210627 The Sentinel, Singapore

I was in Singapore one time in early 1973 and enjoyed it immensely.

This picture is me shortly before the singapore trip.

Because the USS Enterprise had such a deep draft we had to anchor out in the harbor. That was not a big problem because I could go up on the flight deck every morning and see a different view because the ship would swing around on the anchor chains. I remember seeing so many wonderful sights in Singapore. On liberty the alleys were filled with people from all over the Far East selling interesting products. I got to sit on the veranda of the old Raffles hotel and sip on Singapore slings. I don’t remember what was in them, but they were ice cold and being near the equator it was one of the hottest places on earth.

One evening 4 of us went to town. We got into a cab on the pier, a luxurious Mercedes Benzes and were headed into town. We told the driver to take us to a good restaurant and we would buy his supper. He took us to the car park restaurant. The name comes from an open parking lot in the heart of downtown. The high-rise office buildings alll closed down at 5 pm and all the cars left. The restaurant venders moved in and there was freshly cooked food everywhere. Our driver got us a table and then took off all over bringing delicious foods that I had never seen or heard of, but it was all delicious! The only thing I did not care for was baby octopus tentacles. They seemed tough and tasteless to me, but the others liked them.

Later we went to a fancy bar in the downtown district. It was like going back 20 years into the past. We didn’t stay there for long. We left there and just roamed around seeing the sights. Singapore was the nicest scenery and the cleanest place I ever saw in the Far East. We left Singapore headed for Australia, got within a few miles of the equator and the ship turned around and we went back to be on station off the coast of Vietnam. I never got to be a shellback in my 10 years and 8 months in the navy. Had we crossed the equator I would have received my shellback card after initiation into the realm of the deep and I would still treasure it today. It just wasn’t meant to be.