This story started with CINCPACFLEET agreeing at a cocktail party with the Governor of Alaska that if the State could get their totem pole to Tokyo the Navy would get to Osaka for the 1969 Worlds Fair. I was not a happy person when I was called to the Squadron Office in Yokosuka and informed that we would lose our last four days at home before departure for another tour with the Riverine Force.

To make matters worse, we only had a couple of days notice and the time of arrival at Osaka was critical because of the need for a certain berth and two cranes that could make a tandem lift of the pole without it breaking in half.

I thought to soften the blow I would ask the dependants to ride up to Tokyo with us(not the best idea I ever had). I wasn't sure if this was legal so I invited the Chief of Staff to come with us and he agreed.

We had to go to the fuel pier the day before departure to top off our tanks and this presented us with a minor problem. The dependants had to get to the fuel pier by boat in order to get onboard. They would not all fit in one of our boats and I was afraid to chance a davit not working or some other malfunction that would delay us. We told Port Services we needed a Mike boat to get some supplies to the ship because they had a prohibition on using their boats to carry civilians. I figured at 7AM there would not be anyone around with enough authority to stop it. It worked and the only glitch was a very angry Port Services Officer in a boat circling the ship as we departed the fuel pier yelling at me "you will be in deep trouble Riedemann because it against the law to carry civilians without visas from one port to another in Japan and that I had violated base regulations by transporting civilians in his boat".

Actually I believe that some of the civilians were "ladies of the night" who had been invited by a crew member. TOM GREEN WAS DEFINITELY AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY SHIP. My thought at the time was put it where the sun doesn't shine pal. What could they do to us. Send us to Vietnam?

The trip to Tokyo was fairly uneventful except the weather was cold and raining. Arrived in Tokyo where we found out the Pilots were mandatory and that ships were convoyed in and out in groups of ten. This caused a delay but we finally started in with about 500 yards between ships. About half way in I noticed the wake from the ship ahead had stopped. I told the Pilot and he replied that I was mistaken because his brother was the Pilot on that ship and would have told him on the radio. After a few minutes I ordered all stop and back 1/3. The Pilot went a little nuts, but soon realized that I was correct and the ship had indeed stopped its engines. He started yelling into his radio and some of our crew members that were on the bridge said that he was cussing out his brother because he had lost great face in front of a young American Captain.

We finally got to the pier which was tucked way back in the harbor - not all bad because the dependants slipped out unnoticed by the immigration officials. The cranes were hooked up when we arrived and the loading and securing was estimated to be 2 hours. It was now 1700. I told the Pilot that we would depart about 1900 and would need a Pilot and tugs. Now he got back at me when he informed me that "Japanese Tokyo Pilots did not work after dark and that the port was closed at one hour after sunset. We could not wait until the next morning because of the requirement to be in Osaka 2 days later. It was finally agreed(for a price) that the tug would stay, help us get away from the pier and lead us out to the port entrance. Communications were by yelling between tug and Japanese speaking crew members. A little bit unusual but it worked. We got into Tokyo Bay and the visability dropped to about 1000 yards. Somehow we got out into the ocean but I doubted that we knew where we were for a good bit of the time.

We arrived in Osaka through the inland sea of Japan to find that our charts did not look anthing like the harbor. In fact there was a 1500 foot breakwater that did not even appear on the chart. It seems that the US charts had not been updated for a long time. Atug finally showed up and led us to the right pier and the pole was offloaded without incident.

We departed the next day and arrived on time about 10 days later in Vietnam.