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My name is
Keith Fannon. As a member of and Historian for the Association I am dedicating
this site to all of the great guys that served with the 51st both
before and after m
e.
There will be more information about the
51st
Association
later. Please sign the Guest Book when you get there and don't forget to
include your e-mail address. One of your friends may be looking for you.
After about a eighteen months in the Air Force I decided that it was time to
leave Headquarters 10th Air Force and go overseas. I wanted to go to
the new base in Spain. When my overseas orders came in I was instructed to
report to Camp Stoneman in California. Not exactly the way to Spain. As usual
the Air Force had their own ideas. After taking my “delay in route” to visit
my family I proceeded to California. Camp Stoneman is close to San Francisco
and it is very pretty there, but I was surprised to find that even at the end
of May it got quite foggy
and
cool at night. I thought that California was supposed to be sunny and warm.
After having all of the obligatory shots and vaccinations it was finally time to ship all of us to our overseas assignments. You can’t imagine how surprised I was to hear that I was the lucky recipient of an all expense paid trip to OKINAWA!! I really hadn’t given Okinawa much thought after the end of World War II. What was there to think about? It sure wasn’t the most desirable vacation spot in the world. Oh well, orders are orders.
One fine morning we were told to grab our gear and board the buses lined up on the road. We were headed for the port to board our ship. I have to admit, for a guy from the Midwest I was quite excited. I had never been on anything larger than a small fishing boat on one of the local fishing lakes at home. Heck, I had never seen the Pacific before. When we got to the port I couldn’t believe the size of that ship (boat). I still am not sure which is correct. The U.S.S. General Nelson M. Walker was, at that time, the largest troop transport in the Pacific.
When we boarded we were told that we would remain at the dock until early
morning. When I went below to grab a bunk I selected a top one. My buddy said
that it was a lot less work to get into the ones on the bottom. My response was
that I had heard that a lot of guys would probably
get
seasick and I would just as soon be above not below. I have to say it was one
of the best decisions I had made in a long time. I will not go into great
detail except to say that before reaching Naha Okinawa we were in a typhoon for
almost 20 hours. It sure made easy work of my serving on the chow line. A lot
of the troops did not feel like eating.
APO 239
NAHA OKINAWA-15 June 1950
After we debarked they started to assign us to the various organizations on the island. I was assigned to the Air Installations Squadron of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing at Naha. Some of the others were sent to the bomber base at Kadena.
I met up with a great bunch of guys. We lived in Quonset huts, slept on cots with mosquito netting and endured a lot of rain. You learned very quickly not to let any part of your body touch the netting while you were asleep. Oh yes, they added a pith helmet to the uniform. My working conditions were very good. I was assigned to work in the Job Office receiving and relaying the various jobs around the base to the proper departments and requisitioning vehicles from the Motor Pool. A Master Sergeant and I handled the office.
Sunday 25 June 1950
Attention-Attention All Personnel!—an
announcement came over the PA system, that’s the way it started for us. We were
ordered to assemble in the Squadron Area. We were briefly told that the North
Koreans had invaded South Korea and to return to our Quonset huts and await
further instructions. Later that day we were again called to the Squadron Area
and told to line up at the rear entrance to the Supply Quonset. As we proceeded
through the Supply we were issued a canteen belt with canteen, mess kit,
bayonet, backpack, steel helmet and a weapon.
Most
everyone received a M1-.30 caliber Carbine. For some unknown reason a few days
later they called me back and issued me a M3A1- .45 cal. “grease gun”. I later
found that it was because I was to be the Jeep driver and guard for the Squadron
Commander in Korea. When we got to Korea I was issued a Colt 1911-A1 .45
automatic pistol as well. After a short time I requested that they exchange
the grease gun for a carbine. I wanted something with more range and they
agreed.
On 6 September 1950, the 51st was alerted for movement to Itazuke Air Base Japan. The next 16 days were extremely busy. The carpenter shop was building special packing crates and heavy equipment was moving everything to the port for all of the squadrons. Everyone was busy getting ready to move. I secured a particular Jeep from the Motor Pool as a permanent part of our fleet. I was instructed to have some modification performed. This is the Jeep that I will drive in Korea.
22 September 1950
The 16th and 25th Fighter Squadrons flew a total of 61 F-80’s and 2 T-33’s from
Okinawa and completed the over-the-water flight without incident. We did leave
the 26th Fighter Squadron on Okinawa to watch China and protect
Okinawa. That same day the main body of the Wing embarked aboard the USNS
Sylvester Antolak. This was a converted Liberty Ship from WWII. There was no
air conditioning (forget about sleeping below decks) and we had to stand up to
eat. There was a stainless steel table about 40" high to put your mess tray
on. You had to hold on to the tray with one hand and eat with the other. If
you didn't hang onto your tray it would slide down the table as the ship
rolled. We debarked three days later at Moji
Japan and traveled to Itazuke by rail. Compared to Naha, Itazuke was a very
modern base with good barracks and facilities. Unfortunately they decided that
we would pitch our tents in between the barracks, but could use their showers.
It rained and we were ankle deep in the mud. Good training for the future. At
this time we had 146 officers and 939 airmen.