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1968 May 23 - Golden Dragon Certificate - Bill Thomas
From Bill Thomas:
Hi, Bill, this is Bill Thomas's wife. Since he was on the Bennie on May 23, 1968, would he be eligible for the Golden Dragon Certificate. (YEP) He said that he spent a lot of long hours. The 2 engine rooms, 2 auxillaries, and the 4 boiler rooms took up the 6, 7,& 8th decks in the center of the ship. Therefore, when this happened, each day and night blended endlessly into the next.
Likewise, when we hit the 60 foot wave, Bill was on the sound powered phones to the bridge. The guy on the bridge "commented" that we had just hit a 60 ft. wave. All we felt down there was a shutter.
Another time the man on the bridge on the sound powered phones told us that we were passing over a spot that was 8 miles deep.
During the same storm, he went across the fantail and watched the destroyers bouncing around pretty violently and saw the destroyers' bow go down deep enough to bring the screws out of the water for a brief moment. Bobbie and Bill Thomas
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