Conversation on Deck

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It happened on a troop ship, but it didn’t have anything to do with the war. It could have happened anywhere. There is the other point of view, that maybe nothing happened. Take your choice.

We were on an AP, a General class ship — three thousand army passengers and a navy crow. We wore in convoy, headed for Ulithi, nothing combat, just of bunch of guys riding around in the hot Pacific. It was crowded so they let us sleep on the deck. We officers were presented with a steel plated, hand engraved section of the top deck as our beauty rest.

After you float around for more than a couple of weeks you fall into little habits. A bunch of us, not well acquainted when the trip started, got into the habit of sleeping on top of hatch five, a little job about twelve by twelve. It held eight of us stretched out. Once in a while a “stranger” would get one of the places before we filled it up, but usually it was the same eight. Because sleeping or even just sitting below decks was like trying to live in a steam bath, we usually hit the hatch cover early in the evening with our makeshift bedding. Then there was nothing to do but talk. Hatch five became one of the conversation centers. The whole boat was covered with clusters of conversation in the evening and I suppose the topics were pretty much alike in each group. All I am sure about is our group.

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