Jeff Smith

In an e-mail from Jeff Smith. 

"In an earlier e-mail I mentioned that I was onboard the Forster from 11/61 to 8/63 as an ETN3 and ETN2.  I made the Deep Freeze cruise leaving Pearl Harbor 12/29/62 for the 3 month tour.  I have included some scans from "The Otago Daily Times" of 1-15-63.  It tells of our first arrival in Dunedin. 

I guess the reason I still have the paper is because of one of the pictures on the front page.  It is a picture of myself (my name is spelled Jeffrey rather than Geoffrey) and Art Oswald.  We had both been in band in high school  and we used to play a few tunes when we were at sea in the evening.  The Captain discovered us and asked us to play whenever we came into port. 

When we returned to Pearl he thought it was cool to be the only ship in the squadron that had it's own band.  We weren't that good but it was fun.  Sure played a lot of Waltzing Matilda down under."  Articles dated January 15, 1963.