Why we stopped there for the evening is anyone's guess, but I suspect Cmdr. Washburn felt the crew needed a little cultural enlightenment.  Or maybe it was to share with the crew what some of the surveillance team members had experienced.  That was evidently the case too when the Leray Wilson (DE414) stopped there a few weeks later while on their turn in surveying the islands.  John Orzalli, the Ops Officer on the Leray Wilson, mentioned here earlier, wrote in his memories of the WESPAC Cruise that, "Chamisson Harbor was in an Atoll with a shallow, narrow entrance.  Other islands near by that we used for Anchor bearings were Lukunor and Piasa. I am pretty sure it was on LUKUNOR Island that we found the Catholic Priest, and very friendly Natives.  We went ashore on arrival, and after the coconut drinking ceremonies, and information exchange; we were invited back for a "show" later in the evening."

By 0700 the following morning we were underway again, heading for Nukuroa Atoll and arriving there later that afternoon.  A wrecked fishing boat was sighted aground on the beach so naturally a search team was sent in the motor whale boat to investigate. And while we were doing our investigation a few native outriggers came alongside to investigate us. Following the search teams return, we proceeded enroute to Kapingamarangi Atoll, arriving there shortly before noon on the 13th.  Again a search party went ashore as they did the following day when we visited Nagatik Atoll, where again we were greeted by three natives coming along side in a canoe.

Along about here it came my turn to join the surveillance team. I no longer recall the island but it must have been Kapingamarangi, Nagatik Atolls (on the 15th) or Minto Reef (on the 16th). 

Art Arsenault, our senior Quartermaster, typically went on these trips but finally yielded to my pleading to let me take a turn.  The QM's roll in the crew was to provide visual communication, typically by flashing light using a small hand-held device.  The small boat crew normally consisted of a boatsman to operate the outboard motor, the ship's Chaplain, a medic, one or two of the officers, and likely someone out of our Mechanics Division or Radio group in case some equipment on the Island needed repairing.

In a letter to my girlfriend I wrote, "it is so hot there that I'm about to suffocate.  At least when we get into port I can always go swimming to cool off.  I continued on to say that the other day six of us had to land on one of the islands in a rubber life raft.  That was some fun!  The darn raft almost sank twice because of waves tossing it about.  The reason we went to the Island was to check on the islander's living conditions, health and etc." These are small inhabited islands in which the only means of transportation there is by small boat, in our case a rubber life raft.  & I don't recall how many islands the Spangler visited like that one but there were several.  Most of them, in addition to the islanders, had a small missionary settlement.

On the day I made my visit, we were forced to climb out of the liferaft about a hundred yards from the beach and wade in the remainder of the way, struggling past some coral reef, fighting the surf and tugging or carrying the boat.  The Chief on the Island and a Missionary Priest greeted us as we stepped ashore.   And within a few minutes we were treated with coconuts drinks, just coconuts with the tops removed so that we could drink the juice. That was a nice!

Gee, but did those Islanders ever give us a going over.  They would stand there staring at you without blinking for what seemed like an eternity!   I tried out-staring one, but I didn't do so well.   The islander women were nude from the waist up, so us young guys did some staring ourselves or glancing, anyway.  we didn't want to be rude, but for me it was a whole new cultural experience. Had the value of the need for women to wear bras no dawned on us young guys yet, the sight of the older women on the islands brought the realization home amply clear.

Not to be waisting time enroute between islands the OOD (at the Captain's directions, I'm sure) often took advantage of the opportunity to conduct one exercise or another.  On our way to Nagatik the decision was made to conduct a "Man-Overboard" drill. This was at 1045, then at 1500 we went through a "Lost Steering Control" drill, but I'm not totally convinced the latter wasn't the real thing.  In any event, control was shifted to aft-steering and then back to the pilot house, all within 10-minutes.  This was on the 15th.  Our surveillance of Nagatik was started and over by the time most of us completed breakfast on the 16th.  And from there we headed on to Ant Island, sighting Ponape Island along the way about 0940 and arriving at Ant Atoll shortly after noon. A binocular surveillance was completed in short order and we headed over to Ponape Island.  Unfortunately we had a mishap while enroute.   Harold Jones fell backwards through Hatch 2-20 into Compartment A-304-AE (forward near the vacinity of the ice-machine room, I think) and received a possible fracture to his right forearm.  Doc administered ice packs and mobilized his arm.

On March 16th we arrived at Oroluk Atoll about noon, did a binocular surveillance, and moved on to Minto Reef, arriving there about 1730. Finishing up our surveillance there we spent the night cruising to Murillo Atoll arriving there fairly early on the 17th. That pretty much concluded our island surveillance activities so we headed north to Guam, arriving there on the 19th and mooring at Uniform #2, Apra Harbor. With not a lot to do between Murillo and Guam, the Captain took advantage of the opportunity to exercise the crew at GQ for test firing and ABC Defense Drill, expending 12 rounds of 5"/38 Caliber and 12 rounds of 5" powder charges and 180 rounds of 40 MM HET.

We were relieved from Island Surveillance by the USS Wilson DE-414 on the March 21st and finally on our way to Japan, departing the following morning.  All any of us could think about, I'm sure, was how nice it was going to be get away from this hot weather for a changer.  We still had 1532 mile to go, so it would be two or more days before we could get to some cooler air.  The letter I dropped in the ship's mailbox the following day (the 23rd) was date-stamped the 30th, giving a good indicator of how long it took to get a letter mailed while at sea.

I joked in the letter that "it would probably be so darn cold in Japan, that I'd wind up wishing I was back in Guam."  I added that we were suppose to be in Japan, in one port or another for about eleven days then head south to the Philippine Island.  Then said "I sure wish this darn tin can would stay in one place for a little while!...I'm curious to see if Yokosuka had changed any, but frankly doubt it and doubt it ever would, because all there have there is beer, whiskey and wild, wild women...So I guess the ships crew will really have a ball.  In fact I know they will.  Because, remember, I've been there before."