REDHORSE AT KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA
Shiri Castle was one of the places that Red Horsemen toured while TDY to Okinawa working on Red Horse Projects. We had a real cute tour guide and gave her a hard time all through the tour. Believe it made her day brighter having us on the tour.
Well what do you know? I just happen to have a picture of our tour guide hard at work motioning for us to go into the Shinto Shrine.
This is what is left of Shiri Castle (home of the ancient monarchs of Okinawa)or what is left of Shiri Castle. All of those wars in Okinawa wasn't too kind to this old Castle.
The two floors that is in this picture of the base billeting dorm is where Red Horsemen hung their hats when they got through with their day of work. A lot of parties, pranks and firecracker wars went on here continuosly. Security Police thought of this place as home too, guess it was because they were here quite a bit while we were on Okinawa. They probably got lonely and bored once we all went back to Thailand. Notice the Red Horse Christmas tree on the roof. It stood fifteen feet tall and was made only from Olympia Beer cans. Also note the spot light pointed towards the tree. At night it would light up the tree and a person could see it all the way from Gate 2 at Kadena. If a Horseman had too much to drink while down town he at least had something to aim for once he came through the gate.
Having been in the Marine Corps a long time ago and having been stationed with the 3rd Amphibion Tractor Battalion at White Beach, I knew about the Navy Club down by the bay at White Beach, since that is where the AMTRAKS had their base in 57-58. So we used to fire up our 29 passenger bus and take trips to White Beach on weekends. In this picture I can make out SSgt Sanchez, Sgt Jones, TSgt Turosz, SSgt Tyner, SSgt Smith, and SSgt Lennie Pope.
Here we have another picture of the Navy Club at White Beach. In the foreground we have TSgt Turosz, Sgt Cooper, SSgt Lennie Pope at the bar and I think the Horseman on the right is Sgt Martin.
This is a picture of a triple bay Pasco that we where tasked to construct at Kadena Air Base. It later became one of Kadena's Base Civil Engineering Warehouses.
In this picture you will notice Kadena school buses parked. We constructed the parking lot here out of corral rock. The parking lot was big enough to hold well over a hundred school buses. I was the blue top grader operator for Red Horse at Kadena Air Base and did all of the grader work on this project.
This is another view of the triple bay pasco that we constructed on Kadena. Believe that is me on the forklift since I did a lot of the forklift operating when they didn't require my skills on the road grader.
This is inside the triple bay pasco. SSgt Sanchez one of our Red Horse carpenters is looking up at the work being done by Horsemen, connecting the outer roofing skins to the perlings. Sgt "Ski" is wearing his hard hat over his Red Horse hat.
Here we have SSgt George Waters (also known as Sgt Rock) with his back to the camera, SSgt Sanchez, and me (SSgt Robert Anderson) sitting on the forklift. Couldn't really tell if that was me or not, but it does look like an eagle tatoo on the right forearm, so that would be me allright.
With his back to the camera is SSgt Smith enjoying the Red Horse Party at Kadena.
One night as some of the Red Horse guys were returning from the NCO Club, one of the guys told another Red Horseman that he would forget about the ten dollars he owed him if he would streak through the WAF (Woman Air Force)Dormitory. The horseman that owed the ten dollars said, "That he would do it". Anyway the other Horsemen would meet the one streaking through the dorm would meet him at the back door with his clothes. But when the horseman that was streaking through the dorm got to the back door he found out that it was locked. So he had to go back the way he came in. And on the way back out the girls in the dorm started hitting him with their brooms. And the door at the other end had been locked by the Barracks Chief and she went to call the Security Police. However one of the girls that was sitting in the dayroom watching television, got up and unlocked the door making it possible for the Horseman to make his escape. When the Security Police arrived they got a description of the Horseman from the girls in the dorm. At about the same time SSgt Smith was going past them on his way to the NCO Club and went to see what the commotion was all about. Since he was of the same size, the Security Police arrested SSgt Smith. After a few days the horseman that had done the streaking went and told the Security Police that he was the one they wanted not SSgt Smith. Kadena's General wanted to make an example of the streaker and was planning to send him to Levenworth Prison, but our Red Horse Detachment Commander gave him a Letter Of Reprimand which stopped other Legal Proceedings. However this didn't set to well with our Red Horse Commander in Thailand and he recalled our Detachment Commander for a good old chewing out. But that was the end of that story.
Here Jake (our Red Horse adopted dog at Kadena) enjoys the party with his own plate. Later in the party Jake went into some tall grass near the party and came out with a female dog. She was rather shy (or wild) and wouldn't stray far from the tall grass. But also in the grass was three little puppies and there was no mistake that they belonged to Jake. Jake came walking back toward us in a real proud fatherly way with his three pups following him. Guess he just wanted to introduce us to his family.
SSgt Robert "Andy" Anderson and SSgt Ray Provost sitting at the table. Ray is married to a Thai lady and is probably wondering why he is TDY to Okinawa when his wife is in Thailand.
VISIT OTHER RED HORSE COUNTRY PAGES!
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SIGN THE RED HORSE GUEST BOOK...
E-MAIL:andersonrg3@comcast.net