Willie Yang
Anyone recall Willie Yang?
During 1968 through 1970 I made two Med-cruises on Semmes.
It seemed like we couldn't hit a liberty port without
hearing the announcement, "Willie Yang. Hong Kong
tailor is now on the Mess Deck" The brow would
barely touch the pier, or the anchor dropped, and we
would hear this announcement over the 21MC.
Willie would travel around the Med, selling custom
tailored suits to the sailors of the 6th Fleet. He did
quite a business too, considering that back in those
days, we could not keep civies on board. Willie would set
up shop right on a couple of tables on the Mess Deck and
pull all kinds of samples out of the suitcases he'd drag
around with him. Pick a style, color, fabric, get
measured, and you're in business. The suits cost around $50
or $65, and if you ordered one, Willie would show up a
couple of Liberty ports later with your new suit.
I sometimes wonder. How the heck did Willie Yang knew the
movements of the 6th fleet? How did he know where the
Semmes would be in 5 weeks in order to deliver?
Sometimes, even we didn't know where or when the
next port of call would be, until we just about got there.
Jim Saccento (QM3/Semmes '68-'70)
Jim
I rememeber
Willie well. I bought a suit from him and what always
amazed me is he nver wrote anything down yet it was
always right.
Merle Visser
70-71
I remember Willie Yang. Had him
make a sport coat for me with leather patches on the
elbows.
Gene Hart
Not only do I remember Willie, I still
have the suit. Sigh...it no longer fits though.
Freddie Cummings BT2/70-72
Those people had their way of
knowing what we were doing when we didn't. On my
first West Pac cruise in 1958, a bunch of us were in a
bar in Yokosuka shooting the breeze and speculating on
where we would be going when we left port in a few days.
One of the bar girls said "Two weeks, you go Okinawa two
days, then two more weeks, you come back here". She
was right on. My son who was homeported in Yoko in
93-95 said the intelligence was still pretty good.
Keith Cottrell (62-66)
|
