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Sven Graduates from Fort Monmouth

Cont'd from stories 11

    Sven returned to Fort Monmouth for a time after spending a week with family and girlfriend back home. Sven was recuperating from the hernia surgery and his girlfriend was happily recovering  from having her appendix out.

While waiting for orders at Fort Monmouth, Sven worked out on a speed bag outside the day room. 6 foot 4 inch Sven got his timing down pretty good on the bag and mastered the two hand bobbity, bobbity, bobbity, sequence.

    Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, now is

where Sven would get additional training. It was  early Fall of 1949 and touch football was a pastime after school. There was a girl's  college not far away so many chose to see what connections they could make there. Sven was not inclined to pursue the opposite sex away from home. Thoughts of his girlfriend kept his mind from wondering. Sven wrote to her religiously.

    About halfway through the schooling, a Lieutenant came to Sven's barracks requesting a volunteer for  baby sitting. Sven jumped at the chance to make a few easy bucks. Sven got a ride with the Lieutenant off base for the job. The baby slept and didn't let out a peep the whole time so everything went well. The Lieutenant then took Sven back to camp where he saw smoke coming out of the barracks window on the lower level. Sven ran to the barracks and yelled FIRE while the Lieutenant called the fire department. The barracks emptied quickly with naked to blanket wrapped sleepy heads stumbling out of the barracks. Some guy had fallen asleep with a lit cigarette in bed. The smoldering mattress was pulled outside through a window and extinguished.

    Upon completion of special training, The class got orders to report to Vint Hill Farms, Virginia. It was Fall and most of the guys were ordered to rake leaves at VHF. The one story barracks were pretty dumpy. Sven and a friend, Bill, checked out pump shotguns, shells and clay pigeons from Special Services and proceeded to blast away while at the range. They took turns loading and releasing clay pigeons. After about an hour of shooting, the result was sore shoulders.

    The group was gathered and given three selections of ASA sites they would prefer to work in around the world. Sven chose 1 Asmara, 2 Japan and 3 Germany. He got Japan.  Sven had more furlough time so he took the train to Minneapolis, It was nearing Christmas and standing room only for hundreds of miles on the train.   From Chicago Sven got some sleep in a seat. He arrived about midnight in Minneapolis. After a few days home, Sven flew to Portland, Oregon, then took a train and hopped a truck with other ASAers, ending up in The Presidio in California.

    Next was a bus ride to Petaluma, CA  to stay over at The Two Rock Ranch, an ASA station. The mess hall was like a cafeteria style restaurant. Double rations were available and all the food was excellent. Sven put on a few pounds there. One night Sven and another guy decided to hitch hike to San Francisco. They got a ride on the back of a truck transporting chickens. When they got to Frisco they brushed the feathers off each other and went their separate ways. Sven got discouraged and decided to go back to camp. He returned to Two Rock on a bus about 9:00 PM.

    After three weeks at Two Rock the group was bussed to....well, to shorten the story, the group ended up on the Daniel I. Sultan troop ship. Sven got a lower bunk, above the screws (propellers) in the fantail of the ship. The bunks were 3 high. The first night out, sailing up the coast to Seattle, was a sleepless one.

    The vibration of the rotating screw shafts, the dense smell of diesel oil and trying to sleep in a canvas bunk was not conducive to getting a comfortable sleep. The food was good and there were few sicknesses while sailing up the coast.  That would not last. Sven and the  others got to go on deck while coming in to Seattle. That night, special services and the USO put on a show for the troops. Sven, Mr. dull that he was, elected not to go to the show. The next day, the Sultan cruised back out into open seas.

    Seattle was having a huge snowstorm so all hands were below deck. The seas were starting to get rough and The sicknesses were abundant. 30 gallon garbage cans got a lot of the barf but the decks did too. Cleanup crews were quickly assembled. As the ship got into heavier seas, the ship rolled back and forth while pitching up and down, fore to aft. Sven was getting very sick. He got up on the poop deck and hung himself over the rail for awhile. On the down roll he came about ten feet from the water. On the up roll he was about 15 feet above the turbulent surface.

    The first day out, everyone got lifesaver drill. It was fun to watch whales spouting and the porpoises doing their thing. Sven and others were a little wobbly but they made it back to their bunks. One guy had thought ahead and purchased sea sickness pills. He was selling them for a good price. Gambling was a popular pastime for some. One night, as the ship rolled and pitched, Sven was on his stomach in his bunk. The motion precipitated an eruption. With a quick trip to the head, clean shorts in hand to put on, Sven got back to his bunk without anyone knowing what had happened. Sven would never forget his first lover, a canvas bunk.

    On another night, The guy in the top bunk unloaded and the splash caught Sven in his bunk. Barf smells had long overtaken the diesel smells. trips to the mess hall were getting more chancy. Sven was getting weaker day by day and could not keep food down. He sat down with his tray of food in the mess and the guy next to him let go in his own tray. Sven stuffed a few hard edibles in his pocket and headed back to his bunk. A good day in the mess hall was very infrequent.

    With 20 foot seas, Sven made his way to the ships bow and rode the ship up and down. The sea spray tended to help him feel better. Watching the rough seas was better than being below deck and losing reference points for staying upright. Sven and two others were given the task of carrying Coke syrup to the machines on the upper decks where the officers and families resided.  Carrying four gallon cans per box was tough going up the steps on the rolling upstroke but light on the rolling downstroke of the ship.

    Three days out from Yokohama, Sven had the dry heaves and got to a bunk more amid ship where the pitching was minimal. Sven was losing the weight he had put on at Two Rock. He wasn't alone. There were many sickos yearning to keep food down if they could put it in to begin with. About 20 miles out from Yokohama, a Destroyer escort appeared.  Its decks were completely awash. After docking and inhaling the port smells at Yokohama, it was time to disembark. Sven barely made it down the gangplank with his duffle bag.

    A bus ride to Tokyo got the ASA group to The Arsenal where they would bunk while awaiting further orders. The mess hall there was not moving and there were waitresses. Sven and others watched a guy from St. Paul, MN get the waitresses  giggling so hard that one of them wet her undies, Sven found out later. He wondered why she had run  out of the hall with a scream. That night the group got to the bar on an upper floor. The building had an elevator. Sven had not had hard liquor but wanted to try something after the rough voyage. He had a Gin fizz.

    Pause for a finger down the throat. Sven would not become a poster boy for the ASA booze squad. The group got marched to several badly bombed out buildings to view the destruction from WW2. A few more days passed and the group got split up. Half were to stay in Tokyo and the rest to go to Camp Stafford in Fushimi Momoyama. Sven would be going to Camp Stafford.  The Fushimi group boarded a train one morning, then arrived in Kyoto late at night. The group then got bussed to Camp Stafford around midnight.

    The group bunked in a temporary setup in a building housing an Amateur Radio station and Photo Lab. In a day or so, the group would be intercepting their first searched out signals and would move to the main barracks.    That folks is where we'll leave Sven to his duties and a bright future of monk like living.

END