Ralph Emerson Nov 1956/57 photo collection
To the left is Miyagshima Island when I was there, no bridges existed, as you see a bridge to the left....
The village was supplied by taxi boats and you can see the village in
the foreground of the island.....
Our life line was a 50' LCM and it was moored in the lagoon just over the top of the green hill where the bridge connects too............
Once a week we would load the CO, driving one of our trucks, into the well deck of the LCM and take him across to the main island for food, mail, movies, pay and a PX run etc then return to Kim beach late in the day and pick him up !! The station was at the far end of the island, about in the center, you can see a brown area, that would be the spot....
On the left side, about midway you can see a white dot, that would be
water tanks and over the bluff to the left was a spring that we
pumped water from......Twice a day, in the morning we pumped to
the station and in the afternoon to the village.........
In the late 90's I was trying to track down what happened to my home away
from home and made a great contact, a X Marine who ran the U S O
at Camp Hansen (USMC base) and he saw this picture on the front of a magazine at a
local bank and sent it to me...........
Our Station
The pump house
Below a steep bluff, faced with intricate cut stone blocks and less than
50 feet from the high tide mark was a fresh water spring that flowed
year round...
The water flowed into a cement catch basin and we pumped water out
of it, in the AM to the station and in the late PM, water was pumped
to the village, where it went flowedinto a cement trough, where the
villagers could get their water and take it to where they lived....
The pump house showed scars of WW ll, where bullets had hit it........
UE-1b Timer
T-137 Transmitter
Timer room in the background
The comb receive antenna
Generator Room after it was painted
The Crew
Standing L to R: ET2 Stoner; ET2 Miller; RM2 Hale; DC2 Elyis; FNEN
Morris; SN Button; SN Flick
Kneeling L to R: ETC ?; BMC Hardy, ET1 Bracken; BM1 Horsley; PO1
Poccnii; PO1 McDorman; PO2 ?; HM1 Baker; EN3 Givens
LTJG Thomas Chilton (CO)
Ralph himself
DC3 (Chips) Haggbloom and EN3 Lo
Chips at the wheel
Chips in the rack
DC3 Haggbloom and FN Ah-Sue
EN3 Lo working on the truck
ET1 (Porky) Bracken in the pit
ET2 Calvin Miller in the pit
SN Packer and BM2 Lupton
FN Jim Ahsue
FN Ahsue working on the truck
RM2 Jones at the key
HMC Steele and EN1 Magee checking out the outboard motor
EN1 Magee, HMC Steele, Lupton
EN1 Magee, FN Ahsue, BM2 Lupton
Ralph Emerson, Uyehiera, Magee, Lupton, Jones, Sadoco, Terp
SN Davis, HM1 Baker, EN2 Givens, RM2 Jones, EN1 Magee
Having a few cold ones in the first class quarters
Road Detail Jan 1957
Front Row Kneeling L to R: FN Ahsue; HM1 Baker; FN Ralph Emerson; SN
Uyehiera; EN2 Givens
Bach Row L to R: EN1 Magee; USMC Grade Operator; LTJG Thomas Chilton
(CO); USMC Grade operator; BMC Hardy
Road Detail Jan 1957
L to R: HM1 Baker; FN Ahsue; FN Ralph Emerson; USMC Grade operator;
EN2 Givens;
SN Uyehiera; EN1 Magee
Standing: Left: LTJG Thomas Chilton (CO) Right: BMC Hardy
After the typhoon the villagers assisted refloat the LCM
Kids and Festival
The Habu was a deadly pit viper, which I reduced the Habu population by six ....
I created this sign and put it on our only road about 100 yards
from the station...
Coincidentally all the snakes that met their demise were killed
beyond this sign, except for one....
That one met his or her demise in the crews quarters....In the room
used for the sea bag storage was kept hot ( 500 watt bulb burnt 24/7 ) to
prevent mold, mildew etc.
A skin that a snake had shed was found, so the CO wanted the
building sealed and exhaust from one of the trucks flowed into the
crews quarters for a day, did it kill the snake was the
question....
A couple mornings later as everyone was getting ready for morning
muster, one of the guys was sitting on the commode, when someone
noticed a Habu coming out of a wooden box, which was used to hold
paper towels just above his back...........Needless to say he made
a fast exit with pants at half mast and the snake didn't live
another day.........
A young village boy was bitten in both lower legs, our HMC stayed
with the boy all night using ice and tourniquets to control
swelling till daylight and a USAF helicopter could fly him to a
hospital............
The Lockheed '' Blackbird '' the A-12 ( CIA ) and SR-71 ( USAF )
nicknamed the Habu flying missions in and out of Kadena AFB
Okinawa.
The Habu patch was only awarded to the crews who had flown operational sorties..
RM2 Jones thinking of home
Thanks Ralph!
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