Joe Simon by Joe Simon

Author:Joe Simon [Simon, Joseph H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857687913
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2011-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

At Barnegat we were instructed to groom the horses we used for the shore patrol.

On the plus side, I had my own horse in the shore patrol, and I loved it!

While I was at Barnegat I had two or three horses donated by the old cavalry. This one mean horse was pissed off about something. I don’t know who his previous owner had been, but evidently he didn’t want a new one. He tried to throw me in the marshes. He was so angry that he would bite down on the bit and cut his mouth open. I had him for a few weeks, and could never train him.

We also had a dog patrol. The problem was that people used to donate the dogs they couldn’t handle. Their idea was that the Coast Guard was supposed to retrain them, but that was easier said than done. Some of the dogs were just plain big and nasty. They’d behave themselves for a while, then just go off on a tear. There was a story going around that a couple of guardsmen had been killed by the dog they were handling. So we all treated the dogs with a healthy respect.

Long Beach Island is a long, thin strip of land off of the coast of New Jersey, butting up against an equally long, skinny peninsula to the north. Together they create Barnegat Bay. We were surrounded by narrow beaches, salt marshes, and water shallow enough that it was crystal clear in places. It was teeming with fish, crabs, jellyfish, and all sorts of birds. While there were some patches of forest, the relative lack of trees made it an ideal place for us to watch the Atlantic Ocean for signs of enemy boats and submarines.

One night one of the patrolmen actually reported that he had seen a submarine off the coast, and as soon as he put in the call the air was filled with airplanes and soldiers parachuting onto the beach. We were all put on high alert. When there was no sign of a sub, our patrol guy was hustled away. The shore police interviewed him, then decided it had just been his way of trying to attract attention. Someone said he was going bonkers because he was so lonesome on the beach. So they took him to Philly and threw him into the brig. They had him there for quite a while.

Sometime later it was determined that there had been a sub at our beach, like the one sunk by a Coast Guard cutter off the coast of North Carolina in 1942. Of course, if a submarine had attacked the coast of New Jersey, it would have been bad news — especially for us.

You see, the moment I arrived I was handed a wooden rifle. They didn’t have enough guns and ammunition for us to use in training, so we just got these cheap prototypes. Finally they gave us live side arms, and we did some target shooting. Then they issued me a jeep and a driver, and sent me out on night patrol.

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