George Faulkner.     Jack Harbor.     Richard Shuff.
 S.E. Christian.    Tanaka*.    Simmons.     Springer.

You'd think after five weeks in the same barracks, classrooms, chow halls, marching formations, roll calls, I'd know more names.  Well, I did, each and every one, but that was then; this is now.  I'd be eager to add any: fsheffi1@san.rr.com

Row 1  · Wayne E. Anderson, S.E. Christian, Jr., Laurence E. Dills, Thomas E. Driggers, George A. Faulkner, A/2c McLain.
Row 2 · Jack E. Harbor, Albert W. Jackson, Jr., Nicholas H. Kyle, Sammy S. Lacey, Robert W. H. Lee.
Row 3 · Roland W. L. Lee, Walter F. Lint, Jr., Gordon J. Liu, Patrick Y. L. K. Liu, John L. Lopes, Jr., Kenneth T. Makiya, Benny Manago.
Row 4 · Woodrow J. Matayoshi, Toshihiro Matsuda, Louis J. Medina, Richard G. Melgoza, Willie B. Miller, Eusebio Mina, Clark F. Mounts.

Row 5 · Harry F. Nakagawa, Francis F. Noya, Toshio Oda, Robert Patrocinio, Lawrence D. K. Peralto, Richard R. Pilgrim, Ronald P. Rivera.
Row 6 · Rideau R. Rogers, Alfred E. K. Rutherford, Benigno Sarona, Frank M. Sheffield, Gary T. Shiroma, Richard Shuff, Gerald E. Simons.
Row 7 · Clyde G. Springer, Ronald M. Tadaki, David K. Tanaka, Wallace N. Tanigawa, Andrew M. Taniguchi, Robert K. Tomita, Delphin T. Ubongen, Ronald M. Uyeda.
Row 8 · Antonio R. Vertido, Anacleto L. Viernes, Howard T. Watanabe, Robert M. Williams, Tetsuo Yata, Richard K. Young, Edwardo Yrojo, Chester U. O. Yuen.

* It looks as if I got the name "Tanaka" pasted under the wrong face. And I'm not certain "Lacey" isn't "Dills."

My story:

Today (must have been some time in 2000 or so) something insignificant happened in the kitchen at home, and it reminded me of an incident at Parks: after about three weeks of Air Force potatoes-with-every-meal food, and no opportunity to get any other kind, it was just too much for one of the boys from Hawai'i. He shook his head sadly over his plate, tears welling in his eyes, and said, "Don't want no bodadoes. Want rice."

Fourteen of the fellows in this flight enlisted in Los Angeles, or at least were sworn in at the L.A. induction center. The other forty were from Hawai'i. Some had been in the barracks at Hickam Field for two weeks or more, while the ranks filled out and a full forty could make a flight together. Most of the latter were small persons, a couple actually smaller than the minimum size to qualify for enlistment. One of them said the recruiter told him he was young, and by the time he finished Basic Training he'd be tall enough. He was twenty-three. What do you think? Right.

Four or five who came to the mainland were regular size or larger. The fall-in rules were "If you are taller than the man in front of you, move forward. Right face. Same command. Left face. One more time." When Flight 289 marched about the base, there were three tall rows and a raft of shorts. We were subject to derisive cat-calls from time to time. "Rainbows, rainbows." they would say. One time the Drill Instructors of our flight and a cat-calling flight marched us behind a building and went around the corner.

For about five minutes the Rainbows thumped the goofy haole big-mouths. You should have seen the little guys, running up the front of these guys and rattling their tiny brains with a tattoo of punches. Quite a bit of Judo going on, too. No one ever hollered "Rainbow" at us again.

I learned to count in Japanese and Hawai'i language. We'd do a cadence count in Japanese, then shout, "Banzai!" That lasted about three days. Then we did it going past a headquarters building. Guess the rest. We also sang Hawai'i songs while marching at half-speed. No one objected to that.

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