Just left Iwakuni about a couple of weeks ago. I had a lot of good times while at Iwakuni. Especially with my shop, MCC-1. anyways, that weird looking soba 'ipscone' posted is called Okonomiyaki. We referred to it as Japanese Pizza or Omelet.

Ah Kbay84, I knew you when you still wore your birth control glasses when you ordered parts in the OLD,OLD powerplants PC at Kbay, it took you awhile to get up to my speed though,HA HA.

The mark of the Z

quote:

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Originally posted by AznMarine01:
anyways, that weird looking soba 'ipscone' posted is called Okonomiyaki. We referred to it as Japanese Pizza or Omelet.

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I was set to post the same response...
I've been trying to find - with NO luck - a Japanese restaurant in the states that serves it.

I don't remember much about Iwakuni. Was there only a about a week or two in late '70. Stayed drunk as much as possible. There were some memorable moments with the *****s though.

Semper Fi to all my Brothers!

Anyone else ride their bike over the zero hangar by the front gate?

That wonderful smell in the air on Sunday morning.
Walking out the back gate and catching the train to Hiroshima. Club DooBees. I spent many a great night there.
Those huge curbs that I tripped and busted my head open on one night coming back from the E-club.
The big fight with the P-3 squadron over our Benjo Bombers getting kicked over.
12 on 12 off forever!!!
Riding the bus to Midrats over on Main Side. Great Mid rats there!!
The Soba truck and Smiley!!
Jumping off KinTai (sp) Bridge into the river and climbing back up to do it over and over again!!
Dragging 2 buddies of mine back from the Western Tokyo bar and getting in trouble for public drunkeness after having dragged those guys to within 100 yards of the barracks!
Taiwan Boogie-Boogies!
Mike Laurenz and his Ordnanceman Blues song "Stuck in Iwakuni! song he wrote done to the tune of Johnny Cash's "Stuck in Folsum Prison."
Nights I can't remember with friends I'll never forget!!!

In response to Dingle yes we did do some crazy things with the bombers like jumping over the binjos "a la Knevel" of course the success rate was usually zero we did have better success jumping them on foot at least some of us I wasn't one of the lucky ones. How old were them damn bikes man those had to be relics from the 50s but they sure did take a licking though I also did manage to land in a binjo our last night out before we rotated to the states man what a mess and all my clothes were packed and staged. Never a dull moment though...........SEMPER FI.....ooooh Raaaah "Reyndawg"

They looked like something Beaver Cleaver would ride and they weighed a ton! But they were cheap transportation and they sort of beat walking!!
Semper Fi

Yeah... we did some crazy things with those bikes... did some jousting... Casey Jones'ed some in the ditches but the riding over the Zero hangar thing... that really was the worst idea... it's just a half circle and going up was no problem... going down... too much speed and then STUCK the front tire to the axel into the turf and of course body kept going... inertia is a *****.

The AMB showed that alcohol could have been a factor in that mishap...

It's amazing how many times "Alcohol could have been a factor" in Iwakuni!!!

I still get a massive headache thinking about the 'alcohol factor'!
That's it...blame it on the 'akadama', Suntory, Sapporo, and hot saki, all in 'excessive moderation'

And, navigating the streets half-tanked, on a skateboard...that's one for the books...

I remember Iwakuni, I was there in "86" with VMFA-212. Binjo dithes and the smell of the place are the biggest memories. I also turned 20 years old there. In fact, I got so drunk that night that Kevin Glazier and I(Troy Egstad) took the short cut across the golf course and then climbed the fence to cut across the flightline to our powerline shack. Almost got caught when we saw headlights I took a dive to the grass, and Kevin asked what I was doing then said good idea then he too took a dive. The fried rice from the truck is a fovorite memory.

I arrived in Iwakuni in October '56, as an ordie with VMA-121. The squadron, which had been in Korea since Oct. '51, moved to Iwakuni in June 56.
Our aircarft were the AD-6's. The true heavy haulers.

One of the first memories I have of Iwakuni was that odor of night soil that came wafting in from the paddies just outside the fence line.

We lived in Nissen huts away from mainside. The barber shop and laundry/dry cleaners were located in a squad tents near the EM Mess hall.

The ordnance office and tool room were also in squad tents at the end of the tarmac nearest the fence line. Curiously, the ordnance crew included some retread ground pounders who were at Chosin with Chesty.

It was still a NAS when we got there, and booze was sold in the EM club. If memory serves me correctly. Shortly thereafter, when the Marines took over the EM club the strongest thing one could get at the EM club was beer. Hmmm, I just read at the NAS Iwakuni Web site, that the base remained as NAS until 1962, although 1st MAW moved there in July 1956. Vewwy intewesting.

MAG-12 consisted of two AD-6 squadrons, VMA-121 and VMA-251, and H&MS and MABS-12.

I recall the big department store just outside the front gate, on the left. And the osoba stand where one could get a takeout, just outside the gate. Just inside the gate was the pro shop where the majority of the men checked in after liberty. No women were stationed there then. There was a squdron of P5M Martin Mariner sea planes on the far side of the base, and a squadron of USN P2V's, P4M Mercators, spook planes, and a squadron of Japanese P2-V's which were more modern versions than the USN P2V's

And the exchange rate was 360 yen to the dollar, so one could really live it up in the pads. I recall riding bicycles over the Kintai Bridge. Not very respectful and more than a little hard on the gluteous maximus.

The ordnance crowd hung out in the Star Bar. I wonder if that's still there. That's the only one that I remember clearly, although there were many others in which I tipped a few, while there.

There was no wars going on then so, we went on maneuvers to Naha three or four times, to Atsugi three or four times, where I saw U-2 aircraft take off for the first time, and once to Cubi Point. Yahoo! The adventures that one could have in Olongapo.

As a corporal (E-3) I didn't stand any watches except wheels watch once or twice. I stood at the end of the runway with two huge yellow paddles attached to flare pistols, playing LSO, to indicate to pilots that were landing, that I saw that there wheels were down and locked. If I didn't see the wheels down and locked I was to fire a flare. Don't know how long that lasted.

I had to stay in Yechon South Korea and Cubi Point because the runway at Iwakuni was being redone. Three months of living in Yechon sucked! Then one month in PI. WOW! Off to Iwakuni for two.

What I remember:
~ Tamadachi club on main side
~ The Eagles Nest at the golf course (The stopping point between the Tamadachi club and the barracks)
~ Smiley and the Soba truck
~ What was the name of the club on the barracks side of the base?

Cpl. Dan Chuey
VMFA-251 Avionics
in Iwakuni 1988-89

Holy Crap!! You were in Yechon?? Man I haven't talked to anybody that had been to Yechon except the guys who I went with. Did you still live in tents down in the frickin mud??? Was the "house of ill repute" still visible across the road. The first day we got there the girls were all lined up on that hill across the road. Man you did the Oscar and Soju too!!
We had a soccer game with the Koreans while I was there and it turned into a big old brawl. We weren't allowed to do anything sports related with them after that!!

Oh yeah! We stayed in tent city at the top of the hill between the ammo dump (behind us) and the waste dump (in front). Come in the back gate and make a right. The maintenance tents were by the runway. The chowhall was down beyond the end of the runway. Walk out of any of the maint. tents and turn left.

Oscar at first, then graduated to Soju later. I NEVER had a headache like the day after I played bull**** using Soju. I wanted to die. What was the name of the little town just down the road from base? Wait, I remember ...old town and NEW TOWN. Oh the fun I had in new town. Damn, those were the good old days!

I was there with VMFA-251 from July 88 to October 88. We were there for the Seoul Olympics.

How about you?

I was there in the summer of 1980. I was with VMFA-232 and we went up there for a 6 week det and then I got sent back up there TAD for a few weeks later on. We lived in that hole in the ground by what was the soccer field and that's where the chow hall was too. It got so frickin muddy we were putting pallets down between the tents and the chow hall and after walking on them they'd just gradually work down into the mud and we'd stack more on top of em. God knows how many pallets are sunk in that mud! Like I said it was a hole and all the water when it rained just ran right down there. I seem to remember that there wa an ammo dump there and also a sewage pond right there by the tents. That's been 24 years so it is a little foggy. I just had never heard of anybody else getting sent there. We used to go out in that little village or town or whatever and get 2 or 3 bottles of Oscar a piece and go sit in the Cemetary and drink it. Ahh Yechon!! What a pit!! I had fun but it was a pit!!! Took a bus ride down to Taegu from there for a wekend too!

We went by train up to Osan AFB and the Afterburner club for all the 72s and 96s we could get. I still have some WON from there I saved.

I was IN Yechon for the monsoon season and temps in the 100s everyday. You, nor your clothes, were never dry. Mosquitoes that looked like helicopters. Terrible! Then in October, the weather was dropping down to the 30's at night and we didn't have sleeping bags. We froze our @sses off. So then we leave there freezing and go straight to the PI. Talk out about stepping out of the freezer into the fire. Jesus was it hot and humid there.

We had plywood heads behind the tents. The pissers were 55 gallon drums cut in half and the same for the ****ters, except there was a plywood seat to sit on. Not too bad considering, but the problem was that we weren't allowed to put any chemicals in the piss and crap to eliminate the smell. The Koreans used all the waste for fertilizer on their crops. Every week, a slurpy truck would come by and suck up our @##@#". Imagine how that smelled after 6 days in 100 something degree weather. Awful! Also, they had to lift our tents off the deck by 12" because rats were nesting under them and they had some disease that could be fatal to humans if contracted. It came from the garbage dump. Lovely!

Ahhhh Yechon! It's good to see somethings never change. Ya know to this day when I smell something god awful I deal with it by telling myself "It's not as bad as Yechon!!"

Semper Fi Bro

Was in Iwakuni back in 64 with VMA-332, we were sent to Udorn,Thailand to fly the yellow river between Thailand and Cambodia, and again in 66 on R&R when I was with VMA-121 in Chu Lai, Vietnam. Remember the sewer ditches. The strip from the pictures that I have seen posted was a lot difference then. The NCO Club, with their slot machines, floor shows and cheap drinks. Our huts (Barracks) were small squad bay type. No private rooms, you never seem to get a good night sleep, people coming in from liberty drunk and making a lot of noise. No air conditioner, steam heaters that clunked all night. The Special service recording room where you could record music onto your tape recorder. The main Gate sure has changed. Still a lot to see around Iwakuni. The Kintai Bridge was free to cross, I understand you have to pay now to go across the Bridge. The Cherry Blossom Festival was something to see, all of the old Japanese men on work horses with their brass headgear on, I have some picture somewhere taken at one of the Festival. I do remember Pigtails, the Sandpiper Club, the massage pallor's, The Sandpiper Club hot baths and steam baths. Went to Ground Zero Park in Hiroshima and ring the Freedom Bell, the Japanese love it when an American would ring the bell. Went to a Ice Skating rink with a friend, never been on Ice Skates before and would be on my A*s more than my feet. My favorite food was fried rice,or Fried Ices as they couldn't pronounce rice and Osoba, also liked Beef Curry with Rice. Right outside the main gate was this Restaurant that made the best Fried Rice. The smell you never got used to. Having a cold did help you from smelling it. LOL