Naval Security Group Comm Unit 43

8 Replies to “Naval Security Group Comm Unit 43”

  1. That is my patch shown on this site! I have it on my vest and believe I sent it to this site a good while ago.”
    Member of CommUnit43 Midway from July 19, 1957 – July 24, 1958. My favorite duty station of all!
    Will send this site to all those I have email addresses for.

  2. Looking back on Midway I get very upset to see what has happened, especially to Eastern. Totally flat. Only building is an outdoor john, I guess for anybody who may go over to see what it is like! I’d love to be able to go back and take a big mower and clear off the runways so they would look as pristine as when we were there! My group stayed in the old movie hall, most on the bottom floor, but the 2 I were with had the old film storage room on the second floor. One small window but what a view! It faced east so we got the early morning sunlight! We could walk out on the roof and check out the area around us, and that is where I stood and watched the old mess hall be torn down. They wrapped a cable around it and then pulled it with a bulldozer, cutting it in half! Gooneys didn’t matter. If they were in the way, they got run over. That night there was a mercy party who went out and took care of badly injured and dying birds.
    So many wonderful memories on that little island!

  3. I look back & remember all the great times we had as a group on Eastern! What a great group we had!
    A few of you I’ve kept up with but others have gone on, as my group is now all past 80! But, I’d still go back if I could & if they’d provide me with a mower, I’d take care of the runways on Eastern & make them as clean as they were back in 1957-58. When I went back in 2000 the condition was sickening! They are supposed to be kept up for emergency landing if needed.
    I did get to walk the road to where our ops building was & pick up a broken piece of insulator lying on the ground.
    Oh, what memories came flooding back when I found the base of the flagpole in front of the old movie hall! One of the rangers, Steve Dryden, took my picture while I was standing on it. I kept up with Steve for a while but lost touch later.
    Great Memories – what we have from a great part of life!

  4. Hi Welford,
    Thanks for bringing this back for the memories. I was in this group, COMUNIT 43, most of the time you were. We sure had it made, as one or my Navy buddies said when he visited Eastern
    Paul Elerick CT2

  5. I was CT2 on Midway in 1968-9. We lived in barracks on Sand Island and took an LST over to work at the Comm Sta. on Eastern.
    We worked a 2eve-2day-2mid-80 off shift and lots of free time for the beach. Walked around the islands many times for fishing floats, etc. What a great place to spend a year – a real paradise.
    Recently learned a friend and fellow Washington Game Warden (Ret), Doug Swanson, was there as a CT about 10 years before me.

    1. Hey Steve. Doug and I were there at the same time. A group of us all worked together and we all got along great! We had eve-day-mid and day off. That still give a lot of time to look for fishballs and I still have a netted basketball size one, along with a roller, one with water in it, and a few others. One sitting on my desk on a mug, almost perfectly clear! I still chat with Doug, Paul, Don, Frank, and Gus, our supervisor, who now lives just 2 hours up the road from us. Still the best duty I ever had and I’d love to go back, set up a tent, and spend a week on Eastern one more time. FWS should be gone, they know nothing but what their name says, Fish and Wildlife. Not infrastructure, not maintenance, not visitation, just do their own thing with no consequences. If we had deliberately destroyed as much government property as they have we’d be in prison for life!

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