 The United States Pacific Command in Hawaii frequently deployed units of the United States Pacific Fleet, based in Japan, and units of the marine corps, based in Okinawa and other locations in the Pacific, to South Korea for joint training exercises, particularly Team Spirit, held every spring to promote South Korean-United States military cooperation and readiness. Lia A. Burris ET1 (SW) retired. Explains: "Kawishiwi went to the Sea of Japan twice during my tour." "The
first time was in 1990 when
we had a huge storm where one of the ships we were with, hit a big wave
and had its bridge bulkhead pushed an inch back. They had salt water
damage on some bridge equipment. The storm was the worst weather I have
ever been in on the
Kawishiwi or any other ship. I had to sleep with Stuff stuck under my
mattress so that I was pushed up against the bulkhead and did not roll
around as much. I felt sorry for the smaller vessels we were sailing
with that did not have all the nice oil to balance them out. I went up
to check on our SMSA and we almost got blown off the signal bridge.
They secured the signal watch like 5 minutes after that. We had life
lines strung out across the deck. The CO let us use his coffee mess
area with the microwave so we could make those cup of Ramie soups. No
one wanted to go aft across the weather deck to the mess decks. There
was spray hitting us Mid ship. They would have been soaking wet. I
think a couple did get soaked."
"I
was so glad on the second
cruse in 1991, during the Team
Spirit, the weather was not so bad. We went through the Sea of
Japan and things went great. We got to visit with the Koreans."
 The
White boxes sitting on
the Deck are called conex boxes. They are for temperary storage of
refrigerated goods. The forklifts can run right in and out of them and
deliver the goods to the transfer stations. The old guy on the
bridge picture at the wheel is about 60 years old. I was glad he was on the wheel when
we were in the Sea of the Japan. I heard that he use to fly airplanes
before he went Merchant Marine. We had to have our screw checked out
after that storm.
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