In the winter of 1945-46, after the Japs had surrendered, I was a flag yeoman (clerk) working in the personnel section of the U.S. 7th Fleet (Admiral Thomas C. Kincaid was SOPA,or senior officer present afloat, at buoy #1) aboard a ship at buoy #12 for Commodore E. E. Duval Jr.

One day my immediate boss, a lieutenant, told me to go over to the Glen Line building on the Bund (headquarters of Rear Admiral Milton E. Miles who was SOP, or senior officer present - on land). I was supposed to help SOP set up a Shore Patrol as the U.S. Army, which had come over the Burma (Stilwell) Road, had already set up their MP unit.

As I approached the Glen Line, I saw a crowd of coolies surrounding there an armored car in the front seat of which sat a second-class boatswain's mate. Not surprisingly, being a kid from Chicago, I asked my shipmate questions for the next fifteen minutes, and this was his explanation:

The armored car was a 1925 seven-passenger sedan, custom-made for Al Capone in Chicago, who paid $20,000 for it. The boatswain's mate got out of the car and took me around this vintage vehicle like a proud salesman touting its features. The glass in all the windows, front, side, and back, was 100% bulletproof just like the gas tank. The interior venetian blinds were made of quarter-inch thick steel, and the slits along the top were for the barrels of Thompson submachine guns. The armored car weighed seven tons, and was used by Al Capone in the 20's and early 30's in Chicago.

"But what is it doing here?" I asked. "What, boats, are you doing in the front seat?"

"I drive the Admiral around town. He inherited it from its former owner, the chief of police of Shanghai, who had to leave town under a cloud because he'd collaborated with the Japs during their occupation, before the 7th Fleet pulled in."

"Which Admiral is that?"

"Admiral Miles."