Before getting to this video – I must ask.  I have posted 3 videos already.  Interesting? Boring?
I ask because after today, I still have two more days of videos I can post.  So, speak now, or forever hold your piece!

This video starts with the USS Tutuila.  The rest of it is random Navy video.  But, I do like the mail call footage.  I think any branch of the military has a scene like that one. 

Navy Life circa 1940s from Emmy on Vimeo.
Back in March, I tell the story about his Grandfather and his crew and the fleeing from China.  

Here are some pieces I have since found about this story.  After the tensions with the Japanese in Asia heightened, Rear Admiral Glassford upon arriving in Manila deactivated the Yangtze River Patrol on 6-December-1941.  At that point, only two ships remained – the USS Tutuila and the USS Wake.  As we all know, on 7-December-1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed.  Soon thereafter, the USS Wake which was stationed in Shanghi was captured.  The USS Tutuila was definitely in trouble.

The ship was decommissioned and the crew departed China on 18-January-1942.  The USS Tutuila was “leased” to the Chinese government.  The ship was eventually transferred to the Chinese government 1948.

As I mentioned in my March post, the crew took the long way back to the US.  It was planes, trains and boats for them – but they made it back safe and sound.  This is still one of the stories we all wish we could have gotten from Skeet before he died.  I can only hope one day we can find someone who did get the story from someone who took the journey.