Page:My 1102 days of wwii.djvu/31

 the lights were on we had to depend on the compass to return to camp, even in the day sometime. A few times at night we were caught out in the harbor during an alert when all the lights went out leaving us in pitch darkness. This made it very difficult to find our way back to camp, as there were no landmarks to guide us as we had at Bougainville. Due to the limited amount of storage space on the islands some of the Merchant Marine ships sat in the harbor for months before their supplies were used up by the task force. This area was considered a combat zone which gave the crews of these ships additional pay while there. I decided then that I had volunteered for the wrong service.

Having been on Asor for five or six months we did not have enough work to keep us busy. There was no place to go and nothing to do there, so life became rather monotonous. I kept myself busy by carving out a checkerboard with my pocket knife and making a footlocker, both of which I brought home. Otherwise Stoney, another chief, and I passed some of the time away playing gin rummy.

About this time I applied for a commisioncommission [sic] as Warrant Officer, never expecting to hear from it again. Five months later the approval caught up with me. I will explain that later.