Ingram Chronicle
Vol. 3 No. 3
Well, we finally got the items that were burgled out of the YPD Evidence Locker--my Casio PDA and digital caliper scale and Brian's keys to Rosie's red Ford F-150 Pick-up--but nothing else has been recovered as of yet. On Saturday, while mowing the yard, our neighbor from across the alley called us over to ask if we'd been burgled. He said that his next-door neighbor had been hit twice, but that Shawn Hayden had been apprehended as one of the perpetrators! Perhaps we shall see further progress on the trail of the bunch that have been involved in these transactions. We do not expect much more of our stuff to be found by the police--the perpetrators had been burning anything that might not be useful, to get rid of the evidence--one purse had been recovered in badly burned condition, along with our stuff.
As you know, we've had a rather wet winter--over 4 inches of rain--and the desert has been in glorious bloom--I'll include some pictures of the scenery--out toward the College on County 10th (24th Street extension) just before the "cove."
The season proceeds, we are generally doing well. Rosie has a severe infection of her lower end, really tearing her up. Her doctor has put her on a strong antibiotic, hoping to arrest this problem. The laboratory confirmed that it is a staphylococcus infection. She's been up and down, and we hope things begin to become much better for her.
We were able to see Harold for a few days--he'd been sent to Phoenix to present an orientation on Afghanistan to an Army Reserve unit bound for that service area--since he was so close, he was able to drive down and visit with us and many others in Yuma. We had a nice time with Karene and Tom, Chris and Teri, Rosie and Brian, and Harold, getting together.
We are looking forward to being able to travel to see some of the others of the family this summer--in Salt Lake City and Saint George. We have some time in the condos in St George.
I have had some good experiences over the years that I might tell a bit about. I was talking with someone recently, probably at the College, about the travels with the USS Haven (AH-12) and the USS Sioux (ATF-75). They'd been to some of the places I'd seen--Yokusuka and Sasebo, Japan, and Pusan and Inch'on, Korea. I've been in contact with some of the crew from the Haven--they hold a reunion in Seattle in September--I won't be able to go and be there, but that might be fun--who knows?
We made several trips out of San Francisco to Pearl Harbor and Yokusuka and Pusan. I was able to travel about the Pusan area of Korea, to Chin Hae and some small fishing ports near-by. This was after the front line had been established near the present DMZ, so that our visits were reasonably safe.
Chin Hae was the location of the ROK Naval Academy, with one special site, a memorial to an ancient Korean Admiral who had special armor placed on his ship, when he faced the ancient Japanese Navy in the Strait between Korea and Japan. He was successful at repelling the Japanese invasion force at that time--around AD 1200.
I was the USS Haven vehicle driver, on shore, chauffeuring the Captain and other officers about the various areas to meetings and dinners.
While we were at Inch'on, I had the responsibility for making the weekly drive to the Air Supply Depot at Seoul City Air Base, to receive several cases of pints of whole blood, to be quickly delivered to the beach at Inch'on, for the ship's boat to take it to the ship. I would drive at the designated speed limit of 25 mph going to Seoul, but had to make much better time on the return, with the whole blood. I was stopped regularly by the Army MPs along the way, and as regularly, I would ask them to please finish their write-ups of the incident quickly, so that I would not be delayed too long as I was transporting the whole blood to the ship. I would then pass the citations to the Officer of the Deck as I returned to the ship at the end of that day, and the ship's captain, Capt. C. B. Hamblett, USNR, would write a response to the CO of the MP Regiment, explaining that I was operating under direct orders from the Haven CO and hospital CO, that I had to exceed the speed limits set by the Army on the Main Supply Route (MSR) between Inch'on and Seoul, that it was a medical necessity that the trip back be made at the higher speed, in order to deliver the whole blood in good order. These exchanges occurred weekly, through-out our stay at the port of Inch'on.
I was regularly mixing with a unit of tanker Marines at Inch'on, who were there to help train Navy crews in landing heavy equipment from ships at the port, where the tidal range was around 45 to 60 feet. The ships had to schedule the transfers at times near high water (high tide) so that the equipment wouldn't become bogged down in the muddy ground that would become exposed near low water (low tide).
While we were at Inch'on, the British Cruiser, HMS Newcastle came in and anchored for a few days, to allow the crew members to have a short period of shore time, to relax from the stresses of their duties off the coasts of North Korea, in support of the Commonwealth troops. A few of the officers of the Newcastle tried to come over to visit the USS Haven in their motor whale boat (mwb), but, their timing was not too good, as they got caught by the ebb tide flow, which could run at 8 to 10 knots, while the mwb could only make about 5 or 6 knots through the water--they suddenly discovered that they were headed for the Yellow Sea, and our launch had to make a fast run and tow them back into the Han River estuary, to the anchorage of the Haven and Newcastle. Such was our life in that era!