Well I made it back and was browsing the comments when I read about the problems with cockroaches. Ask Wes Carroll, the first team aboard the Cochrane obviously didn't have any problems with those at all. Never saw one. I did however experience my first sight of those damn wharf rats in Hong Kong attempting to climb up the lines. Whew! some of those were bigger than tomcats.

Dan

Dan's right. As far as I know, Cochrane was still roach free when I left in August of 67. I never saw or heard of anyone else seeing one on board.
I knew some guys on a couple of old World War II cans. Whenever they opened their lockers they hit them a few times before opening them to give the roaches a chance to clear out.
I wonder when they became a problem on Cochrane?
I remember a couple of times when people claimed to have seen the rats come aboard in Hong Kong. I never saw one myself, but I heard they were huge.

Since you left they invaded! Between 71-74 we'd joke the biggest one was in the CO's At Sea cabin. But not when it was VADM Kihune. Now he was a "class act" for sure. You had to knock you boots. It was not overwhelming but they were there.

Jim

In Japan we called her Goki Buti and in Tagalog it was Eppys, Cockroach. The infestation was pretty bad. When 'jack-o-the-dust' I had to battle roachs to open the hatch to dry food stores. The stores were to port of the steering gear and from there they colonised the ship.