And some more pics from the wayback machine, courtesy of one of my shipmates from back in the day…
Diego Garcia and our ‘fine’ quarters on the beach… Better known as ‘Splinterville’…
And a couple from Utapao. First was Pia’s down by the flight line. Good ‘ham’ sandwiches and in walking distance, if somebody had taken off with the crew van.
And Raja’s Tailor Shop. Finest suits for $25, and Singha beer while you wait! Actually the suits were pretty good material, but the thread SUCKED! I knew one guy who sent his suit to the laundry to have it dry cleaned after we got back off deployment, and it disintegrated! It cost him about $100 to have it resewn! The next deployment, everybody took GOOD thread and specified that only THAT thread be used for their suits. Then they lasted about a year. The usual problem then was we’d all put on weight, since we were back stateside, and not running around like scaled apes… sigh…
And they were always good for a free beer, especially if it was a day or so before payday, and you were broke. But ONLY ONE free beer a trip. 🙂
Oh, and he had a ‘cousin’ in the jewelry business, “Good honest Baht chain, guarantee 22 carat gold”, and another ‘cousin’ in the furniture business. BUFEs, basket chairs, etc.
Truly a different world!
Thanks for sharing those pics and memories. Oh if I haven’t said it before, or if even if I have, thank you for your service and the sacrifices that come with it.
Nice hooch. I lived in one much like it back in the day.
We had a lot of SeaBees who came to Adak from Diego Garcia. No wonder they acted glad to live in the Bering Hill barracks! Srsly, our Quonset hut was better than your hooch, but only just.
Tole- Thanks!
Jim- LOL, we used to have contests killing flies… sigh
Rev- Yeah, barracks vs. Splinterville, barracks win!
first time seeing any ‘real’ photos of Diego Garcia. Thanks
Randy- It was…interesting, back in the day. Lots of plywood structures, old plantation house, old beach guns rusting in place, and a crashed PBY up on the beach. Add in a runway, and a Butler hut for a hangar, and that was pretty much it. GREAT beachcombing, shelling, and diving.
I’ve drunk Singha and owned a papasan chair, but these pics make me think I wasn’t in the real Navy! Thanks for them.
Looks like J. Elrod in that first photo.