By Don
Being a bit excited for the wedding, I lost track of the time at the base and drove my VW rather fast to Kindley Field, leaving the car in a long term lot and flew to NJ. Enroute to Newark in a NY Airways Helo, I dropped the ring down a hole in the floor but snapped open an access hole, reached in between some control cables and rescued it.
I had set up to rent a Chevrolet Corvair to use after the wedding simply because I had never driven one. Ralph Nader later said it was “unsafe at any speed." I do not remember much about the ceremony other than that I was there, said "I do,” kissed Doris and wanted to leave immediately. I remember I did the cake thing, fumbled at dancing with Doris, and finally we left in the dark and in the Corvair for Idlewild airport on Long Island. It became JFK later. The plane was a 707 night coach to San Juan and a stewardess gave us two coach seats away from the other passengers, apparently knowing that we were just married. Must have been my glow.
We landed at SJU or Isla Verde International and checked in to the local puddle jumper airline for the next leg to the Saint Thomas Airport, then known as Harry Truman Field. His stamp was all over. I remember the Margaret Truman launderette was in Key West at the corner of Margaret St. and Truman Avenue. The plane was a DC-3 or Gooney Bird which has a tail wheel, 2 prop engines and you walk downhill to your seat. It took off and flew to HST Field where one now walked uphill to debark. Being a modern navy pilot I thought the plane was rather ancient in that it was designed in the 1930s. My log book says I have 76 flight hours in one while at Meridian, MS.
The next leg was to go by a 35 minute taxi to the other end of Saint Thomas Island and get on a 30 minute small shuttle boat which took people to St. John and the dock at Caneel Bay, a Rock Resort, as in Rockefeller, where we had reservations. So how did I know about Caneel Bay?
Long before I met Doris I had flown into Pillsbury Sound between St. Thomas and St. John along with ten other P-5M seaplanes to fly training flights and live aboard a large Seaplane Tender anchored in the Sound. One day on the USS Albemarle, I heard the ship's announcement to call away the Captain’s Gig which would depart for shore in 15 minutes. Curious, and with no other duties, I quietly boarded the gig with the Captain and five or six officers and was surprised to find we went to a dock at an apparent resort. The trip was for those officers to have a drink and talk to the resort manager, possibly about the activity and seaplane noise on his heretofore serene Pillsbury Sound. I managed two Rum Punches in 30 minutes and we all returned to the ship. No one asked me who I was and I volunteered nothing. But what a fabulous resort. I thought to myself...“What a place for a honeymoon.” About a year later, I had reason to remember that resort.
But back to our adventures. It was now getting dark and we were both exhausted and slept very well. So I was pleased that we got this far on my planning. Months earlier, I had made reservations for the resort at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, somewhere on the 40th floor. They accepted my information and my credit card and I went back to the ground floor and around the corner to a Pan American Airlines office:
I was in a dress blue uniform and a nice man said “How can I help you?” I said I needed a plane reservation from BDA to Idlewild for myself on 21 April, 1960. He said OK and wrote it down. Then I tell him I need reservations on a night coach from Idlewild to San Juan for two on 23 April and he said OK and wrote it down. Then I said I need two reservations from SJU to Harry Truman Field in St. Thomas, VI and he said OK and wrote it down. Then I said I need reservations for two from HST airport on St Thomas to SJU and he said OK and wrote it down. Then I said I need two reservations on British West Indies Airlines for two from SJU to BDA and he said OK, wrote it down, and gives me a long look. Then he said…”and then where to?” and I said “that’s it, that’s all.” He gave me another look. Yes, that one.
Then he said that, as a serviceman stationed at BDA, I could get off the plane at Bermuda but my wife could not get off or stay at Bermuda and must continue on. Thinking fast, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Navy letter to confirm that my dependent wife could join me without further papers and stay at Bermuda. He smiled and left to take about 15 tortuous minutes to check that out, returned, and read the entire itinerary back to me. I gave him my credit card, took the tickets, and walked out with a big smile on my face. So ends my part of the marriage plans.
Again, back to our adventures at Caneel Bay. We ate like kings and queens. Comedian Shelley Berman was there at a nearby table. We swam at a number of beaches, tried our hand at sailing, and had our first argument (see Doris’ story). What a great place for a honeymoon. I wanted to come back someday. But it was time to go home to Bermuda where I had rented a cottage. But upon arrival at SJU, we found that the BWIA flight had been cancelled and we were stuck in SJU for two days and were a bit low on cash.
But Doris had some cash in envelopes given to us at the wedding. I argued with BWIA and got a free room at the motel that the airline used for their flight crews and we became San Juan tourists. I had been to San Juan before with a ten day deployment of a bunch of seaplanes, hanging on buoys in the Bahia de San Juan while we lived in a BOQ. With our plane to be the first out to BDA, we knew that no check would get to BDA before we did, as any check for the Bank of Bermuda would be on the plane with us, and I had a paycheck waiting at the squadron.
We rented a VW and drove west. We continued on, taking a small open flatbed ferry pulled by a cable on each side of a river. We continued on to the big rainforest mountain of El Junque to a town called Fajardo, past the Naval Station at Roosevelt Roads and back to San Juan. We walked the Old town San Juan, visited El Morro, the old Spanish Fortress, went to the Carribe Hilton and did touristy things before flying back to BDA, our cottage and the squadron.