In New Caledonia I was assigned to Admiral Halsey's 'Service Squadron' (called COMSERONSOPAC), Which turned out to be the best duty west of Honolulu. Unaware of just how lucky I was, when a 'fleet radio school' was opened there on the island, I volunteered and, at the completion of the first class, was promoted to Radioman, Third Class, and assigned to NXZ, the ComSoPac base radio station. There I advanced from sweep-up boy to a code operator of a high speed 'split-phone' watch.

During the year that I spent on the island of New Caledonia, I had many exciting (some gratifying and some a bit hair-raising): I fell in love with the French governor's daughter, who, in her spare time, taught a course in French at the American Red Cross in downtown Noumea; on one daring occasion when I was swimming in the enlisted men's roped-off part of MOB-5 Beach, I ducked under the rope that separated that beach from the nurses' beach and swam under the water to the platform where the young women were sunbathing--and was mistaken for a 'very young' ensign (Enlisted men, of course, could not fraternize with nurses, let alone pretend to be an officer while doing it.