Wow. This makes for quite a story. Traditionally, when you cross the equator for the first time at sea, you are initiated into King Neptune’s Realm. This certification for an Army grunt on the USS Republic is dated December 6th, 1941. Per Wiki:
On 21 November 1941 Republic left San Francisco for the Philippines by way of Hawaii with 2,666[Note 1] Army officers, including Brig. Gen. Julian F. Barnes, and enlisted men and 18 civilians and flying cadets, reaching Pearl Harbor on 28 November.[6][7] After overnight refueling she left port on the 29th to join six other vessels and assume the role of flagship for a convoy headed to the Philippines escorted by the USS Pensacola (CA-24).[7] Of the other ships only the USAT Willard A. Holbrook carried troops.[6] That convoy, generally known as the Pensacola Convoy (also seen as the “Republic Convoy”),[Note 2] was being routed on the southern route to Manila by way of Port Moresby to avoid the Japanese mandated islands of the central route and on 6 December the convoy crossed the equator celebrating the largest Army Shellback initiation up to that time.
So it had been at Pearl not long before. Our PFC and the rest of the soldiers debarked at Brisbane to become the United States Forces in Australia (USFIA).
Photo by Armanis.