That's really odd about Sasebo and formaldehyde, are you
sure you guys didn't #### someone off?
We had "green beer" in Subic and Chinhae/Ginhae but Sasebo had really clean water. A while back I wrote about Asahi beer torpedos from the vending machines and screwed something up, they were
5 liter behemoths of woe in a thin aluminum bottle.
Anyway, the best deal in Sasebo was the "steak 'n tater" dinner at the (sit down) EM club. That was where I learned how to grill the Japanese way and it was something like $7.50 for a Kobe strip steak, baked tater, and the veggie of the day. Otherwise, there was a really large fish market on the pier just down from the base and we'd set up "day after duty" where one or two guys would bike down to the market to grab some fresh-caught and cleaned squid while the rest of us got the beer on ice and the grill ready.
Just outside the main gate there is a park. If you hiked around it, there was this small cinderblock building that was painted green. It was where the IJN planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and the town and USN kept it intact, kinda like a memorial to really bad ideas.
One of the coolest things about Sasebo (aside from my almost-fiancée) was that the inner harbor used to be the world's largest dry dock.
There's also a really cool Shinto shrine just outside of town at the top of a small mountain. We used to ride up then head back down and see who could melt their brake pads.
Back in Pearl, yep, I did my time on the hill back when we decommed the Barbel. The thing about the high rise was that the rooms were limited to one or only two guys to a room and if your room was on the fifth floor or above, there was always a nice breeze.
BTW, if the guy in charge of the high rise was still Master Chief Hale, that was my first COB.
Really great guy to work for, especially if you're an official short timer with diesel boat fish.
COB had joined the Navy "sometime" in the 1950's and he knew where ALL the bodies were buried in WESTPAC, a really powerful ally if he was on your side.
Chinhae/Ginhae- Yeah, there really were snipers in the hills around the base and they were the good guys.
The one thing you
had to do in Chinhae was get a haircut on base. A Korea massage is like getting mugged back in CONUS, it feels good after they stop.
Somewhere, I still have a photo of the Chinhae "do not pick your nose" pictograph sign from on base. It was actually meant for Korean bootcamp guys to teach them how to salute while they were walking, but it became an instant classic.
You know the talk about how few guys it would take to drive a boat? We found out for real on the Barbel and its a very small number. One of our EMs was married to a Korean lady and her Dad owned an egg burger cart in Seoul. Naturally, all the guys who went to Seoul had to stop by Papa-san's cart and grab an egg burger. This one time, everyone who did wound up with a whopping case of food poisoning, officers included. Since I spent that port call hanging out with my buddy who owned a tailor shop and buying leather jackets and "authentic" Air Jordans, I was immune. I also wound up being NAVOPS for the 18 hour run back to Sasebo, although one RM did hang out in Radio- green face and all. I made one trip to the head during that run. Once was enough, it was like that scene in Gone With The Wind with all the dead soldiers around Atlanta, but it smelled a lot worse.
The Navy actually classified the number of us it took to drive the boat.