Quick Response By R.C.N.
Heroes Remember
Quick Response By R.C.N.
Interviewer: What were the names of the
Destroyers that went?
There was Cayuga, Athabaskan and Sioux.
I was in Sioux.
Interviewer: Were you, do you recall what
was told to you men, what your duties
were going to be in Korean waters?
Well we really didn't have much
idea what it was. We got to,
we sailed for Hawaii and we did some
anti-submarine training there.
And we really didn't get much instruction
until we came under American
control in, in Korea.
Interviewer: What, what happened when
you did come into Korean waters and
came under American control?
Well we went, first, well we arrived in Sasebo,
Sasebo was our operating base,
and the first day we were
there we were given overnight,
or ten o'clock leave I guess anyway.
We were stand-by ship so the, we,
there was another guy from Nanaimo,
who lived in Nanaimo, was on the same
ship with me, his name was Bud Booth.
He lives in Port Alberni now.
But we went ashore and headed
for downtown, it was, Japan was still
occupied at the time, by the Americans
and they, we got into a couple of places
where they served booze and then we
were walking up the street and
well we were told when we left the
ship that if we got, were going to sail,
there would be, they would shine the
twenty-one inch search light into the air and
we were to return to the ship immediately.
But we had just been at sea for thirty days
so we weren't too interested in going to,
back to sea so we said, "Well we won't go."
And the, we were walking up the street and
a British Military Police stopped us,
"I say, are you fellows off the civics?"
And we said, "Yeah, we are off the Sioux."
He said, "Well you got a recall."
"Yeah, we're heading right back."
Then we walked about another block and
a great big guy and a coloured fella in a jeep,
an MP, he said, "You all off the Sioux?"
And we said "Yep." He says, I said,
"We're heading right back."
He said, "You sure are. Get in the jeep."
And he drove us right to the jetty and
we sailed that night with a
convoy to Pusan, as an escort.
Related Videos
New Duties
Mr. White recalls his first weeks in Korean waters.
Shore Leave Excursions
Occasional shore leave took members of the crew of HMCS Sioux to some interesting places, including the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
Some Rough Water
Life aboard ship was not always smooth sailing, especially in stormy Pacific waters.
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