I also shipped out to Korea and Viet Nam. The govt wrote me they needed radio operators and companies had to give leaves of absences to those going back. We carried bombs for the French Air Force, unloading them in Saigon. Went to Cholon, the Chinese sector; there was a tremendous tent, that Barnum would have been proud of, filled with gambling tables and hazy with smoke from cigarettes. We wandered around town and saw what we thought was a bar. Went in and was surprised that the booths had bunks, with men lying down on them. When the waiter bought us pipes we realized it was an opium den. I did not sample the fares. Bill Ps Y, re the SF waterfront. The radio operators union had offices in one of the piers upstairs, we went there to sign up for a ship. Bill -----Original Message----- From: norcal-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:norcal-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Yvonne Bowers Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 8:50 AM To: norcal@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Merchant Marine Bill, My stepfather was in Korea in the 50's. In the 60's he was a merchant seamen and at least twice he worked on ocean-going tugs taking munitions and supplies to Viet Nam (up the Saigon River). Eventually he got a job on the Red Stack Tugs in the Bay as a deckhand. I went out on the boat with him one night to bring in a Greek ship. So exciting being out on the Bay in the middle of the night. The cook on the tug gave me a frying pan from the galley which I have (use and love) to this day. I can't remember exactly where my stepfather shipped out from but I remember driving him down 3rd St. to get his ship so it may have been China Basin. In high school and after I worked at Pier 1-1/2, Pier 26 and Pier 80 for California Stevedore and Ballast Co. (I was a clerk). I loved the waterfront back when it was rough and seedy. :-) Y. On Jun 1, 2010, at 8:34 AM, norcal-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 05:45:35 -0700 > From: "Bill Roddy" <billroddy@cox.net> > Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Merchant Marine > To: <norcal@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <25EAE9F3F52A40D9AF7849A1066BA7BA@RB40G> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Yvonne, > I was a merchant seaman in WWII, guess that's earlier than your stepfather. > When we arrived home we were paid off in hundred dollar bills. Docking > along the Embarcadero and its dives, especially when girls were > involved, were too tempting to many of my shipmates. > Bill > > -----Original Message----- > From: norcal-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:norcal-bounces@rootsweb.com] > On Behalf Of Yvonne Bowers > Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 6:07 PM > To: norcal@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [NORCAL] drivers training > > My stepfather was a merchant seaman. He shipped out of San Francisco > and was usually gone 2-3 months and would come home with a lot of > money. When he spent it all he would ship out again. > ----------------------------------------- NORCAL ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. ----------------------------------------- To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to NORCAL@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Bill, seems like if they (the enemy) cannot get us one way they try to get us anyway they can even doping up their enemy (us). They must have thought there was more than one way to skin a cat. Barbara L. Eades