A MONTH ON OAHU
	1-30-44 TO 3-1-44
        by F.E.(Jim) DeVine

	At Pearl, we were stationed at the Marine Barracks for about
	one uneventful week.  I did stroll down to the drydock area
	and watched the USS PENNSYLVANIA * being  stripped.  She had
        been damaged during the 12-7-41 attack, and she was undergoing 
        extensive repairs. 

	We were then transferred to Casual Company, Transient Center, Camp 
	Catlin between Pearl and Honolulu.  The camp is now Catlin Gardens
	outside the main entrance to the Honolulu airport. Here I was 
	assigned to guard Korean prisoners who were freed from the Japs.
	I would take 10 or 12 of them on police details with an unloaded
	rifle and cartridge belt. When we finished the detail, I would take
	them fishing at Salt Lake up behind the camp.  I can remember one
	time I had my hands full and one of the "prisoners" held my rifle
	for me.

	We had pretty much liberty at this time, and Dexter Allen Nesmith
	of Statesboro, Ga., and I went to Honolulu frequently.  We quite 
	innocently wound up on Hotel St. at the New Senator for our
	initiation. For seventeen year olds, we were having a ball. I also
	remember the luxury of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and its beach.
	But, all good things must end.

        Jim DeVine (Reading, PA)

        * (Jim saw a battlewagon in a dry dock at Pearl.  He was told that
        she was the USS PENNSYLVANIA. We have located two photos which show
        this ship in dry dock.  These photos appear in Jim's Photo Gallery
        II, which may be linked from the homepage/memoirs section.) 
        N. Wagonseller...web master for Jim DeVine