The latter came as a result of one our boats taking in a load of Hormel canned chicken. Some of it got spilled out during the unloading and enough cans were salvaged for three or four boat crews to have a special treat.
One of the things we did to try to improve our sleeping arrangement was to get some hammocks from the ship so that we could sleep off the deck. That didn’t work very well for us. The tarpaulin we had was too short to reach all the way across the boat and consequently the rain drained off the tarp and into the hammock. I found difficulty sleeping with my tail in a puddle of water an inch deep. I tried a hammock later after we’d borrowed a larger tarp but I couldn’t get adjusted to the sway-back sleeping position and had to get out and lie on the deck.
I don’t think any of us got over the fascination of the big shells floating overhead at night. Floating seems a very odd and inappropriate word I know but in spite of their speed they appear to be moving rather slowly. I had always thought that a shell went so fast you’d not be able to see it at all. The projectiles can be followed all the way from the ships that fire them to the target. Some are red and some yellow and all are very nice to see especially when they’re landing on the Nips.
On our next to the last day at Iwo, Jack and I were ordered to the beach to tow off partly submerged pontoons. They had been taken to the beach with the idea of using them for loading stations but as a result of a series of mishaps they’d gotten broached on the beach. We’d seen them there for days obstructing the beach but had not tried to tow them off because they were such tremendous things (about 125′ x 20′) and appeared to be settled on the bottom at their inshore end.
