In 1954, Patrick McLatchy and Dick Rebbick of the Navy public affairs office spoke on their radio show "Across the Blue Pacific" as Daryll Vincent worked the sound controls.
For Navy publicists,
duty meant crafting
war stories
War connected them.
But the group of eight would-be journalists stationed at the Pacific Fleet's Hawaii public affairs office during the height of the Korean War never saw battle.
Parade and rite
Among today's Veterans Day events in Hawaii: |
"That bond was there, and it was purely from humor and good times," said Patrick McLatchy, a member of the group and a retired professor.
On this Veterans Day, five of the eight have gathered in Honolulu to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their disbanding -- when some were finished with their four-year Navy commitments, and others went on to new assignments.
The missing three have either died or could not be found.
"For all of us, it's a really special occasion," said Ronald Johnson, formerly a commander's aide in the public affairs office. "Not a single one of us would change those four years for anything."
McLatchy said the group's short radio show, "Across the Blue Pacific," ran on 178 mainland stations. The spots were bounded with music performed by the Royal Hawaiian Serenaders.
The dramas -- based on historical stories of wartime naval heroism, some of which went as far back as World War I -- featured several well-known actors.
Vincent Price read one of their scripts, as did John Wayne and Henry Fonda.
"You realize, we were writing pro-Navy, pro-patriotic copy," said group member Philip Haff, who lives in the islands. "By today's standards you would consider them corny."
The group also did Navy newscasts, while others dipped into newspaper reporting.
And they all lived together in a large home on Oahu Avenue in Manoa, lining six junk cars out front and having parties nearly every weekend. A few even took classes at the nearby University of Hawaii.
With no battle scars -- and such a choice assignment while the nation was at war -- the group's members hesitate to advertise themselves as veterans. And Haff laughed when he explained that the group's members are eligible for membership in Veterans of Foreign Wars because they served in the islands before Hawaii became a state.
But they are also proud to say they served.
"It was a plum assignment. ... We weren't in any warfare," Johnson said. "But we knew that we were expected to serve, and we did so willingly. We just knew that we had to participate."
Most of the group flew over from the mainland earlier this week, but two live in the islands.
They have a week-long itinerary planned, and have already hit the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl and the USS Arizona Memorial.
This afternoon, they have planned to gather at a Kahala home to reminisce. And tomorrow, they will take a tour of their old office at Camp Smith in Makalapa.
They will also meet their modern contemporaries, the Pacific Fleet's current public relations officers.
Last night, they had a large table commandeered at La Mariana Restaurant & Bar on Sand Island Access Road. Black-and-white pictures were strewn across their empty plates, showing the men when they were much younger and a little slimmer.
"The friends I made here," McLatchy said, "are among the best friends I've ever made."
