Excerpt from "The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944"
A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood
She arrived at Yokosuka, from Kobe, Japan, on 23 July.
"Old" Yokosuka used to make Subic look like an episode of the old TV show, The Waltons. You had the Club Alliance, home base for an evening of debauchery. You had Rock, Disco and Shit-kicker bars full of cheap booze and female companionship.
When Mullinnix arrived, much of "old" Yokosuka was gone, or so they said. Only the relics of what once was remained. Little clues of the good times. They walked to Madame Wong's brothel. it was full of sing-song girl and sailors, an old Mama-san tending bar. A calendar from 1977 depicting naked ladies sat next to the phone on the bar next to a jar of the most disgusting 'poultry that had come in second in a cock fight' floating in a brown brine. It looked only marginally more charming that a dead hooker in a church pew and smelled like blue cheese.
A local drunk was hunched over a Sapporo, munching on some dried wasabi peas. An old dusty mirror ball was hanging over what used to be the dance floor. Today, a woman in her early forties was on stage, naked except for a pair of cowboy boots, lying on the floor shooting darts from an aluminum tube she had inserted in her vagina. Customers held up balloons for her to hit and she rarely missed.
The ceiling was strung with Christmas lights that stopped working long ago. On the bar in front of the mirror was bags of white powder that the crew didn't mistake for self-rising flour. There were some boxes of baby laxative for cutting the stuff. Hovering above the room was a fog bank of cigarette smoke that rolled and tumbled like it might eventually produce rain.
A couple blocks down, some of the up-scale dive bars had buy-me-drink girls that were hard to look at. They sat down and ordered a round of beer. Not bad. They downed their beer and walk out into the cold rainy night. One of Muxmen suddenly notice he was hungry. It was too far to the nearest yakatori (a Japanese type of skewered chicken) stand and it was too expensive to eat at the soba (Japanese noodles) bars, so they walked into the Fleet Reserve. The made a killer chili there. They then walked past the boarded up Club Alliance and past Rita's Fist's of Fury, grabbed a $1 corn dog on the corner and headed to Ike's place.
Ike was a skinny guy who was always happy. They ordered his famous Not-Too-Shabby rum and Coke - a hi-ball glass, three ice cubes, filled to the top with rum and 3-4 drops of Coke for coloring. After their first sip, Ike (as he always did) ask, "not too shabby, huh?" Immediately, they started to feel as warm as the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" playing on the jukebox.
What next? Should they head to Popeye's or head to Judy's? Judy's is really "Judy's Snack Sasara", famous for their habu sake which is a jar of sake with a rattlesnake in it. No thanks, Popeye’s it is. They walk in, relieved that their Senior Chief isn't there. Smitty ordered a girly drink called a Blue Sky Chu-hi - Kool-aid that knocks you off your ass.
They stumble out and head for the New Club Alliance, the enlisted club at the gate. They made their way past the gate crawlers, local girls who want you to show them a good time but never show you a good time, flash your ID and go in. You down 1 or 6 25-cent Budweisers while playing nickel slots then head back to the ship. It's a long walk to the pier. They walk past an old Japanese diesel sub. The watchman wakes up and waves. They stop to drain their lizards. They finish, Smitty getting a small amount on his Japanese $8 Reeboks (they look stupid with dress whites), and stumble across the brow and slur permission to come board.
Fun? Pretty much, yes.
On 28 July, Mullinnix, Commander Desroyer Squadron 14 and staff, USS Perry DD-844, USS D. H. Fox DD-779, and USS J. W. Weeks DD-701 set course eastward, saying sayonara to Japan, towards home - some 13,000 miles to Norfolk, Virginia. Home is best.
