Napa (APA 157) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 29 text:

l6 OCTOBER 1944- 0745 Moored at Pier -91, Seattle, Washington. Ram- sey, S2'7c, and Sadovich, S2c,i injured hy Winches. Under- way en route to San Pedro, California. Stocked with sup- plies and ammunition, the Napa now rides like a ship rather than a patrol boat. I 9 OCTOBER l944+An eight hour lay-over in San Francisco was just long enough for the Boat Group to acquire their Higgins and Cris-Craft assault boats. NO TITBERTYQ' a 'tough order to give-worse to take, y

Page 28 text:

OCTOBER 1944- 0830 stationed all Vspecial sea details. 0906 A underway on maidenlvoyage en route to Seattle, Washingtohll Cross ing. the , notoriously , rough bar at the mouth of the Columbia AR1V8f,' the 'first taste of XOVCCHII-g0iI1'g'x was plenty 1Fugge'dV for 1phe9 Napa and her 0,855 btfelatherfmer- chant crew. 14,01 tstructural test-firing of thelfgunse proved they were i1i4'wo1fki11giV.eo1jdlie tion. 'and fwellteseeiifedgjtof the Shipf eet2400eooiwai1ihgeof hornl added7:an'other1 disiilal touCl1 'to' the .A f.e'atl1C1'-IDQIF ,cha11t5,7,.Qo11e ept 'of the sfailor'S life 0 0

Page 30 text:

- .- ,rm-,. .m,.,, ,. 21 OCTOBER 1944 - Anchored San Pedro Bay, California, and reported r e a d y for 66Shakedown. Gunnery exercises, tactical maneuvers, loading and un- loading, debarkation, and as- sault landing drills proved that Captain Firth had not been joking when he an- nounced Hworkn as the ship's motto, but final inspection report classed the Napa as ou'tstanding among her group. Despite the rigorous work schedule, Pecos Street Landing daily saw many of the Napa personnel en route to and returning from Long Beach, San Pedro, and even Los Angeles and Hollywood. 'JN Xxg ,I X:-:Llp ,,,,,,. ,ff Q 2 . , J . 5 wi T T , , p leach Pal-ty E are the fastest men at digging holes on this ship. They say you can't dig holes in loose shale, well, Mthumbs upw had a little excavation that could be termed the initial step in a new G6Martial Fieldsw establishment! Tunneling was the plan of the day but the awkward thing about these ground hogs was they resembled ostriches and some did get their tail feathers plucked! It was the accepted motto of the Beach Party that every- thing is uAll fouled up!9' And we do try to maintain that standard of perfection. If we haven't lost all communications on the beach, then we have certainly landed on the wrong beach. It matters little what wave we are scheduled for, we just pick any one at hand and then proceed to maneuver to the general frus- tration of all in charge. On the ship, our manipulation of the Winches is unprecedented. We are famous for showering cases of most anything all over the deck, and once we made an omelete on the side of the hatch, recipe: 13,320 eggs, dash well against any solid bulkhead and allow to drip. Whether your opinion agrees with the usual run of opinions, I shall not inquire, but a Beach Party man is NOT a Marine, nor a soldier and most assuredly not a 4-F f that is, to start out withj . It takes months to bring him to the top of his inefliciency, and he is a strictly Navy product. At his uttermost perfection, he does as little as he possibly can on the ship, and hitting the beach, he digs aehole and plans a new attack on shipboard Mlight dutyf, It appears that when they couldn't find anything to call us - that was printable - they inaugurated the infamous Amphibious! It merely means, uoccupation doubtful - work assured. - Not even the unions can supply such varied activity as this celebrated organization. From MSand in My Shoesw to uPaint in My Hairw augmented by uBounce Me Daddy in a Flat-Bottomed Boat,'7 our anthem emerges. We venerate our motto, and our spirit shall never change. It shall be forever true to the sterling example of our per- petual and indescribable, GGTHUMBS UPV, 26 33 4 N 1 v 1 1 L I I I E l 1 I 1 1