I remember when . . .
Jack Linthicum
Your Time Snapshots I remember when . . .
I remember when . . .
My ship stopped the demolition man
Paul R. Holmberg
August 17, 2008
When I was in the U.S. Navy, my ship was entering a port in the Far
East in 1955 when we spied a certain type of small ship anchored in
the harbor. We knew instinctively that we would be "attacked" by the
U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), the forerunner of the
Navy SEALs, that evening. This was their usual practice.
It was becoming a nuisance, as it happened in almost every port we
entered. Someone would sneak aboard our ship and place something that
said "BOMB" on it. Each evening, we put out a small craft to patrol
around the ship looking for swimmers. When spotted, a bright beam of
light would be placed on them, and they would swim away because they
had been "shot."
Our ship was an LST (landing ship, tank) with bow doors and a ramp. So
one evening, we set an obvious trap by opening the bow and lowering
the ramp into the water, and we waited in the shadows.
Sure enough, someone took the bait and came up the ramp. He was
captured and placed in our brig. The ramp was raised, and the bow
doors closed, and we continued to watch for more swimmers.
The next day, word was sent out asking whether anyone had seen the UDT
commander, to which we replied, "No." We watched as many small boats
set out looking for that missing man, while we had him all the time,
dried off, fed and clothed.
Our LST division commander obtained our captive's word that he would
stop the "attacks" if we let him go but would not betray his stupid
mistake of falling for an obvious trap. We covertly set him ashore, so
he could make up his own story.
We had no further "attacks."
PAUL R. HOLMBERG
ORANGE CITY