3000 sailors and 6 single women. Chapter 8

[I don't drive very much these days with the twice daily trips to the Board and Care Facility no longer a norm. But I do go weekly to the cemetery to visit with the XYL. It is a 40 Mile round trip. I gas up the car about once every two weeks. Yesterday I paid $6.10 a gallon. I want to thank the majority of Americans who put in office the man who caused the gas spike. My only consolation is the majority is paying the premium too and are responsible. Surely everyone is seeing with gas and tariffs, the food and medication budgets are on life support.]

So, what was there to do on Midway aside from work?

Our normal 5 day a week work shift was from 8 AM until 4:30 PM. Quarters were at 8 AM but my arrival at 7AM gave me a chance to organize things and get ahead of any problems. A Saturday may involve a base inspection or other military ceremony. Often, I would have OOD duty on the weekend.

Midway was like being a trustee in a minimum-security prison. You pretty much could go anywhere except you couldn't just leave. I put in an employee suggestion that we erect a small gate so you could at least say I went out the front gate. It was rejected!

We had a commissary, Navy Exchange, movie theater, bowling alley, library, a small golf course, a beach area, fishing off the beach and of course snorkeling. There were three service clubs one for the Enlisted, another for the Chiefs and one for the Officers. I always joked that Navy Exchange carried two sizes of clothing... Too Small and Too Large.

Protocol was always in play. Only Officers could use the Officers Club, but if you were an Officer and OK guy, you could be a guest at the Chiefs club. I was invited as a guest on several occasions. One only had to realize that the Chiefs ran the Navy, and it was good practice to always ask their input and to respect what they had to say.   

For the Enlisted troops they would like to have weekend picnics on the beach. There was a process where a request was made in writing to the Division Officer (me). I would sign the form, and the party organizers would provide that form to the General Mess, and they would be given hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, condiments, potato salad, chips and soft drinks for however many were approved on the form. I was always happy to do that.

But these were Seabees and so one more item not on the list I signed and that was beer. I'll be damned our division hand built a special vehicle made out entirely of scrap materials. It was a trailer that could be towed by a bike and on that trailer was a salvaged refrigerator installed horizontally and at the far end a small gasoline powered electric generator. The refer was a large beer "cooler" box. Wow, Can Do.

One of my activities was snorkeling. The Midway Islands are surrounded by a Coral reef, and the beach gradients are such that you can go 200 feet away from the shoreline and the water is only waist deep. There are so many amazing fish to be seen like the Parrot fish. One of the Officers was an official Navy diver, and he helped me order flippers, booties, a mask and diving knife. 

One more piece of gear which I made and was taught how to make by the Hawaiian civilians was a Hawaiian Sling spear gun.

The video is an uptown version and the one I built was made from a broom handle, a small hinge, some surgical tubing and a 1/4-inch steel rod fitted with a barb. You drilled a slightly larger than 1/4-inch hole through the broom handle and then drilled a 3/8-inch hole through both sides of the hinge and the affixed the hinge to one end of the broom handle. You then cut a notch in the spear so when you had the spear gun armed the movable part of the hinge snapped into the notch on the spear. Quite effective and deadly at close range. You fired it by moving the hinge out of the notch and away she flew.

The library on Midway was quite excellent, and I read over 50 books in my time on Sand island. I actually went back and read some books that I had to read in college. While in school I just sort of breezed through them and then of course were The Cliff Notes. The books made much more sense when I actually read them.

Then of course was ham radio where I was custodian of KM6BI. I didn't do much operating as such but did run a lot of phone patches. One notable operation was the Alaskan earthquake in 1964. I put the station on the air and for about a 4-hour period ran emergency traffic from Anchorage to the Red Cross in Washington DC. The Alaska to DC circuit was not open and so I was a relay station. It was an amazing time to be a ham. But I marveled that on the Anchorage end came a call for specific recovery supplies, but the Red Cross kept asking and seemed only interested about causalities. Everything is political! In time the circuit opened up and they were direct

The O Club showed 1st run movies and typically I would see two or three movies a week. I really enjoyed seeing the John Wayne movie The Fighting Seabees which of course was about the Seabees and taking place on an island just like Midway. 

Often guest lecturers would pass through Midway and we had mandatory attendance. On November 2, 1963, an Army Colonel passed through Midway to give us a briefing on what was happening in South Vietnam. As he was speaking, he was handed a note about the assassination of President Diem in Vietnam, that very day. 

He said the cork is out of the bottle and his concern was history could repeat itself. He suggested we get really familiar with a book entitled The Street Without Joy. The author was Bernard Fall. It was about the French in Indochina and how they lost the war to the Viet-Minh.

In a sense the visiting Colonel's presentation was prophetic. Count the months from November 2, 1963, to May 7, 1965. The answer is about 18 months and that was how long it took me to go from Midway to Chu Lai.

Them that know can make things go.

73's

Pete N6QW

3000 sailors and 6 single women. Chapter 7

[Just spotted a new ham radio term for the 1% of us hams who can actually totally build all of the gear in their station. I am now shifting from homebrew to "home grown rig".]

We have all heard the expression: It's for the birds! So was Midway! The islands are most famous for the Gooney Birds which are actually two species of the same bird one being the Laysan and the other being the Black Footed. Talk about segregation these birds never mixed! 

For reference purposes a Gooney bird is an Albatross and has the following dimensions: About 2 feet high, weighing 6 to 7 pounds and a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet. Like an airplane they have to run a distance before they can become airborne. Their landings appear uncontrolled which is the norm. See the later video on how they are graceful in the air and terrible on the landing!

From Copilot on the birds of Midway.

There are many species (about 20 in total) that either live on Midway or nest there. One particular nesting species is the Adrenna Pacifica commonly known as "the moaning bird". This bird nests in holes in the ground and walking around at night without a flashlight is hazardous as many a sprained ankle was the result of stepping in a nesting hole.

I previously shared that I moved from the Rat-infested old Bachelor Officers Quarters [BOQ] on the second floor to the new concrete BOQ on the 1st floor. The 1st night in the new room I had the window slightly open and it was about midnight I heard this distinctive loud moan. My brain quickly assumed it was one of 6 teachers. Later that day I found out it was the Adrenna Pacifica.

You can only tell the sex of the Gooney Birds by autopsy, neither can the birds tell and it is believed that their ritual mating dance is part of their finding out if the bird on the bottom is a guy.

Take Off, Landing and Mating!

The Gooney birds are large, and many nest near the runways. Read danger to aircraft from bird strikes and so a plan was hatched to remove the birds from near the runways and use California soil cement to prevent further nesting. You can read about that here. The actual number was 22,198 and I should know as I had that project assigned to me. Daily I would send a bird report to an office in the Washington DC, Navy Office. The operation was officially observed by the Audubon Society. These Audubon guys wore khaki uniforms with a red cardinal patch on their left sleeve. In the final analysis it didn't work too well. Gooney birds are on a 7-year nesting cycle, so you have to do the pickup for 7 years not one.

I picked up the birds, but the California soil cement was done by a Detachment (Detachment Alpha) from MCB Ten. Clever Navy, I was assigned to that Detachment, when it was time to transfer duty stations. That meant two things: I spent not 12 months on Midway but 13 months, and secondly two hardship duty station assignments back-to-back. This was not the norm. This was not good for me. I later found out why that happened.

Gooney birds had an amazing navigation system as I witnessed a test conducted while I was there. Six Gooney birds were captured, banded and flown to Seattle. Three days later they were all back on Midway. BTW Gooney bird's nest about 1/2 yard from where they were hatched. (The why 7 years was needed.) The burning question for the Navy... how is this possible?

I saw the famous movie "The Birds" shortly before arriving on Midway. There were above ground power wires stretching to the Officers Club which was located near the beach. Yep, birds would nest on those wires just like in the movie and it was scary.

It was asked of me prior to going to Midway, do you like bird watching. I answered not particularly and the response back was you will.

Them that know can make things go

73's

Pete N6QW

3000 sailors and 6 single women. Chapter 6

Humans often have a binary response like you either do something or you don't. Some can arrive at a decision rather quickly... like let's do it! But others while still getting an answer in a short time have a process to come to a conclusive answer.

An example, a man has an opportunity to cheat on his wife, and his answer is he does or he doesn't. But sub rosa the doesn't response actually has an underlying two choice aspect.

Those who don't cheat because they believe it is absolutely wrong are likely less than the majority. The majority who don't cheat, don't because they know they will get caught so they don't. Either way they don't but the majority fear getting caught.

As I had mentioned the Officer's Mess included both Officers and civilians who because of what they do are accorded the officer privileges. I had been on Midway less than about two weeks and was having dinner in the BOQ (Bachelor Officers Quarters) when who enters is one of the over 40 schoolteachers and she sat at my table which could accommodate four, but it was just me until she came. She is best described as a bit worn on the edges and certainly not svelte.

She said can I sit here and recalling my Navy training about being courteous, I said why of course. She then asks who are you and I introduced myself and explained I had been in the Navy about 4 months and before that college. She introduced herself and explained she taught several subjects in the school. The usual chit chat about how you like Midway so far and what is your job.

The meal was about over, and she says I teach Home Economics to the girls and today we baked a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. How would like to come over to my room for dessert. Gulp, there it was out in the open, was I being propositioned?

This goes back to our original opening, and do you say yes which opens up a huge issue that the Navy calls Moral Turpitude or you say NO because you just know you will get caught! A wrong move could be career ending.

My response is that I had to decline as I needed to run to observe an off-shift maintenance operation and being new I was overwhelmed with collateral duties (which was the truth). She looked pretty sad... so close but so far away. 

Mental note to Pete, change your dinner schedule and always sit with other officers. I had successfully escaped being dessert. 

Them that know make the tough decisions

73's

Pete N6QW

3000 sailors and 6 single women. Chapter 5

Most of the permanently assigned Naval personnel on an unaccompanied tour spent only a year on Midway. If it was an accompanied tour, then it was two years. Midway was considered as a hardship duty station. Always "done in" by the system, I spent 13 months on Midway under two different commands.

No Naval person is supposed to have two hardship duty stations back-to-back. Well folks, I did experience that joy. Yeah, from Midway to Vietnam!

Most of the Naval personnel in my assigned department (Public Works) were Seabees and their tour was short (most 12 months). The Navy had a core group of civilians who were there for a longer duration and provided continuity as the Seabees came and went.

Virtually all of the civilians were from the Hawaiian Islands and considering that in 1963, WWII was only over some 18 years and if they were in their 40's they witnessed Pearl Harbor 1st hand. I asked a lot of questions of these civilians and the common answer was terrible and the uncertainty was worse.

When I was the Base Maintenance Officer, I had a civilian secretary of Japanese ancestry, and her name was Sue Saito. Her husband Si was a top-notch Navy civilian machinist and could build literally anything. Si hand built a custom racing bike and always won the annual bike race.

After just a few days on the job Sue mentioned her brother fought in WWII and I almost blurted out which side. It turns out he was a member of the famous 442nd Nisei Regimental Combat Team (Motto, Go For Broke) and served with distinction... they all did!

The civilians loved music and even had an informal musical group. They often commented that Don Ho was a terrible craftsman (many knew and worked with him) and had to do music to live. 

The civilians were journeymen plumbers, electricians, millwrights etc. But since Public Works had a large budget, we were subject to constant audits. One of the audits turned up that one of the officer quarters had an unusually large number of pluming service calls handled by one of the civilian plumbers and a pattern emerged. The calls were on Tuesday and Thursday around 10AM and called in by the wife of one of the medical doctors. Seems like our plumber was always checking the piping... her piping.

Speaking of doctors, Midway was not a place to get sick. While Midway, did have a hospital (Sickbay) and qualified surgeons there was a limit before you would have to be sent off island. 

One Saturday morning we had a pass in review and inspection, and I noted a pain in my chest. After the event I went to Sickbay and the duty Doctor (he was the spouse of the wife who was having her pluming checked) examined me and said the following. "Pete, I don't know what you have but by Monday you will either be dead or better." Let that sink in for a minute. Fortunately, I didn't die that weekend.

Them that know can make things go.

73's

Pete N6QW

3000 Sailors and 6 Single Women Chapter 4

The Midway Islands were small potatoes. Sand Island was about 1400 Acres at low tide and Eastern Island about 400 Acres also at low tide.

Essentially you couldn't pass gas without someone knowing about it. But it seemed only when I had OOD (Officer of the Day) duty that the really weird stuff would happen. Then too being the most junior officer on the whole island it seemed like my turn at OOD always fell on a weekend or holiday. I noted this and mentioned it to my superior who looked at me and said are you complaining. Sir, No Sir! Just an observation.

One Sunday afternoon I got a call about a domestic disturbance in the dependent housing area involving two females. Now I keep repeating there were only 6 single women, but there were a lot of other women who were dependents. That number was in the hundreds. It seemed like two women (wives of enlisted personnel) were physically fighting. I had the Master at Arms accompany me to the housing area.

Sure, enough the two women were having at it with fists and hair pulling. I had them disengage long enough to have them explain what is up. It seems one of the women borrowed a suitcase of the other woman to use on a family leave off the island. The owner claims the suitcase was returned in a damaged state and wanted compensation. Then they started at it again and the borrower said I received the suitcase like that. 

The owner said that is not my suitcase. The borrower rips off her shirt saying you think I am hiding it here... there was nothing to hide and there she was bare chested. Here I am a 21-year-old Ensign, and such a situation was never in my training. Adapt, Improvise and Overcome

The Master at Arms looked at me with a look of what are going to do now Ensign Juliano. Thinking quickly, I said STOP. Here is the deal... I am going to give you 3 minutes to resolve this and if you can't, both of you will be arrested. I had the power to do that. I also said the resolution is final as if you go at it again, I would have you thrown off the island. (I was not really sure I could do that, but it sounded official). They stopped and hugged each other and started crying and I heard I am sorry from both of them. I suggested the semi-naked woman get a shirt on and left.

The Master at Arms as we were leaving asked me how in the hell did you think of that? I simply said I was the authority and I could arrest them and likely get them thrown off the Island. It took me an hour to write the after-action report for the official log. When I turned over the watch, my replacement asked if anything unusual happened and I said a naked woman and left without saying anything more. Only on Midway.

The OOD had many duties aside from breaking up female cat fights. The Navy takes great pains to ensure their personnel are properly fed with high quality meals. Thus, one duty is for the OOD is to make a physical inspection of the cooking operations and mess hall area as well as eat a meal in the general mess. I took this responsibility very seriously and even filled out the comment sheet at the OOD table. The food operation at the general mess was impressive and I became good friends with the Mess Officer. 

The staff of the general mess checked the watch bill and always enjoyed receiving my reports on the mess. After about three times, the general mess Chief In Charge suggested I stop by the mess after my last physical drive around the base (11PM) ... to observe the preparations for breakfast. I did that and as I was leaving was handed a bag of two fresh glazed donuts. Boy did those taste good before I went to bed! Thereafter my final stop on the OOD base tour was the General Mess. (They always had donuts for me.) No question the Navy did take care of the men!

I mentioned that I became friends with the Mess Officer. The Navy compartmentalizes and the General Mess had several vehicles to deliver food to the Aircraft crews and to the Mike Boat that made trips over to Eastern Island. By now I was the Transportation Officer in charge of all vehicles on the island including maintenance and repair... and had a budget for that except the Mess Hall had a separate budget. The main delivery truck had a problem with its transmission and was inoperative. The Mess Officer asked for some help as he needed to make the deliveries with that truck.

I gathered the shop staff and asked if I could get some volunteers to work after hours to repair that important vehicle. Can Do and it was done, after all these were Navy Seabees! The Mess Officer asked how he could "scratch my back". I said have the truck show up at the garage during the week with two dozen donuts at 10AM. My crew had custom donut service 5 days a week. Nothing illegal here as they were enlisted personnel having fresh donuts from the General Mess. A Win and Win. Later on, I used a variation of the donut example in one of my civilian jobs. 

Them that know can make things go.

73's

Pete N6QW

3000 Sailors and 6 Single Women Chapter 3

Rather than be bored initially, I have waited until now to talk a bit about Midway's history. While the two islands (Sand, the larger and Eastern, the smaller) may have been visited by Polynesians and other explorers the 1st habitation was in the early 1900's. 

In the early 1900's Sand Island became a cable repeating station for the Transpacific Cable System and was manned by a crew of six. This cable linked the West with the Far East. 

The Japanese cut the cable during WWII and reestablished in 1964 while I was stationed there. Until 1964 ET could not directly phone home.

In the mid-1930's Midway was a stop connecting the west coast with the Far East using the Pan Am Clippers (flying boats). It was at this time that the facilities were quietly upgraded in response to the Winds of War. 

One reason I was sent to Midway was that I was an Electrical Engineer. The Pan Am Clipper Staff was maybe 600 personnel and initially were supplied power by local generators. Somehow during that same the Pan Am era a permanent power plant was built, and its capacity was 10,000 people. (Somebody was expecting WWII.) There were problems with the power plant and connect that with an EE. In the wisdom of the Navy, I never touched the power plant. Unlike today in the late 1930's the 7 Ps were in play. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

At the outset of WWII, Midway had been beefed up and was next on the list after Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Midway just 6 months later was the start of the defeat of Japan. Post WWII not much happening there but the advent of the cold war breathed new life into Midway. It had an 8000 ft air strip with a 3000-foot overrun... read big jet capable. 

In 1963, Midway was part of the Airborne Early Warning System.  The flight crews home ported at Barner's Point HI, were on a rotational two-week tour. 

The aircraft you’re asking about — the “Willie Victor” AEW platform flown from Midway Island in 1963 — was the Lockheed WV‑2 Warning Star, which was later redesignated EC‑121 when the U.S. military standardized aircraft naming in 1962.

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Midway Island hosted Navy AEW barrier squadrons that flew long-duration radar patrols during the Cold War. These missions were part of the Pacific Barrier (“PacBar”) early‑warning network, and the WV‑2/EC‑121 was the primary aircraft used.

Thus, our primary mission was to keep Midway open to support the EC-121 operations. It was rumored there were some "spook" stuff going on with civilian contractors but like Sgt. Schultz, I knew nothing.

Midway had many left-over WWII revetments and bunkers. The bunkers were an issue as they were unsafe and a haven for teenagers to have a little party. More than once while standing OOD I was called out to find some missing teenagers. The ringleader was the XO's teenage son, and when found you had to finesse his leaving the bunker. That kid was a prick! Typically, he would try to parlay his dad was the XO. I always had the Master at Arms with me as a witness. Another trick I picked up in the Navy.

Midway's mean elevation was 6 feet ASL and so we were concerned about Tsunami's and as the most junior officer on the island my GQ station was the port. Midway was surrounded by a Coral Reef which affords it some protection except for the port opening.

We routinely had General Quarters Drills, and I remember what seemed like an unscheduled drill. On November 23, 1963. Early in the day we had the GQ sounded and the normal drill was to go to a designated location and pick up my side arm. This was different as not only did I get my weapon but 4 magazines of .45 Cal ammo. Oh, oh this was a war action not a drill. I was at my GQ station for three hours before we found out JFK was assassinated.

Them that know can make things go.

73's

Pete N6QW

3000 Sailors and 6 Single Women Chapter 2

Back to our attractive over 40 not quite sober schoolteacher and the Dentist. 

But 1st some housekeeping things. The schoolteachers and other civilians like Scotty who managed the Bank of America branch on Midway and Art Rossinette who was the Red Cross Representative were assigned quarters in the BOQ. So, we would see these folks in the dining area, and they also had Officer Club privileges.  

Art also sponsored a club function, Toastmasters International and I was encouraged to join (encouraged meant that's an order). It actually was fun and later was critical training for later civilian jobs. The Toastmaster's club was designed to improve one's public speaking skills. It wasn't long before I was on the speaking agenda and I was to give a persuasive speech.

My regular job assignment was Base Maintenance Officer, (BMO... nothing to do with BM's) and we had a serious problem with littering. It seems the usual practice was using the big garbage can on the ground. Our regular trash crews would daily pick up large bags of empty beer and coke cans simply thrown on the ground. 

Thus, my persuasive speech was to engage the other department heads on Midway to help abate the littering. In a persuasive speech, the 1st trick is to get the audience's attention and the close is a commitment to a call to action. How to do that? 

Not knowing any better I reasoned "I need a sit up in the seat opening". I opened by having a small bag of empty coke cans which I carefully aimed at and threw at the audience. The opening line was this is a problem. The close was raise your hand to show commitment to discussing with their troops the need not to litter. We need to keep Midway Clean and Green. Later on, Art asked if I had done any public speaking my answer this was a first for me. That experience served me well.

Back to the semi-sober schoolteacher and the Dentist. October was here and it was decided that the Officers Club would sponsor a dress up (optional) Halloween Party. Still being new to the base, I chose the optional. 

The Dentist showed up in a Toga and Tennis shoes. He had absolutely nothing on under the bedsheet toga which would often open up to show his well you know what. That confirmed his Midway assignment. 

The schoolteacher came dressed maybe like a Lady of the Night. I do know she had a full shot glass stashed in her cleavage. I spotted her accessing the stash and she saw me looking at which point she said to me... it saves a trip to the bar. BTW shots were a quarter a piece. For $2 you could get one hell of a buzz. 

Midway actually had two BOQ's with one being a wooden building dating back the WWII and a much newer one made out of concrete block. Yes, my 1st billet was in the old BOQ. The building smelled of old wood and cigarette smoke. At that time, I smoked and I noticed after a couple of nights there that my cigarettes were chewed up. Oh, Oh mice. Since I was the BMO, I asked my chief to get me some mousetraps. His reply was we only have large RAT traps and that is what you need. I set the trap that night and caught a 13-inch rat. 

I had a bit of a chat with the BOQ officer about a move to the new BOQ and sweetened the deal with whatever you need fixed will get a priority. I was moved in 10 minutes. Wow, I was learning how the Navy operates. 

The chief means of transportation on Midway other than walking was by bicycle. I had my very own official bicycle assigned to me as the BMO. Now a unusual situation occurred on Midway and that was as a Staff Corp Officer I stood OOD watch for the whole base. On larger Navy bases the OOD is carried out by Line Officers.

Standing OOD meant two things: I got to drive a pickup truck to carry out my duties, and I also would carry a loaded side arm on certain occasions. About a half an hour on the range qualified me to use the .45. Then there was the huge problem while I had a civilian driver's license, I did not have a government license and did not know how to drive a stick shift. A second-class Petty Officer spent a whole morning with me teaching me how to drive a stick shift out on an abandoned runway.  He was also the license examiner. I passed. That was invaluable training as I was able to teach my kids how to drive a stick. 

That is where I learned them that know can make things go.

73's

Pete N6QW