sure don't want to spend time chipping paint and polishing floors! Those are the Navy stand byes when they don't know what to do with you. Three or four days and nights there seem like three months. Within a week new orders arrive transferring me back to VP-26. Surely a clerk some where thought an AE3 was the same thing as an EM3 ship electrician.
Souda Bay, Crete was interesting. The airfield was high in the mountains with no food facilities. At meal time we would climb into the load end of dump trucks and the driver would drive us down the steep road through a village to where we would eat. On
the drive back we'd be standing in the back throwing candy and food items to the kids in the village. Again, just like in the movies! Each night on the way back to the airfield, the only electric light in the village was one hanging over the roadway in the village center. Of course this is 1961. Very different from living in the US.
Sigonella, Sicily seemed to be more developed than Crete and Sardinia. Although we were at an airfield we could visit the city when we weren't working. Sigonella seemed pretty Italian to us.
Lisbon, Portugal was a BIG city with all the city things to do.
We don't speak Portuguese but get along fine with some help!
Palma, Mallorca is a European vacation destination. Tourists everywhere and most of them speak English. What a treat that is! To be able to easily converse with people. Many vacationers were from the United Kingdom making conversing even easier. Plus you even recognized the food they put on your plate in the restaurants! We spent a wonderful two weeks there. Wonderful because we didn't fly much, the plane didn't have maintenance issues, and it was easy for us to find our way around the city and have fun.
Frankfort, Germany was so much like the United States. The stores were filled with merchandise and with well dressed shoppers spending money, eating good food, talking, happy, and with friendly smiling faces. My favorite thing about Germany was the bratwurst stands on every corner! Absolutely great taste with German mustard piled on top. Don't forget the beerhalls! Of course, we Americans couldn't keep up with those German beer drinkers!
In four months we are back in Brunswick, Maine and I'm eligible to take the written test for AE2 (E5). The Navy is winding down in 1961 and not everyone who passes the test gets promoted. Memories of not being promoted to AE3 on my first test motivated me to study, study, study for the exam. Don't just pass it, kill it! Sure enough that works and I'm promoted to AE2 on NOV 16, 1961. The only problem is my enlistment is up August 18, 1961.
Re-enlistment gets me advanced to AE2 and propay in Nov 1961. That's about $120 a month more money to a total of over $420. It's sure different than it was three years and three months ago. Now I'm the experienced AE2 who trains everyone else, the guys who trained me are all gone. Either transferred or discharged. Amazing!
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