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stick up, atolls of about eight feet with palm trees mixed
in the haze and the waves, and they're very difficult to spot.
So they couldn't see it.

see it.

They weren't close enough even to

So finally one of the sailors said, "I suggest you

ask the Marshallese boys."
of Annapolis,
went up.

Whereupon he says, "I'ma graduate

I know how to navigate a ship," and his back

But finally in desperation he said,

"Well, do you

fellows know where Wotje is?" And again this is typical of
their behavoir, never a direct response,

-"We'll think about

it for a while”; and this is a lesson agme of the rest of us
might learn,

Rather than blurt out a quick reply, "Why, let's
+

think about it for a moment,"

Y

So they had a little huddle; they waliced around the

o¢

edge of the ship; they looked in the water; they looked off
‘at the sky and they had another consultation and they said

"Wotje that way [indicating]."

This was a real big help.

least he knew the direction to go!

[Laughter].

At

He thought

maybe this fellow is so dammed smart, maybe I could ask him

another question.

So he said, "How far 1s it to Wotje?"

Well,

another consultation, another walk around the ship and another

huddle and "Wotje ,40 more miles.”
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"Well, we're lost.

We might as well try this."

So

23

he said, "Sail that way 40 miles,"

24

and dropped the anchor and everything was lovely and he began

25

to think about this,

26

he said, “How did you know where Wotje was?"

27

"Oh!"

They went into the harbor

So he gathered them together againand

This was a very serious problem,

So another

28

huddle, and another bit of discussion and then the great

29

announcerent:

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"Wotje always right here!"

FREMONT-SMITH:

[Laughter]

I think I have to give another aspect

31

of this same story because as I was coming back from Bikini

32

Iwas on a plane with a Navy captain who told me a very

33

Similar story.

SiOEUCLA.

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