Page:My 1102 days of wwii.djvu/35

 dirty I just cast them overboard. About all there was to do was eat, sleep, play cards, watch the flying fish and the two subchasers plow through the water.

If you recall, while going west, we lost a day when we crossed the International Date Line. On the way back we picked up a day by having two Tuesdays in one week.

After 16 days and nights of traveling (6-24-45), we pulled into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It all started on there Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese made a surprise attack sinking 18 of our ships including the battleships, , and the. The and  are still resting there. Several of us went into Honolulu that night and took in a hula show; later we stopped in an open sidewalk bar and I had a glass of milk, the first one since I left the states. The next day we were underway again.

After returning to work at Continental Can in Tampa, Florida I hired Ted Dawson as a machinist. Some time later he asked me if I had been in Honolulu during the war since he knew I had been in the Navy. I replied, "Yes." "Did you stop by an open bar and buy a glass of milk?" he added. I said "yes" again. Ted was working on the island during the war and saw me drinking milk and thought it was so unusual for a sailor.