Station HYPO

By: Sam DeDonatis

Yes, I was there as a third class petty officer and what a dark day for my friends. Kami Seya was a beautiful station and everyone was very close and morale was excellent. Those days were different, that’s for sure. We were between the Eve-Day watch and I was one of those light sleepers. I remember hearing the alarm being sounded in the barracks on that bad morning and I looked out the window and saw a large fireball in the distance. I ran to the rest of the men who were sleeping and told them what I couldn’t believe I was seeing. We all mustered and ran to the site which was called the “tunnel.”

Born September 12, 1939 in Woodville, Texas; after graduation from high school John joined the Navy in September of 1957 at the age of 17 on what was then called a “kiddie cruise”[1].  After basic training he was selected to go to Communications Technician School at Imperial Beach, California[2].  . Upon arrival at Imperial Beach John was designated as a CTO Seaman Apprentice.[3]  While in training to become a CTO, John took the Foreign Language Aptitude Test (FLAT) and was selected for language training at the Army Language School[4] at Monterey, California to study Vietnamese.

Less than 7 hours after the late movie the calm would be shattered by FIRE! Fire of such magnitude that it would take several days to grasp the full extent of the tragedy. Today, some 40 years later the event is still talked about. In all of Security Group there is still only one “THE FIRE” – the Kamiseya fire.

CTIC Frederick A. Randall
September 11, 1939 – April 15, 1969

Fall came early to the Kanto Plain that year. Winter’s cold bite was surely not far off. The new gymnasium, under construction since May, was progressing on schedule. The change of command ceremony held in July had been a success and the command was getting used to the new Commanding Officer – Captain James William Pearson. Kamiseya’s first Bon Odori festival, back in August had been a great success, twenty-one teams competed that year.