The rain in Hawaii can be very intense; maybe that's why everything is so green. We invaded the island of Maui in '62, the first time the Marines had been there since WWII. Maui was in the middle of a drought (well by Hawaiian standards) but the day we landed it started to pour and kept on raining for the next two weeks we were there. The locals were happy, but we were miserable and soggy.
The night before we were to go back to K-Bay five of us decided we needed some R&R. We knew that Wailuku was around there somewhere and took off in that general direction. After a very wet hour we stopped a Jeep going our way to see if we were heading in the right direction, the Col. riding shotgun assured us that we were! A little while later an older local couple asked if we needed a ride and we replied that we did indeed! First they told us that we had about ten more miles to go then they talked about the "drought" and finished by telling about the U.S. Marines they had known during the war and how great it was to have us back. We were dropped off in the parking lot of a bar and noticed that there was a store nearby. There was an Army 3/4 ton PC parked there – we decided that because of the way were dressed (utilities) it would be better to send someone for the beer while the rest of us climbed into the back of the PC to get out of the rain.
The beer arrived and we started the party in our cozy, dry nest. After too many beers we decided that the trip back to the beach was way too long to walk and besides the Army had this perfectly fine transport at our disposal. When we got to the beach we parked the PC in a local neighborhood close to the beach and walked to the Company area. About two months after our return to K-BAY I was told to report to the maintenance building and noticed the other five members of our band were all headed in the same direction. We were told to report to Gunny 'O' and we were informed he was in a real foul mood. He started by asking if anyone had anything to tell him, we all said "no", he continued by asking if anything unusual happened in Maui, we all said "no". He began to tell a story about a local that had come up to him on the beach in Maui and said that there was one of our trucks parked in the middle of his lawn! Pappy told him that he would send someone over right away to retrieve the truck and apologized for his troubles. The man told him that everything was OK and had enjoyed the whole operation. "Does any one of you know what happened to that truck? "What truck" we all said. Well you're a bunch of idiots, have been riding in it back and forth to the tractor park for the last two months. Pappy had it brought to the beach, loaded it on the ship and brought it back to K-Bay. Maintenance had repainted it Marine Corps green, affixed the Amtrac shield, stenciled on the yellow numbers and put it in service. He made it very clear that if any part of the story came out there would be a huge sh-t storm that we wouldn't survive. We swore we would never utter a word and yet here I am spilling my guts. Does the statute of limitations apply? Over the years I have often wondered where they hid that truck during inspections, and what happened to those Doggies that had taken the truck to town!
Cpl. Selders (not my real name)
With regards to DDick's article on fighting holes. Here is a picture of a fighting hole we dug during a field problem around '61 on Maui. Before all you grunts out there get your panties in a bunch, this is an "Amtrac" hole! I know it's not deep or big enough, but we were use to using a steel box and a squad of grunts for protection. We had to dig three more because they kept filling up with rainwater. I was a nonsmoker, but had to have one hanging out of my mug 'cuz I'm a Marine.