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USS Walton DE 361 At Tinenian Island (Marianas) 4 July 1955 "All during my service aboard, we did 'port and starboard' duty when we were overseas. On this day, the skies were perfectly clear and the water was likewise. Several of us went scuba-diving that day, but saw very few fish. This particular dock was on the northwestern side of the island. We had stopped at the southern docks the day before. This was only 9 years after WWII. We walked through the ruins and foundations of buildings of what had once been a good sized little town, which was virtually destroyed by battery fire from ships as well as aircraft bombardment. If memory serves me right, on this island there was a pretty good sized Japanese civilian population. Tragically, they had believed their reports that the US troops were bloodythirsty torturers; many civilians made their way to jagged cliffs where they lept to their deaths. Even then, we were warned by our officers
that there were reports of a few Japanese soldiers still in hiding. We
were not to go on trails or overgrown roads but had to keep in groups of no less
than 5 or so." Photos and Information submitted to Herb Mesler, RMC, USNR by Geral Fogelsong
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