Earl Richmond

PT RON 10, Boat 108, Elco

Date: 11/15/03
RE: Re: Cooking

If I remember correctly, the field ovens were fueled by gasoline that was held in tanks at the bottom of the stove. The stove was sort of a rectangular shape from top to bottom. We could put griddles on top of it and the oven could be used for baking, etc. It was sort of like a large camp stove with burners on top. Any refrigerators were run by generators. I don't remember diesel fuel being used. It smelled too much and smoked too much. I think at base 17 in the Philippines, we had an oven sitting on top of bricks with a space underneath for a burner or wood. The baking would start about 1 to 3 am according to what was being baked. I drew bread from the base galley for use on the boats.

It was kind of dicey on Green and Treasury as to cooking. You had to start early; most of the time there was only you and maybe another to start, and there were Japanese around sneaking into the camp. I think, on Treasury the boats were idled into the bushes and it was cut away around the boat and that was its berth ashore. We had curfew at 7 pm and no one from base was allowed to go down to the boats after that time. And vice versa. On the boat we had a sort of converted field stove with oven below the burners.

I`m not sure but I think there was a water evaporator at the bottom of the hill just at the end of the pier going uphill. Just to the left of the pier I think there was an over the water showers. I was on base force, then in the galley, before I went on 8 boat.

Earl Richmond
PT RON 10, Boat 108