I guess when it comes to Degar as some of us have come to
call it, being on board a tanker has it's benefits though not always.
Degar as you can see is an atoll. The 1st time I went there was in 1979
while aboard the USNS NAVASOTA T-AO106. I can remember that day on
November 24th clearly some of us were sitting in the lounge waiting
for chow when the Chief Mate came down and gave us the word. "Sorry
boys, Mombasa is out the Embassy in Tehran has been attacked and
hostages taken.". We had just got underway from Degar an hour
before. The USS SAN JOSE was anchored out there and I ran into a
few guys that had been in the Navy with me aboard the KILAUEA. Degar was
not part of the circuit during Westpac when I was in the Regular Navy.
Degar was a stop for the reefer ships on our way out to the Arabian Gulf
. It was during my third employment with MSCPAC that I got to Degar most
of the time. I saw Degar while I was aboard USNS SAN JOSE, USNS SPICA
and the USNS KILAUEA. On most occasions the ship would be at anchor .
There are some places to eat on the Island now that did not exist back
in '79 and it really has been built up. Reefer stores would be flown in
by C-5A's from Guam for the reefer ships to restock for the fleet that
they were supporting. Sometimes we would go in with a tanker to take on
fuel which had been delivered one of the point to points earlier in the
week. These tankers were crewed by union seamen and operated by IMO
there was one other contractor that provided the service but I no longer
recall their name. .
