I noticed recently that a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier was planning to stop in Hong Kong to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with some relatives who had flown there to meet some of the crew members. At the last minute our "friends", the Chinese government, didn't allow the ship to enter the port, and turned them away. With friends like that, who needs enemies.
They might still remember when my old ship, the U.S.S. Oxford, visited Hong Kong in 1969. After a few days they "asked" us to leave. I think the final straw was when a few of our guys rented motor scooters and drove them off the end of a pier.
They made us anchor out in the harbor and use a small boat to shuttle the sailors back and forth to the pier. One day I was on the ship, watching the shuttle boat approach the Oxford. I noticed that the boat kept circling back, coming toward the ship again, and then circling back. When I got some binoculars for a closer look, I saw that some guys were falling overboard or throwing their hats overboard and the boat had to keep circling back to pick them up. Ahh....the good old days.
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