I guess if I was to tell my Story of Midway Island It would have to start it a Full Two years before that time, and why I was sent there. From Boot Camp I was sent to the US Naval Test Pilot School, as an Airman, and was assigned to the line Crew and was Put on the HU-16 Crew. I was Trained by a great First Class ADR Named Abe something. He taught me every thing he knew about the Plane and Soon I was taking the Plane up as the only crew man. The Pilots were all Test Pilots In Training and we all learned together.
Some time in January or so of 1964 I got into a Bar Fight and got my Jaw Busted. I ended up in Bethesda Naval Hospital with my Jaw Wired shut for 6 weeks. When I got out I was sent back to my Unit at Pax River and when I got there I was given Orders to Midway Island By way of Ream Field Ca. If I think right the Navy was POed at me for ending up in the Hospital. So to Punish me I was sent the orders I got. I was sent to HS, 10 and their School on the T-56 Turbine engines. I was there for about two weeks and then sent to Travis Air Force Base and and was put on a MATS Plane between two box's of Toilet Paper for my Flight to Hickam AF Base Hawaii. That was the Worst Plane ride of my life. It was like flying in a Washing Machine and the Noise of a Steel mill would hold no candle to it. The Plane was one of the Huge Willy Victors that MATS flew. I tried to catch my flight to Midway but the Weekly Log Flight had just left. So "you have to go to the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor and get a bunk at the Transfer Barracks and come back next week for your Flight" I took a Bus over to the Base at Pearl and went to the Transfer barracks and knew better than to check in with anyone and found an empty rack and used it for the week of Liberty In Honolulu. I knew If I had Checked in with anyone I would of been put on all them Chicken shit Details that come to transfers. Cleaning heads and swabbing halls and picking up butts all over the grounds. I spent a week in the bars on Hotel Street and had a ball for the week. I had my Pockets full of cash and all the things that Sailors do On Hotel Street came easy.
The Next Week I was at the Terminal at Hickam and caught the Log flight to Midway. Pockets a lot lighter and a head ache that would Kill a Large Bull Elephant. The hang over of all times. I must have dropped 4 hundred buck in that week. But a Smile on my face and Bounce In my step. With my fingers crossed for no complications to come.
When I first seen Midway it was a speck of dirt on the Window but I couldn't wipe it off. In a very Short time we were On the ground and the door opened and the Noise of the Gooneys and the Silence of the Place soon told me that this was going to be a Very long year. This was the 14th of May 1964
We all Loaded on a Bus that took us to the Transfer Barracks down by the PW yard and down the road from the SAR Hanger. Only two of us got off there and the rest were sent to other places. I don't know if I ever seen any of them again. I spent a week there going through the Indoctrination lectures and all the rules. They kept saying "Don't Bother the birds and Don't dare Touch any Coral from the reefs" That was a Captains Mast if you did. You could touch it but don't dare take any from the water. It was Protected and they said it was only to look at. We were told the Bikes were called Horses and they were all owned privately and we had to buy our own or walk. The Second day is on Midway I went to the south Beach with a Blanket and my Swim Suit and towel. I was there all day and fell asleep on the Beach. I woke up in the Afternoon and felt kind of hot. Imagine a White, Half Swede From the UP Of Michigan after about 6 hours in the sun. I was burned to a crisp, Well Cooked, Done to a Tee. I was Burned so bad I had to stay in bed for two days and have someone put some lotion on me. That was the last time I got Burned On Midway.
On a Monday morning I was sent to the SAR Hanger where I was to spend the next year. The First thing off I was assigned a room above the Hanger Bay, Right next to the Rec Room and Kitchen. My room was about ten by ten and had four guys assigned to it I was the Fourth Man so I took the Last Bunk, A top one next to the window. Next to me was a Steel beam with Bullet Holes in it and was a Perfect place for me to put my pack of Camels and a Lighter. Out my window was a big Iron wood tree and a Fairy Tern nesting on the limb. I watched the egg hatch latter on that month I think it was. Our Room was on the Walk way in the Hanger and a great place to be. We had a Good View of Eastern Island when the Hanger doors were open.
I was sent to the line shack and the same day and I was Flying by noon the same day on my first indoctrination to the crews. By the And of the First week I was taking crews up my self and the Pilots turned out to be a pretty good bunch of officers, Considering they were officers. In the first week there I was off on a SAR Search at 2 am. Of all the SAR Flights we went on we never found anything but Once. One Day flight we were about 500 miles North of Midway when a Pilot from a Civilian Aircraft had reported a Parachute in the water. We were scrambled to the Scene and we found what they had seen and we circled it for a while. What we Found was the White Belly of a dead Whale, floating Belly up and being eaten by Huge Sharks. This was one of the only flights I was on that I didn't have a camera with me. The Pilots kept Flying lower and lower to watch the Sharks eat that whale. It scared the crap out of me with all the Hungry Sharks in the water I did not want to crash right then and there.
The Week after I reported to SAR the First Class got his Orders To Japan and he was so happy he gave me his Horse. He was going to Atsugi Air base in Japan and I met him there Again when I was going through Atsugi On my West Pac Cruise, 18 months Latter. The Horse was a Big Balloon Tire Men's Bike with a Huge Basket on the front and a head light that worked if I kept the Batteries fresh. Navy batteries were shit and wore out all the time. That was a good horse and treated me Good. He only threw me when I had been drinking or If I got hit with a low Flying Gooney. So by that I did get thrown a lot. My best Buddy Carl Trinkle never had a Horse and was always stealing mine.
About a Month after I got to Midway a bunch of us were sent to the Pier to pick up a Helicopter that had come in on one of the States Lines Ships. The Plane was in a crate and the put on a Flatbed truck and taken to the SAR Hanger. We uncrated it and it took about two weeks to get it flying the first time. I was assigned as the crew man on the thing and worked on it all the time, in between my regular flights. The Plane spent 90 % of its time with its Blades Covered and sitting in a corner of the hanger gathering dust and spiders. The was the worst Helo the navy ever bought. I flew in it about a dozen times in a year so it didn't get much flight time.
One day I was Looking for my Horse, like usual I had to round him up as he was always wondering off to graze some new grass elsewhere. I seem to always lose that horse. It was never parked where I left it. I went around the corner of the hanger and here comes my horse with Carl in the Saddle and he was towing a Small Sail boat. He had found some Officer that wanted to sell it so he bought it for 15 bucks. The Sail Boat was a little trailer and was in fine shape.
We promptly tied the horse up to a tree and me and Carl backed the Boat down the Inner harbor Sea Plane ramp and Launched it. The Boat was only about 6 foot long and with both of us in it had very little free board. We sailed around the Inner Harbor and once thought we were going to be blown out to sea but after a lot of tacking back and forth we made our way back to shore. That was the last sea voyage for this sailor in that boat.
One of the Things I did alot on the Rock was to go to the EM Club nearly every night. I Spent enough Money at the club to support a small state. I met a Nice Guy there buy the name of Cooper. He was a 2 nd Class Boatswains Mate and he worked at the Inner Harbor and was the Skipper of the Garbage Scow. I took many trips out to Dump Garbage and we would fish all the way out and all the way back to the Pier. I caught more Fish off of the Garbage scow than I did off of the Islands Fishing Boat.
One day I got a call from Cooper to get my Butt down the the pier and we had a Dump to make. I got Carl and we both went down and when we got there a Truck was just leaving and it had just dumped about 400 cases of Oly Beer into the Scow to be dumped at sea because they were rusted cans. We managed to salvage about twenty cases each and we went to dump the beer.  We had one hell of a drunken trip through the reef that day. The Back end of the Parachute Loft was a Beer depository for a while after that day. The Reefer in the line shack had beer in it for months to come.
At the EM Club I was always Buying my drinks with paper and saved all my change in an old Cookie Can I got from my mother for something. It was a Big Can and I taped it shut and cut a slit in the top. I saved all my Quarters and halves in it from the EM Club. Drinks were a Quarter at Happy Hour and .50 cents the rest of the time so I ended up every night with a lot of halves and Quarters. When I left Midway I had over four Hundred Bucks in that Can. My Horse had a Drinking Problem because a lot of Nights I would go to the EM Club and stay for last call and get the boot. The Next day I would have to search for that Roaming Nag all over the East end of the Island. She wandered off at the worst times.
I wish I had a Quarter for the times I walked the beaches at 5 am searching for Fish balls. I hardly ever ran into any one else at that time. I got up and walked that south beach most of the times because Of Area 7. I hated that part of the island. It was closed off like the Married Housing area. In the married Housing area they had that bug sign said KEEP OUT. I was only in the Married Housing area once and I had given one of Our Chiefs a 60 pound Tuna. He invited us over for the meal and I do have to say It was good.
The Walking the beach every day turned me into a Fish ball hunter and netter. My Buddy Cooper Taught me how to net a fish ball and I made a lot of them. I must have netted 20 or so and gave them all away. I used Parachute Cord from the Parachute Loft and they sure looked good. I still have one I made and now I don't know how to make another.
I have a lot of Memories of the south beach and the parties we had there. We would get a case of beer or get one of the Second Class buy us a Fifth of Booze and go to the Beach. Teasing the Seals and having Jelly Fish fights, was good clean fun. Heave the Bottle in the ocean and stagger back to the hanger. Wander across the Run way or walk around by way of the Sea wall.
Between the Parties and the work I had a lot of Fun and did all my work. I never once missed a flight or a duty watch. I did a lot of pier Watches and Flights.
I made the once a week flights to Kure Island to deliver their Supplies. I had a great time there and even took a few days leave and stayed on Kure for a week, with the Coast Guard. I met a good friend there named Frank Slaney, A Chief Mech. and latter made Warrant. The more I write about my time On Midway the more I remember.
I suppose I should end this before the whole bunch quit reading it and just erase it. Im on my third day of writing this. More to come tomorrow.
Well I finally Got my Orders to Ream Field and HS-2 and caught the Log flight on or about the 13th of May 1965

John LaFayette ADR 3 1964 / 1965