Oral History Interview with William J. Stewart, June 11, 1981 Page: 53

                                
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the first one of the Army men that was over by there
just said, "There's a couple of guys over there that
haven't got any clothes, and can we help them out?"
And they took it from there. There were no orders,
no offical directive or anything.
One of the things that impressed the Army personnel was
how the Houston sailers had been able to improvise once
they got to Bicycle Camp. For example, when you got
there, you obviously didn't have any eating utensils.
No.
How did you improvise? What did you do?
Well, that's kind of hazy.    I don't remember how I ate
the rice when I was in Serang Prison--whether I just
ate it with my fingers or how.
Didn't you say when.. .but you did have the aluminum
bowls or whatever in Serang Prison.
Right.   Somewhere along the line in Bicycle Camp, I managed
a spoon.  It was English,..it was either from the
Australians or English or somebody.    I don't remember
who gave it to me or how I managed to come by it.
What were you using for a plate or a dish?
We had a little tin can. Mostly tin cans is what we
were able to salvage. Oh, some of the men would buy
canned stuff from the natives at the gate, and, of course,
the 131st outfit had a pretty good supply of canned food

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