HAINES RANGERS
Dick Waldron remembers:
The
plow horse inspection as seen below was in 1953 and was the idea of
Captain Charbonneau to have some fun just before relieving Major Haines
who was going back to the ZI (Zone of the Interior).
When he left shortly after, we formed two lines at the gate with
our carbines and fired a 21 and a half gun salute for him (the half gun
was a tiny Japanese pistol)
At
the time of the plow horse open ranks inspection with the Old Man smoking
a cigar on horseback and the troops wearing 'cowboy' hats, I had worked
the night before so I was excused from the 'inspection'. I watched the
whole thing from my window directly behind the troops.
We
had quite a group in '52 and '53, In those years we built the bar and rec-room
out of an old barn, built an overpowered (therefore illegal) ham radio
station (we ran 2,000 watts of power when the limit was 1,000 watts) using
telephone poles to construct a very unusual and special antenna that
created the only ham station on Hokkaido. We could reach the East Coast of
the U.S. with telephone patches for the troops.
Also whenever we were on the air and reaching the U.S. lots of hams
contacted us asking for a postcard from us verifying that they had talked,
by voice or Morse code, to the only ham station on Hokkaido.
These cards were collected by hams, and the more unusual the
better.
(Major Haines, an active ham in civilian life, volunteered me to be one of the hams so I had to get a license. Much later I transferred to Misawa to set up a MARS - Military Auxiliary Radio Station, aka, ham station. My hobby had become my job.... but I spent more time playing football and baseball for Misawa than working at the station.)
Major William Haines, on the horse at left, was the Company Commander at Wakkanai in 1953. Capt. Larry Charbonneau was the assistant Commander, on the horse at right.
Some of Haines Rangers behind the commanders are from the row at left; front, Donald Johnson-air police, behind him is Paul Markovich-radar maint., 3rd row, front, Robert (Pooch) Porche-radar maint., 4th row front, Jack McCans-radar ops., 2nd, Art Freihoefer-radio maint., 5th row, middle, Bob Stehlik-radio oper.
Far left, John Nauman-radio ops., T/Sgt. Gene (Buck) Buckley-radio ops., A/3c Sandy Friedman-radar maint., A/2c George (Big Red) Rife-radio ops., A/2c Travis Peninger (Amarillo Slim) radio ops.
From left, 1st-George (Big Red) Rife-radio ops., 3rd-Paul Markovich-radar maint., 4th-Charles Nocella, 5th-Mervin-Doc. Greenup.
From left, 1st row #2-Paul Markovich-radar maint., 3rd row #1-Donald Johnson-air police, 3rd row #2-Charles Nocella, 4th row #1-Tom Hilgeford-radar, #2-George (Big Red) Rife-radio ops., 5th row #1-Robert (Pooch) Porche-radar, 5th row #2-Travis (Amarillo Slim) Peninger-radio ops., 6th row #1-Grover Ashcraft-radio ops..