I was fortunate to leave for Okinawa from Travis Air Force Base California. I arrived on a beautiful Pan Am Boeing 707 in August 1961. I mention this being fortunate because some of the men I was in Psy War School at Ft. Bragg traveled on a U.S. Navy Troop Carrier taking as much as 30 days of travel time to arrive.
I think the first thing I noticed was the smell. Okinawa has a smell I never seemed to have forgotten. You get used to it, but it is always there. It's not really offensive but it's always there. I don't mean the smell that's close to the open Benjo Ditches; it's a smell of Okinawa .
A bus took Darrell Arnold, Cecil White, and I to the B&VA barracks at Machinato. We checked in and were told where to bunk, and that we could spend the day as we pleased since it was still early. Cecil White had been in the army for over six years and had been stationed in Korea prior. He was our guide to town, which turned out to be Naha . This was the first evening of a very interesting education for Arnold and I. Cecil White was only with us a few weeks and he went home on emergency leave. We never heard from him again.
We reported to the loudspeaker section under the supervision of a SFC Buxbaum. He put us to work getting to know the equipment that we would be using and maintaining. Darrell and I were Radio Repairmen. Cecil White was some kind of minor radio repairman. We were given tools for the repair of the equipment, which was mostly tools to repair the cables for the loudspeaker units. He really didn't know what to do with us, and didn't seem to know we were coming over. We were a little confused because we were on emergency orders to get us there. Oh well it was the Army and we had got to Okinawa on a 707 Pan Am Jet because of the emergency orders instead of the Troop Ship that some of the graduates of the PsyWar school from Ft. Bragg were required to endure.
One of our duties was to distribute a magazine. We had to go down to the Naha Shipyard and let them load a duce and half truck for us. Then we had directions and locations on the island to distribute these magazines. I liked this duty because I got to see the island. I don't remember the name of the magazine, but it was something to do with Psy War. (Magazine was "Veritas", Editor)
I remember assisting the 503 rd Airborne with an escape and evasion exercise, and another time with the 503 rd I was a referee for an assault on a hill. I evaluated the duties of a Mortar Team. Don't know how I got that assignment, because I had no experience with gunnery. I just filled in the blanks. Got to see the confusion of a live fire exercise in which some troopers were almost killed by accident that day; if not for a very aware 1 st Lieutenant From the 503 rd that was very good at his job and did not let his team fire his Mortars on a hill after he had permission because he has a “feeling” something wasn't right. He was right, the hill was occupied by a platoon of Airborne Troopers.
One of my other duties was instructing foreign troops at the 1 st Special Forces Counter Insurgency School. It was located north of Camp Swab up in the boonies. My course was “Tactical Loudspeaker Operations”.
While at one of the formations before reporting to work a Captain wanted to know if anyone of us had any small bore rifle experience. I told him I had and that started something that I seemed to be doing a lot of the time on the island. I ended up on both the small bore and large bore rifle team. Being on the large bore team I spent many weeks at Camp Swab , a Marine Camp on the far north part of the island where all the large bore rifle ranges were. Living with the marines was quite an experience but we all survived, barely. I enjoyed my experiences on the large and small bore rifle teams.
I was one of the lucky ones that got to go on exercise Aumee in 1962. The LST loading and ride was not pleasant but we learned a lot about loading an LST. We Landed at Kee Lung Port on the north part of Taiwan . We unloaded and proceeded to a Chinese Army Special Forces base where we were billeted. My team consisted of Sgt. Akira Moramoto, who was the linguist, and two Chinese Officers from the Chinese Army. We were sent out with orders to report to various Chinese Army Units. We were armed with Gasoline fill up points on the island and a first reporting area. Both of our Chinese Officers spoke English which was nice because Moramoto only spoke Japanese and English.
I later was very grateful that Moramoto was along since all the older people of the island spoke Japanese and not Mandarin. The younger Taiwanese spoke Mandarin but was sometime unreliable for information. I really enjoyed our trip south through the countryside. We at one time drove as far south of the island where the road ran out and the mountains went down into the sea. I can't remember the little village we stayed for around five days, but the people we very kind. Most of them had never seen a white American before so I got to be quite an attraction at times. We slept in a Buddhist Temple on the floor. Sometimes I would go to sleep with Taiwanese squatting nearby watching me and every morning when I would wake there were different people squatting next to me. One time a young man rode his bike many miles to come and see me. He wanted to know if I could read his English. We set on the concrete floor of the temple writing to each other with rocks on the concrete.
I had many very good memories of my time on Taiwan . I also found out later that one of my interpreters was the grandson of General Chang Kai Chek. During a Barbecue hosted by the Chinese Special Forces, Sgt. Burke and myself (with permission from Lt. Fletcher) went to where the Taiwanese carved woodcarvings. I don't remember the name of the village but it took us all day to get there and back so we missed the party. The only thing that I really missed was the pin that everyone else received from the Chinese Army. After boarding The LST Westchester County we left for what we thought was going to be Hong Kong R&R, but instead we went around circles in the East China Sea in the middle of a very large Typhoon. I have many more memories of the island but they will remain only with me.
After arriving back at Okinawa we went back to our daily routines.
Not to long after we returned from Taiwan, members of the 16th Company moved up to an Air Force Microwave base more to the north of Okinawa called Deragawa. We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Two man rooms, built in lockers. I had never been anywhere in the Army without wall lockers and foot lockers. I roomed with my friend Darrell Arnold all the time I was there. My memories were of eating on china, drinking from china cups, and having the food delivered to us without standing in line. Did I say heaven, for the Army it was for sure. My last few months in the Army at Deragawa was the best I had spent in the Army. We had good Non Coms and Officers, and the duty was good for Army.
I am sure that I could go on for hours about different things that we did. Being in the Loudspeaker Section afforded us the opportunity to travel to various Asian Countries. I really enjoyed my time spent in Okinawa , and treasured the experience, especially the people I served with.
My only regrets is not keeping in touch with friends that were made while serving on the “Rock”
Source: Larry Bullington