The winters are long here in Iowa..usually from November to early April. Last year we got 21 inches of snow in March and April....yep...wow that's way off topic...
Any way back in 1975 when I was aboard Hancock we were supposed to take part in an exercise similar to RIMPAC on our way to our 1975 WESTPAC deployment. But the Fall of Saigon was imminent. So we stopped in Pearl Harbor for three days to pick up HMH-463 CH-53s & personnel...I remember that there where Aussie ships in Pearl when we arrived.