Night Beaching: An Unscrupulous Captain Tangles with Some Ýgatorý Navy Reserve Officers

By James T. Cheatham

James T. Cheatham is a retired attorney who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was a graduate of the NROTC program at the University of North Carolina in 1957 and served two years on active duty in the Pacific on an amphibious ship (LST). He retired as a Commander in the Naval Reserves in 1979 and has published two other books: The Atlantic Turkey Shoot: U Boats of the Outer Banks in WWII and Sailing the Carolina Sounds. In addition, he has written numerous professional articles and book reviews and produced two documentaries: North Carolina's Role in the American Revolution and a legal documentary for North Carolina's Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism. He currently heads the Robert Ruark Society of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 16, 2006
• ISBN: 9780595848348

James T. Cheatham

James T. Cheatham is a retired attorney who lives in Chapel Hill, NC. He was a graduate of the NROTC program at the University of North Carolina in 1957 and served two years on active duty in the Pacific. He has published two other books, written professional articles and book reviews, and produced two documentaries.

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Copyright © 2006 by James T. Cheatham.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the

author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-40464-3 (pbk)

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-84834-8 (ebk)

ISBN-10: 0-595-40464-2 (pbk)

ISBN-10: 0-595-84834-6 (ebk)

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 U. S. Naval Base, Yokosuka, Japan

Chapter 2 U. S. Naval Base, Saesbo, Japan

Chapter 3 Naha Harbor, Okinawa

Chapter 4 Inland Sea of Japan

Chapter 5 Sea of Japan En Route to South Korea

Chapter 6 En Route from South Korea to Hong Kong, China

Chapter 7 Homeward Bound

Chapter 8 Night Beaching

Epilogue

Image22529.JPG

USS HOME COUNTY (LST 836)

Photographs by John Jandrucko

Prologue

Prior to World War II, the Navy relied on its regular naval officers, highly trained and skilled Naval Academy graduates, to man its ships. With the advent of the Big War, reservists were used extensively. They usually consisted of college graduates who may have had three months naval training (called 90-day wonders) or graduates of the Navy’s Reserve Officer Training Course College program (NROTC). Surprisingly they usually performed well.

After the war, the Navy with its world wide fleet of over one thousand ships still needed reservists, but the brass tended to relegate the reserve officers and less skilled regular officers to its less glamorous vessels such as supply and amphibious ships that were used to transport troops with all their fighting equipment. Occasionally, the navy made an error in assigning one of its officers as captain of a ship. This story involves one such mistake.

Some called amphibious ships Gator navy ships because they could land troops and supplies over the beach. They usually began their names with letters followed by numbers. For example, LSD-40 would be Landing Ship Dock and the 40 would indicate that it was the fortieth ship of that type to be built. The LSTs or Landing Ship Tanks—we preferred to call them long, slow targets—which were 328 feet long, 50 feet wide and had large bow doors that open in front to disgorge tanks, troops or supplies. In peacetime, the older ships such as the 836 usually carried a crew of six to seven officers and 80 to 100 enlisted members.

The Home County (LST 836) had a flat main deck and a well deck below the main deck for tanks. She stowed about 17 to 20 tracked vehicles that carried marines to the beaches during assault operations.

On the main deck she carried 30 to 40 trucks and vehicles, depending upon size. Her main deck and tank deck take up about two-thirds of the ship.

If the Home County (LST 836) encountered enemy fire, she had twin 40 millimeter anti-aircraft guns on her bow and stern, each flanked by two 50 caliber machine guns.

In the early summer of 1957, the author graduated from the University of North Carolina, got commissioned as an ensign from the Navy’s ROTC program and got married, all in the same week.

This is a story of a reserve officer’s first six months of active duty in the late 1950’s on an amphibious ship built in 1944 for one or two trips overseas and now quite worn out and on its final days of usefulness. During his two years of active duty, his experiences moved between extremes of not so capable and capable captains assigned by the Navy Department. His first Captain, Maurice Levy, was a mustang—that is an enlisted person (in this case in the Merchant Marine) who had managed to get a commission as an officer. Many mustangs performed well and contributed to the professional officers corps. Others had a difficult time adjusting as naval officers. One of these was Captain Levy.

The characters in this book are fictional and imaginative and are not intended to portray any actual person. This is not a document but a work of fiction.

Image22535.JPG

MAP OF HOME COUNTY’S WEST PAC TOUR IN LATE FIFTIES

Chapter 1

U. S. Naval Base, Yokosuka, Japan

My orders were to proceed to my ship, the USS Home County, located in the Western Pacific Theater of operations. The flight over to Japan in a navy transport plane had been uneventful. I sat next to another navy ensign, Jack Watson, who was assigned to an aircraft carrier, the USS Hancock, also then stationed in the Far East. He had graduated from the University of Texas and like me received a NROTC Commission.

Jack and I were billeted at the Yokosuka Naval Base Officer’s Club while our ships were being located. During the war this was a large Japanese naval repair facility which still had dry docks large enough to accommodate aircraft carriers and an excellent Japanese workforce. The U.S. Navy had simply taken it over after the war and utilized its workforce as well as its dry docks.

The officer’s club was formerly used by the Japanese Navy and although the rooms were small, the decor, dining room and bar were quite nice. Large chandeliers and ornate European furniture adorned the dining room and bar. The American Admiral who was first in charge after the war had commandeered the Japanese Admiral’s Mercedes Benz car and had it shipped back to the states for his personal use.

Soon after arriving I decided to call Otto Mark, a Japanese-American who was a friend of my father’s in the tobacco business and who my father had hired to assist him in selling American tobacco to the Japanese. During the war he had