Coombs, Robert, SK2

Other Memories
First duty station after boot camp. ACB-1 was comprised of blue AND white stripe Seabees. The blue stripers, mostly steelworkers, built portable causeways for amphibious loading/unloading operations, and we white stripers maintained them and did the actual LST side loading operations to put them to use. I worked in the chain locker, which was tasked with putting together hardware sets of everything needed to side load causeways onto LST's for transport to where a beach assault was to take place. These sets consisted of assorted block and tackle gear for hoisting four causeways onto the sides of each LST, along with logging chains to secure them, and wire cables used to splash them for the assault. I remember slopping a lot of grease to keep those blocks lubed, and learned how to splice eyes into each end of the 1/2" wire ropes. We usually wore a dirty set of greens over our dungarees, as the chain locker was one dirty job! A couple of times a year we would go out to practice side loading, and these war game beach assaults would last about three days. After side loading an LST, we would ride it to our practice beach (Coronado), drop and marry up the causeway sections, push them up to the beach, and unload a truck or two off the LST. We'd then set up a camp with defense perimeter on the beach, and defend it from nightly attacks. During the only war game operation I participated in (I was TAD to barracks cleaning during the first that year), I was assigned the job of setting up and manning an outpost, along with one other seaman, to give an advanced warning of an attack. The first night we dug a shallow hole in the sand outside the wire, and found some 2X4's and a tarp to cover it. We sprinkled sand over it, and buried a phone line out to it. That night the enemy, all two or three of them, almost stepped on us as they walked by, but we reported in and the shooting soon began! The next night I singlehandedly killed two Navy SEALs! As it was uncomfortable lying with our faces in the sand, we moved our outpost out by the highway, and found a depression in the ice plant covered sand hills. We figured we had the high ground and would see the enemy coming in the moonlight from our vantage point. After a couple of hours of boredom, my fellow outpost watch decided nothing was going to happen that night, so he headed back inside the wire. I grew impatient and decided to do a little "scouting" on my own. I hiked north up the beach towards the simulated VC "Dragon" village, as I think it was called. It was about a half mile from our camp, and was on the perimeter of the UDT/SEAL training area across the highway (beach side) from the Coronado base. When about a block south of the village, I heard voices so I hunkered down next to a bush about half my size, and watched two guys walk by about a hundred feet away, jabbering away as they strolled along. The moon was bright that night, but they didn't see me. I continued up to the bamboo village, found it to be empty, and headed back towards our camp. I was probably about five minutes behind the two enemy soldiers, so kept an eye out for them as I made my way south. When nearing my outpost I decided to follow the hills bordering the highway for cover. It's lucky I did, because when I reached the outpost I found it occupied by the two enemy! Their backs were facing me as they looked out at the camp they were about to attack. I told them to freeze, and they turned around in total surprise to see me pointing my trusty M-14 at them. I noticed one of them was a junior officer. To hell with the Geneva convention, and taking prisoners; I pointed my rifle at the sand in front of them, pulled the trigger twice, and said "you're dead". The officer said "no we're not", and the two of them took off running towards camp, blazing away. They seemed to have plenty of ammo, while our side was issued three blanks each, and I just wasted two of mine! For some reason it sticks in my mind that the enemy force was provided by the base UDT/SEAL's, but in hindsight, they were probably from our sister NBG-1 unit, the Beachmaster's.