Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

November 3, 2009
Pausing by Ground Zero, the New York Reaches Manhattan
By A. G. SULZBERGER

The U.S.S. New York reached New York City Monday morning, sweeping under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, pausing at the World Trade Center site and traveling along the Upper West Side before circling around, like a contestant in a beauty pageant, to dock in Midtown Manhattan.

�gIt�fs fantastic to be here,�h said Cmdr. Curt Jones, the ship�fs captain, stepping out of the bridge to watch the ship pass under the Verrazano Bridge. �gIt really does feel like we�fre coming home.�h

The ship, an amphibious assault dock, has 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in its bow. It left Norfolk, Va., on Thursday, and it will spend the week here before being officially commissioned on Saturday. Once in service, the ship will be used to transport several hundred Marines to any hot spots around the globe. The sailors that lined the rails arrived early, well before 7 a.m., despite the brisk wind and occasional drizzle that left many hopping from foot to foot in their dress uniforms.

�gThey wanted to stake out a good spot,�h said Cmdr. Erich Schmidt, the executive officer. As the ship rounded Battery Park, Commander Schmidt offered a few words of encouragement to the crew over the loudspeaker. �gYou�fve done a great getting us here. Enjoy it. That�fs all.�h

Tim Baum, 46, a petty officer second class with the Navy Reserve from Brownsburg, Ind., remarked on his first visit to New York City. �gIt�fs more spread out than you�fd think,�h Petty Officer Baum said. �gThe river�fs a lot bigger than it appears on the map.�h

Standing alongside, Sharef Talbert, 30, said he found the site of the skyline that he remembered from growing up in Newark, comforting but a bit surreal. �gI could never remember it being so beautiful,�h said Mr. Talbert, a petty officer first class. �gIt�fs good to be home.�h

The last time that Petty Officer Talbert, who enlisted in 2000, was in these waters was in 2001, after the attack on the trade center, when his ship, the guided missile cruiser Vicksburg, was posted off the coast for 42 days in case any other attacks occurred. As the ship paused alongside ground zero, which had a sizable crowd of onlookers onshore, troops lifted their hands in a long salute. Mr. Talbert found himself getting teary. �gI feel warm with the love of New York,�h Mr. Talbert said. �gLook how many people lined up for us.�h

I was reading today about the young commander of a US Navy destroyer, USS Lassen, attached to the 7th Fleet at Yokosuka. His name is Hung Ba Le, born in Viet Nam.
When he was five years old in 1975, South Viet Nam fell to the Communists and the youngster and his family became 'boat people,' litterally fished out of the sea in America's shameful retreat.
Brought back and raised in the US, this young man showed promise and won admittance to the US Naval Academy in 1992.
His destroyer will pay a call to the reunited Viet Nam this month, which will be Hung Ba Le's first real homecoming.

Thank you, Steffi and Eric, for the interesting and touching stories -- about the arrival in New York of the U.S.S. York with 7.5 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center built into its bow, and about Vietnamese-born Hung Ba Le, fished from the sea as a child boat-person, now a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and commander of a U.S. destroyer headed for Viet Nam. As Eric says, only in America. The context and story elements connected with arriving and departing from foreign and native lands brings back memories.

When my family returned to San Francisco after living for two years in Yokohama, I recall the bright white shining of San Francisco, compared with the dun-colored browns and grays of Yokohama as we first saw it in 1952. In 1954, San Francisco did not have the skyscrapers it has today -- the overall impression was one of whiteness -- the tidy light-colored homes hugging the hills -- and of course the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. Earlier, when we returned to San Francisco after living for two years a la Swiss Family Robinson in a quonset hut on Saipan, I was nine years old and my only eager thought was to shop in an American five-and-ten-cents store!

Best wishes to all -- anyone else want to share long ago thoughts about coming back home? For you, Steffi, I guess it was about leaving home and starting a new adventure!

Yes, life has been and continues to be an adventure. Right now, NYC is an adventure every day. Our mayor buying himself a third term. And our Yankees winning. As I write this here in NYC, I'm surrounded by the noise of modern living: apartment reconstruction in the building, drilling and leaf blowing and backing-up beeping trucks outside. It gets really hard to tune it all out sometimes. So that's the down side of living here. But it's not always like this.

Sorry to have to report that our Peter had a massive heart attack almost two weeks ago on Sunday, Oct 25, and is being treated in a NH heart facility. He had subsequent bypass surgery on the following Wednesday, and is on the mend. Spoke to him today for the first time - he sounded very weak but totally coherant. He's out of the ICU. We're optimistic that he'll be himself very soon. He sends his regards to everyone.

Peter - I'm glad to hear that you made it. I hope to see you back on line soon. The good news is that once you get over your surgery and discomfort you will be in better shape than you were before and ready for many more good years.

Steffi - Thanks for the update.

Hope you are feeling much better, and that you get back online soon. We miss you!

I managed to cross the Pacific three times on troop transports , the first two times as a dependant, and the last trip as a Marine. All three trips were pleasant but I always seemed to arrive in the fog early in the morning. Yokohama was dreary and rainy. I remember passing a bunch of small naval vessels in the dark on the way into Yokohama and then pulling into South Pier where there was a big crowd waiting for our ship, the Mitchell.
On the return trip on the Anderson we could barely see the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog and the only land we saw before docking was Alcatraz. Both trips were uneventful. I spent a lot of time playing cards and Chess.
My final trip in 1964 was a little different, no longer being a dependant, but again I played a lot of cards and Chess. We stopped in Hawaii and I had a great time there. Between Hawaii and Yokosuka we caught a typhoon and I got to watch one of the most impressive sights I've ever seen when a destroyer pulled alongside in very rough seas and lowered a small boat to transfer a patient in need of surgery to the Sultan. The little boat, that couldn't have been any more than fifteen feet long, bobbed through huge swells, rigged a high line to the Sultan, transferred a stretcher with the patient, and then returned to the destroyer. The reason I was outside on deck was that everyone below decks was seasick and my troop compartment was not a nice place that day. Yokosuka was foggy and rainy the morning we arrived.
My trip back was in 1966 by air from Okinawa to Travis AFB on a charter flight. My wonderful time in Japan had ended when we deployed to Vietnam where I stayed for nearly a year. Flying into Travis could not have been very exciting because I don't remember anything except having to catch a bus to San Francisco so I could get paid. In Vietnam we would tell them how much money we wanted on pay day and leave the rest on the books. When it was time to come back I had close to a year's pay on the books and was advised to take my pay record to disbursing and get paid after I got back. Sounded good except that Travis wouldn't process a Marine Corps pay record so I had to go to Treasure Island. Then I discovered that they didn't have any currency bigger than twenty dollar bills and they couldn't cut me a check. So I ended up with a very large stack of money and no place to put it. A WM Master Sergeant who I guess was the disbursing chief unpacked her lunch and insisted I put my money in the paper bag she had brought her lunch in. So I headed into San Francisco with a paper bag full of twenty dollar bills looking for a bank to change them into $100 dollar bills. Every bank I went in to looked at me like I was a leper or something until I finally got lucky and ran into a teller who had a brother in the Marine Corps.
I had stayed in downtown San Francisco near the bus station the night before because it was too late to go to Treasure Island. I went to a Bonanza restaurant to get a steak and some salad. I hadn't eaten either in nearly a year and it really hit the spot. I ordered a steak, loaded up on salad which I immediately ate, got my steak and more salad and ordered another steak all the while commenting on how good everything was and then polished off a couple desserts.
When I went to pay the cashier, she asked where I was coming from and when I told her Vietnam, she wouldn't let me pay. She said usually when they got someone in that was eating like I was they were coming from Alcatraz. Maybe that's why the banks weren't friendlier. I was probably pretty scary looking then, skinny and tanned, wearing civilian clothes that were now too big, a bad haircut, and probably sporting a crazy grin.
My next flight back from Vietnam in 1968 was so uneventful that I've forgotten the mainland arrival but I do remember stopping in Hawaii long enough to go through customs and catch another flight after about an hour in the airport. Customs was a mob scene with a very long line that we all had to get in even though none of us had anything to declare. After standing in line a few minutes a customs agent showed up and said for all of us Marines to follow him. We followed, expecting the worst, and were led to a side door that bypassed the customs lines and led to the main lobby where he instructed us to leave the customs declarations we had all filled out on the plane in a box by the door and to enjoy Hawaii. We all immediately got in another line at the closest bar.
My last trip back in 1973 stopped in Alaska where it was dark and cold and where our aircraft parked about a mile from the main terminal in the middle of the night. We all dashed through the cold and darkness to the air terminal where it was too late to get a drink and where the lone cook in the snack bar was not happy to see a plane load of hungry Marines arriving in the middle of the night. She could have made a small fortune in tips if she had been friendlier and faster. We then flew on to Norton AFB which was even more out in the middle of nowhere than Travis.

Is there an update available on Peter's condition ?

I have not spoken to Peter again - he seems to be away from his room a lot, which I guess is a good sign that they're working on him. Probably he's walking a bit, and maybe doing PT.

The following is an email we just got from Janet, his wife:

Hi Guys: Sorry out of touch. Kinda running ragged. Thanks for thoughts and prayers. Peter was thrilled to hear from you. Still in hospital...still trying to get heart rhythm under control. He's been talking non-stop...now that he can. More than me...! Still hoarse. Hoping for the best all the way around. I'm thinking I'd like to check in next. Looks like when he is discharged it'll be to home rather than acute rehab. PT is much happier than they were a few days ago. Hope things are better at your end than they are here! And that you're enjoying being back in the NY swim of things...Peter misses his JG buddies. Maybe let them know... He'll get back to them as soon as he can. XO to you both...Janet

Just got off the phone with Peter and Janet - he sounds great. Going home from the hospital tomorrow and will post very soon thereafter, I'm sure.

Welcome home, Peter!

Hope you feel better! Get back early. I want see "Last night in Matsushima" again.

Wally san; Do you remember this hotel?

This hotel closed about 20 years ago.

Link is Japanese, Please enjoy pix.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/hagemarupika/e/29976c7f5255afa866ada7b3b3164557

Thank you for this picture. This is the hotel where my father lived during the fifties before our family arrived and we moved to the Bluff in 1952. When was this picture taken? I don't remember the hotel looking quite this way -- has the first floor acquired some surface changes or an addition?

Good to hear that Peter has returned home from the hospital. Best wishes for a quick recovery, Peter. When you are ready, it will be good to have you back on the forum.

Thank you for the pictures of the Bund Hotel. I stayed there a few times 1967-68, but it was more somber looking then, and Barbara you are right, it didn�ft have the gray modern front with the blue awnings back then. The Bund was old when I was a patron, and wasn�ft as luxurious as the New Grand and Silk Hotel, but the rooms were a lot cheaper.

Hope Peter-san gets well soon so he can rib me about the Bund.

I am glad for you to see pictures. Yes, this is a picture several years when Bund Hotel closes. Establishment was 1928. Perhaps, the lobby was redecorated.

Wally-san, you went to restaurant "Cowbell" before. There was able to be drunk comparatively at a low price. Yakitori was delicious. Wife and I often had a meal there.

Here's another really cool site to explore. Enjoy! (I sure did!)

This is an important cultural asset of Japan. Beautiful pictures are drawn in the wall and the sliding door.

http://takemovies.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2009-10-19

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankeien

Oops!! Here is the site I referred to. NOW enjoy, (please).


www.puroresushop.com/pro76.htm

I am so glad to be back.!! You'll be sorry !
Pretty boring to hear about someones" operation" so will keep this quick. On Oct 25 th I suffered a massive heart attack and was rushed to a regional medical heart center, where after a failed stint procedure I had a 6 way by-pass. The next week was a total blurr, being in ICU for 8 days with all kinds of complications. and on a breathing tube. After that there were more complications getting my heart rhythms
figured out. About the only funny story is that early one morning while in ICU the nurse called my wife at home. They asked if I spoke Japanese. as I was babbleing in some tongue. Idon't know, maybe it was the morphine.
So I am back home now and beginning my recovery programs.
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.
Note for Steffi, my e mail is not working well- pop up blocker glitch.
All for now.
best to you all. I'll be checking in when I can, these things take a lot out of you..like an evening a the Peanut club.