Duties at Barrigada

An extremely large generator was placed right next to where the Receiver station was being set up and was covered by two tarps for protection. We started clearing the area and one of the guys raised a board and suddenly white smoke came pouring out. We quickly put some distance away from this presumed danger, while trying to decide what it was; it looked like white phosphorus and we said "phosphorus bomb!" but couldn't decide what that meant either; so we just kept our distance until finally it ceased emitting the white vapor and we worked on other things. Talking later with the Marines we decided we were in no danger - it was spent. Then we realized some creosoted logs were in the wrong place, but we didn't have the gloves to handle them so we later requested Seabee help when they brought in equipment to knock down some coconut trees. We decided to do something else to save whatever could be used in the building of the station. It was sort of a lost day in our minds. The Lt. came in about chow time and took all but two of us in the jeep (no room for any more); we immediately wondered about the wisdom of leaving only two people but the Lt., a 90 day wonder, said all would be o.k. After we all had dinner, including the Lt. (!) he went back and picked up the other two people, who after all had their carbines in case they needed them! We started being wary of this Lt's direction.