In August of 1967 I was stationed at the 20th Naval Construction Regiment in Gulfport, Mississippi. On the 17th of August I was assigned the 24 hour duty of Master at Arms of a barrack. It was to be a fateful 24 hours. We were on hurricane watch as Hurricane Camille was brewing in the Gulf Of Mexico. However, there were reports that it was expected to turn right and possibly make landfall on the panhandle of Florida. They were wrong! On the morning of the 17th I started my 24 hour barracks duty. At noon the quarterdeck called and told me to evacuate the population of the barracks and send them to be assigned to warehouses on the base. I was to stay until further notice. I had a small transistor radio to listen to hurricane updates. Sometime during the afternoon there was a report that Camille had crossed the mouth of the Mississippi River. Wind gusts were reported at 218 MPH before that weather station went down. At 6:30pm the quarterdeck called to tell me to leave the barracks and report to a specific warehouse on the base. Unknown to me and other single men, we were reporting to what turned out to be old WWII warehouses. Later we would discover that the Base Command, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to keep the single men on the base separate from the dependents and married couples on the base. They were secured in new, solid, concrete warehouses. Here are a few pictures of the results of Camille.

A quick stroll down the street of the WWII warehouses that Command thought would be "just fine" for us single guys! Brilliant, eh? It was around 11:00 or 11:30 at night when things totally deteriorated. Those of us close to the walls could feel them moving. The big wood sliding doors on the windward side were blown inside the warehouse. The air pressure became so great that I couldn't clear my ears. It sounded as though a freight train was roaring by us. I was crouched against the wall on the interior leeward side of the building next to a wood sliding door, thinking, "If this door would blow out it would at least equalize the inside pressure. In a flash the door was blown out. Now I thought the inside pressure would equalize. Debris was flying through the warehouse. Then I noticed the wall I was crouched against was moving away from its concrete foundation. Someone was yelling, "Everybody OUT!!!" We jumped out staying as close as we could to the concrete pad that the warehouses were built on so that the debris would fly over us. It was a strange, surreal scene. Large sections of the warehouses had crashed into our cars parked outside, some of the headlights had turned on and car horns were honking. Some of the men were yelling and cussing in fear, a few men had just returned from a tour in Vietnam were crying...me, I was just scared to death. We all thought we were going to "eat it". Sometime after, I can't remember how long, we saw lights coming toward us. It was a couple of Amtracs. When they got close enough, their ramps came down. We carried on the injured first and they took off...where they went, I don't know, however, soon they returned and picked up the rest of us. Where did they take us? To the new solid concrete warehouses that housed the dependents, married couples AND brand new heavy equipment. As soon as we entered we saw a number of duce and a half trucks. We ran to them and slid underneath them thinking that if this warehouse came down, maybe the springs of the heavy truck would hold up if any of the debris came down on us. I'm sure some of the people in there thought we were crazy but they had no idea what was going on outside. At daylight they opened the doors of the warehouse and we returned to our "old" warehouses to see what was left and if our cars had survived. I still had my camera and took these pictures.

In this section of the warehouse the roof came down on some guys that thought they had died when everything turned black.

Jerry McNamee, one of my roommates from the house we were renting off base. This is the warehouse he was in.

"Speedy" Canalles wondering if his insurance will cover his Chevy Nova. Notice he was able to secure a helmet from somewhere.

This is the barracks that I left around 6:00 or 6:30 in the evening when I headed for the warehouses.

Clean up of the base started immediately to make the roads passable.

This is what remained of the office where I used to work.

Here is the house we were renting off base. All that was left was the slab and half of a toilet bowl. This was all damage that was caused by the 20 foot plus storm surge. The house was wood framed with bright yellow wood siding. We couldn't find one piece of the siding.

Jerry McNamee and Butch Jones inspecting what was left of the house and the results of what we found; Butch's Sony amplifier, his Teac 2010s reel to reel tape deck and one of my hub caps. At least we didn't try to stay here during the hurricane!

The first picture was our backyard. The second is after the clean up weeks later.

This is my little Mini Cooper I was going to restore stuffed under the debris that was washed back up the street, much like seaweed is washed up on the beach after a storm. We found it one block over and one block back. We hooked it up to my car and pulled it out, a lost cause.

This was the Merry Mansion, located a block and a half east of our house. This damage was caused by the storm surge of 20 plus feet. The Merry Mansion had quite a history.

More examples of the storm surge. An A & P grocery store and an oil tank that floated up from an off shore oil rig.

Further evidence of the 20 foot plus storm surge. A tug boat that was pushed all the way across Highway 90, the coastal highway.

A two story house that collapsed on itself from the storm surge. People that stayed in houses like this told us, as the water continued to rise, they escaped to the attics. Their biggest concern was the floating debris, floating cars and boats crashing into their houses pushed by the waves.

Two apartment buildings hit by the storm surge.

Finally, my car, a 1968 Z28, and what happened to it. The only damage was a blown out rear window and paint damage from the fallen sides of the warehouse and wind blown rocks. I was able to pop the hood, dry out the distributer cap and drive it out from this spot.