A Face in the Crowd.
Apollo Story:
My passport was invalid because it had expired. Passports were needed, especially for Missions to various countries. My passport was previously British (Now US) The Port Captain Office briefed me thoroughly on what to say to the British Embassy. I was told I had to return with a valid passport in 3 hours.
Problem was in the islands we were at there was no British Embassy. We were in the Caribbean ~~~ in the main Coconut and Banana Islands with few Embassies. And the more advanced Islands such as Aruba and Curacao were Dutch Colonies, not British.
Finally we arrived in Jamaica, a former British Colony with a British Embassy.
I saw an attache and gave the story of "OTC" ~~ I was on a ship called "Operation Transport Corporation" a Business Management training ship.
Unfortunately, the British Embassy knew all about the Apollo and did not buy any of my story. I was shuffled to different probing staff and looked at with magnifying glasses. I knew the Embassy wanted a lot for info on the Apollo.
I stuck to my story.
Finally, I blurted a plea for a temporary passport as I would be going to London the following month and could get it all squared away in the UK. I would pay the extra *RUSH* /URGENT Fee.
Who knows what they were doing in the background? What telexes, what phone calls they made ?
I was at the Embassy for 6 hours, I kid you not.
Finally, I was issued a temporary British Passport valid for 60 days. Notes on the Apollo were handwritten inside the passport.
I fled the Embassy, took a taxi to the dock.
The Apollo had gone !!!!!!
The Apollo had set sail without me... (Later I found out that the berthing of the Apollo was opposite a chemical factory belching out poisonous fumes which were affecting the lungs of Apollo crew and especially LRH so the order was to leave.)
If you could imagine what it is like, to stand on a dock, in an island in the middle of nowhere with nothing in the world except some few bucks with one's home, one's dwellings, ones comm lines vanished into thin air.
I felt very alone as I stood on the dock, staring into the setting sun. I had absolutely nothing with me to survive, not even $$$ for a hotel.
To be continued......