This is not really a "sea story" but I hope you find it interesting or at least unusual.

A few days before we went into the staging area to go to France we were allowed to have a swimming party and were trucked down to a beach in England. All this area had been cleared of civilians so the uniform of the day was our underwear. Also nobody had a bathing suit anyway!!

One section of the beach had been cleared of obstacles for three Coast Guard LCIs that were to be used in the invasion on D-Day. A bunch of the sailors off these ships were playing soft-ball so we moved down the beach to stay out of their way. More sailors came ashore and they moved closer to us. We had to stay put because most of the water's area was still filled with obstacles and/or mines.

We were lying on the beach drying off when I heard someone yell "Hey Fred get the ball will you?" as it rolled over near us.

After the third time, I sat up and yelled back to the sailors "If you want your GD ball come get it yourselves, I am not your ball boy!!".

One of the sailors trotted over to get the ball and it was a good thing I was sitting down since as I was watching very closely I saw that sailor was a guy that lived six houses down the street from me at home and his name was also Fred. He did not go back to the game because we were talking so much and he offerred me a "good CG meal " aboard the ship the next day.

I managed to get back to the beach the next day and I'll bet you can guess the ending to the story - the LCIs were moved up to Southhampton for loading so I was SOL for that "good CG meal!!".

One of many strange stories of WW II!!!!!!!!!!!

Sgtleo ??

Sarge: I have heard other stories like this. Just blows one mind. You think, damn, how far am I from home? How many units are there? How many stages places? And here you run into a NEIGHBOR!!! Wow, too strange. Must have felt so good to see a hometown guy. Too bad you didn't get your meal!