On 17 August 1967, after many years of being home ported in Honolulu, Hawaii, the 180-foot U.S. Coast
Guard Cutter Basswood set sail for her new home port on Guam in the Marianas Islands. With this sailing,
she would begin a fifteen month odyssey across the Pacific Ocean and into the Philippine and South China
Seas.
During her travels, she would unleash sixty fun loving, frolicking, fornicating, fighting, young Coasties
on forty-seven Pacific Islands and five Asian Nations. Young, tough, kids from all parts of the U.S.,
many of whom were away from home for the first time. They worked hard and they played hard as they
crossed the 180th Meridian, became Golden Dragons, and went on to discover the mysteries of Asia and the
Far East.
This epic voyage would take them to the hooker bars and short time hotels of Olongapo in the Philippines,
the Vietcong infested bays and rivers of Vietnam, and the vaunted Namenoue Red Light District in Naha,
Okinawa. They would look in wonder at the temples of Bangkok, Thailand, and explore the back streets of
Keelung Harbor in Taiwan. Then they would sail to islands in the Pacific so remote they have been
virtually untouched by modern civilization.
Realm of the Golden Dragon is also available as an e-book for Amazon Kindle.