ON THE ROAD AGAIN... Once again I “Leave the nest” to wander. It will be quite different this trip. I am not driving, I will be accompanied by my wife and daughter and we are going to Okinawa, Japan. My mother-in law, as I said before is not well. Hopefully it will turn out good but we have to remember mom is 90+, has had a good life and is now experiencing problems that come with age. It is being accentuated with an infected leg that is not doing well at all. The infection has run throughout her body. Amputation of the leg is still an option. We will see. The 3 of us leave tomorrow out of San Diego direct to Narita Airport near Tokyo. We have a layover there. Then down to Okinawa. Flight time to Tokyo is about 11 hours and 3 hours to Okinawa. We have reservation at a hotel in Naha, the capitol of Okinawa until the end of the month. Then we have reservations at the Marine base until October 16th. Both have kitchenettes and capabilities to cook and eat in the rooms/suites. In essence, they are like small apartments . Our son could not get off work before the 29th of September. So he, wife and son will fly over then for a week. Our daughter will only be staying for a few days also. The weather there will be hot and humid and the start of the rainy season. WE will see how that goes. I am looking forward to it not only to see my in laws and families but to walk in some of my old footsteps from years ago, BUT not too far. I was stationed there first in 1958 and deployed there and through there several times. Lots of changes since I last saw it. We went there in 1995 and I lost complete bearings. It is so built up now. In 1958 with 9th Marines, as an infantry radio operator, I did a lot of walking all over the island and knew it quite well. My last tour I was at Air Wing Headquarters almost 20 years later. Ironically, my last barracks was 2 up from the first one. Most of the military has departed there. The Air Force has a small presence still at Kadena. They use to have a base in Naha. It is now the main airport for Japan. I was deployed there in 1963 when Kennedy was killed - A whole bunch of sudden changes then. We really did not know what was up except we went to full alert and reacting to orders coming from on high. Our whole military stood at attention waiting for the word whatever it is. We were use to this though. My unit was stationed in Beaufort, S Carolina in the early 60s and we reacted to Cuba/Castro several times including the Bay of Pigs and The Missile Crisis. It made the time go fast moving around all the time. In 63, home base was Atsugi, Japan, we deployed out of there so much, it was still new to us when we rotated back to the states a year later. Okinawa was the last big battle of WWII. Lots of lives lost on both sides. I’ve toured the island a couple times and still cannot phantom how we dug the enemy out and defeated them. There is lots of hollowed out coral and vegetation. Like I said, it cost dearly. I will have my laptop with me and will keep you updated. Again, I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, concerns and prayers. It means a lot to the family. More later Tom/Walter
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 03:26:42 +0000
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