Oral History Interview with James Boston, September 13, 2005 Page: 11

                                
Mr. Boston
That's right, on the Carolina beach.
Mr. Misenhimer
What kind of landing craft were these?
Mr. Boston
The landing crafts that we had were Higgins boats. They were not boats with fronts on
them, like the LST's and stuff.
Mr. Misenhimer
No ramp on them.
Mr. Boston
These were like old whaling boats. Wooden Higgins boats that you had to go over the
side. That's the kind of boats we practiced on and then we went up and down the cargo
nets. When we crossed the area where we had landed, there is an inland channel down
along the coast; we would go to the inland waterway as a practice kind of thing
Mr. Misenhimer
How many times did you do that, several?
Mr. Boston
Many times, until we were nearly sick. They wanted to make it a habit so that you would
do it automatically.
Mr. Misenhimer
When you climbed down the net, what are some of the secrets to climbing down the net
to do itnight?
Mr. Boston

Climbing down the net is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is the boat
comes up to meet you. You didn't have that much on the mock trials because the boat is
sitting out in the water. The waves against it, because there are a lot of other boats out in
the water moving around and there are waves coming and the boat will go up three to
four feet, or it will come down three to four feet. So when ou
.                                   nyo go to jump for the boat}
it's not there or it comes up to meet you; which ain't the greatest thing. You have to be
very careful and there is usually somebody else there trying to help you to keep you from
falling between the two boats. On the coastline we didn't have it quite like that.

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