Sgt. Grit
While stationed with Kilo Btry, 4th Battalion, 12th Marines in Feb.1957 I was sent to Camp Matthews for Qualification ….As the Marine wrote in the 8/29/12 newsletter it was exactly as he described as I recall…We quartered in 5 men tents, our shower house was a wooden frame covered with a tarp, with a 2'' hose thrown over the wooden frame and pumping cold water….Also when we had movies they were on a bed sheet stretched between two poles outside.. It was a hot dusty place to be but when the sun went down and roll call was taken we slipped away from camp for some boon dock liberty and had a good time, or got into trouble in Kin Village..Also for breakfast all we ever had was powdered eggs, so we'd slip off at night and trade cigarettes and c-rations for fresh eggs with the locals…. .As I remember at that time we were told Kin Village was mostly Communist and off limits to us Marines, but we didn't let that stop us….The girls and bars didn't mind we were Marines…lol…When off duty one of the best places for some relaxation was Ishakawa Beach which I've enclosed a picture….There were lots of young girls, warm sand, good food, and plenty of ice cold beer….I thought I had found paradise….BTW….If any of you old salts can remember a beach somewhere around there where there were thousands of Mortar shells on the beach and stuck in the cliffs, where they had washed ashore from the invasion of Okinawa in 1945, Please let me know where that beach was, I can't remember where I was at when I saw that….Through some research I found there where two ammunition ships sank by Japanese torpedos during the battle and that's most likely where so many Mortar Shells came from…. If you can refresh my memory please do.
Howard W. Kennedy…K-4-12 USMC …1957-58 Okinawa