We bid farewell to our shipmates who were leaving the ship to be discharged. Included in the group were two of my close friends, 35 year old first class radioman Ray Hall from Oklahoma and 26 year old third class radarman Harold Bradley from Tennessee. A few years later I received a Christmas card and news clipping from Harold's wife stating that he had died in a pickup accident.
Shortly after arrival we were informed that we would be going to San Pedro for decommissioning. John "Fred" Kline, the other radioman and myself went on liberty the first night in the states. We only had $2 between us, so all we could do was take in the sights.
On Nov. 29th most of us made our last sea trip in the navy, going from San Diego to San Pedro. On arrival there we were disappointed to find out that we would be anchored out in the bay instead of tied up to a dock. We were told that we would get liberty every other night and every other weekend. This was good news, because from now on life would be pretty dull aboard ship. Our ship and other Net Tenders anchored close to us were assigned a 36 foot LCVP landing craft for ship to shore transportation.
I was the ship mailman while we were in the Seattle area and at this time. This was a break in getting off the ship as I would go to Long Beach every other day to get the mail.
Before decommissioning began all we did was sleep, eat and go on liberty. One evening while on board ship we decided to help ourselves to the motor launch, to relieve our boredom. Four of us decided to go to San Pedro for a couple of beers. My friend Coxswain Pete Miranda took the tiller and I ran the engine for him. I started the engine, gave it a little throttle, put it in gear and we slowly pulled away from the ship. After we were a safe distance out Pete gave the order for full speed ahead. I opened up the throttle and we went happily off into the night headed for San Pedro. We found a quiet dark place to tie up the motor launch and headed for a bar along the waterfront. About an hour later we headed back. Shortly after leaving the dock we were engulfed in thick fog. We then got lost. We were a little concerned that we might end up out of the breakwater into open sea. We came upon a anchored merchant freighter and were given permission to come aboard. Their friendly and helpful Quartermaster helped us get our bearings and we were off again. We finally spotted the horns of one of the Net Tenders. We were much relieved, and decided that we would not make any more unauthorized trips at night.
Two more of my friends would be leaving the ship soon. 20 year old 2nd class Radio Technician Joe Darrow would be leaving by December 15th to be discharged. Later 20 year old Radioman Fred Kline was to be hospitalized for a short time, but would not return to the ship. They were both from California.

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