We arrived in Pearl Harbor on the 10th and had the opportunity for a little liberty before heading on out to sea again. Some of the guys went into Honolulu, some took in Waikiki Beach and came back burned, including myself and my buddy Joe Mitchell, and some guys simply lounged around the ship and possibly made a visit to the "Beer Garden" on the Navy Base. That was the fun part, what was less desireable was what we had to do when it came time to depart. First we had to stop at the W. Loch Naval Magazine to take on ammunition. If you've ever been there you will never forget it! Most of us hated going there and hated what had to be done as much as anything we ever had to do on the Spangler. The W. Loch is one eerie place! In getting there, the ship had to move inland up an embayment similar to large river channel. Hulks from ships of different sizes line the banks, either from being bombed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor or from being blown up while being loaded with ammunition and fuel. Moving through there was reminiscent of navgating through a graveyard! Trucks transported ammunition to the ship, but a long chain of us sailors using our hands and arms brought it aboard, one shell casing at a time. We stood in two long, single lines a couple of feet apart, facing each other but offset so that a sailor in one line faced the open gap between two sailors in the opposite line. Each sailor took turns cradling a shell casing in their arms and then passing it along the line to the guy diagonally opposite him, who did the same to the guy adjacent to him. Needless to say, most of us didn't like being there! The sight of those partially sunk ship hulls protruding from the water or partially on the banks put us on edge. And maybe it was meant to do exactly that. It damn well made us extra careful! For sure, none of us was going to drop one of those shells! We entered the Domain of The Golden Dragon on January 15th. This is when we crossed the 180th Meridian, the International Date Line. Other than an announcement over the loud speaker, and later being presented with a certificate of this grand achievement, little else was sigificant about the event other than the cheer and clapping throughout the ship and huge smiles on the faces of the older crew members. Yes! These were the same older guys with the long faces for the first few days after leaving San Diego. Art Arsenault was the senior petty officer in the Quartermaster Group and a horrid person to live and work with from the moment we left the docks in San Diego until the announcement of the 180th Meridian came over the loud speaker. The smile across his face at that moment was a sight to behold. He suddenly became a fun person to be around, a pleasant guy to work for. ... that is, until we crossed the 180th in the opposite direction 6 months later. So why the change? Well, you have to understand that when leaving San Diego a lot of the crew, especially the older guys, leave behind their loved ones, wives, children, sweethearts and parents. And knowing that they wouldn't see them again for six months is tough to accept and it became tougher with each trip across the Pacific (Phil Moris covered that part of it very well in his writeup). Entering the Domain of the Golden Dragon offered a release to all the tension thats built over the past week and a half in arrving there. It represents the point of no-return! And all of the laughter and jokes that comes along with it helps the crew to finally accept the inevitable. Okay, so maybe the "real" reason is a little different than that! How about the "traditional belief" that when sailors enter into the Domain of the Golden Dragon they become unsconstrained from those minor hold-backs, like marriages, engagements, parental demands and all that weighty stuff. In other words they are given a temporary six-months relief to do whatever they wish with whomever, whenever. ..so long as they don't violate the Commander's regulations, upset the local Shore Patrol or fall into the grasp of police in whatever country they might be visiting. In other words they are now free to visit the bars, clubs and brothels in Japan and other joys of wonderful Western Pacific countries without guilt of concious. I think that psychologically another factor came into play: many of these were young men thousands of miles from home, subject to no parental restraints, not knowing what tomorrow would hold, whether we would be involved in another world war, or if the ship might sink in a storm, so they took on a care-free, damn the torpedos attatude. Life was to be enjoyed and they meant to enjoy it to it's fullest, every opportunity they got. Sailing on southwest the Spangler dropped anchor on the January 18th in the lagoon at the Army Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Island chain of 34 islands just north of the equator. What an amazing sight! It was certainly one of the more fascinating the crew would see during the six-month cruise. The wreckage of Japanese war ships dotted the lagoon everywhere. The Atoll had served as a large Japanese naval base during the war and came under heavy attack from American war ships, resulting in the loss of about eighteen Japanese ships. Parts of many of them could still be seen protruding out of the water. After the Atoll’s recapture, it became an American base and staging area for the remainder of the war. We remained there long enough for mail call and the crew to wonder along the beach and enjoy the serinity of the island. Water in the lagoon was beautiful blue and clear enough to see several feet below the surface. We envied the few servicemen stationed there and except for the fact they were isolated for months on end, many of us would have switched places with them in a blink. |