TALE OF A CITY 118 representative, my father paid a courtesy visit to the commander of the American forces, Lucius D. Clay, who was a 4-star Engineer General. * He took us on a tour of the American military camp. The commander invited us to ride with him in an open-topped amphibious vehicle. I sat between my father and the commander, while my elder brother Khalid, and Imran bin Taryam sat in the back with an American soldier. The vehicle crossed the town of Sharjah and went on to the bay, where it transformed into a boat. Then it continued on to Barr ash-Shush, which is a sandbar that separates the bay from the open sea, and the boat changed back again into a land vehicle. It then plunged into the rolling waves of the open sea, once again transforming into a boat. It bobbed up and down on the surf, pushing against the waves. As soon as we were out on the open sea I got seasick, and I threw up on the commander’s shirt, which annoyed him verymuch. He immediately turned the boat back towards Sharjah, bringing an end to our journey out on the sea. During the period 16-30 June 1944, the construction of the housing and training camp for the US army was proceeding apace requiring tripling the numberofSharjahemployees.20 In early July 1944, the American troops came to Sharjah. It was only a few nights later, namely on 31 July 1944, that three drunk American military personnel went out and got lost. They had gone to the Ghuwair Palm area where the locals spent the summer. The area had water wells suitable for swimming and washing. This place was between the American camp and Sharjah Fort on the extremities of the Station. It was only 1 kilometre away from there. 20 I.O.R./L.P.&S/12/2043, EXT.3274/1944. * On 15 June 1973, I visited General Lucius D. Clay, in his office. At the time he was Senior Managing Director, Lehman Brothers, 1 William Street, New York City. He held a banquet for us at the company’s headquarters and remembered the incident when I had thrown up on his shirt some 30 years earlier. He said “Your father was not too happy for us to come down to ground in Sharjah; but we did though.”
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