Christmas Flap

Spent Christmas Eve in Olongapo town,

  pourin’ lots of San Magoo[1] down.

The Princeton was tied up at Carrier Pier,

  we just might stay until it’s New Year.

Heads were achin’ as Reveille played,

  at all the bars, too long we had stayed.

Scuttlebutt said that Hope and his troupe,

  would play on the deck without General Shoup.

Then something happened in a land far away,

  and the Captain said that we couldn’t stay.

A car bomb went off at the Brinks Hotel,

  we will get even, we’ll give ‘em hell.

The boilers were fired, the lines were cast off,

  one last look at Subic[2], our covers[3] we doffed.

We checked on our gear, a rifle and pack,

  headed for trouble, we weren’t lookin’ back.

The choppers were lined up on the flight deck,

  the Sweet Pea[4] sure beat that Henrico[5] wreck.

Parting the waters she made a big wake,

  the South China Sea is a pretty big lake.

I’d not be lyin’ if I said we were flyin’

  she makes Thirty Knots without even tryin’

The water was roiling, the wake was a-boiling,

  the sailors were toiling, as ropes they were coiling.

Near Nine hundred feet, her speed’s pretty neat,

  it’s hard to beat a ship that’s this sweet.

We lined up for chow hoping somehow,

  our cooks would allow a Christmas luau.

One day and one night, came the first light,

  we looked out at ‘Nam and it was a sight.

A sliver of beach with green mountains steep,

  but off in the distance it would just keep.

We wouldn’t land, just float off the shore,

  for sixty long days though it seemed more.

That’s was our Christmas in Sixty-Four,

  lucky for us there wasn’t a war. 

Our time hadn’t come, so we had some fun,

   the cruise was a plumb, until it was done.

LDT December 25, ‘22

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[1] San Miguel beer

[2] Subic Bay Naval Base, The Philippines

[3] Hats

[4] Nickname for the USS Princeton, LPH-5

[5] USS Henrico, a slow troopship.

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