Napa (APA 157) - Naval Cruise Book

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KKK.-5.1: - Q- -lim! Fm . V fX 1. y 2 APRIL 1945-1100 The following named men were given commendation at Cap- tain,s Mast for their conduct after the collision off Iwo Jima between the Napa and the USS Logan on the morn- ing of 21 February 1945: Leicken, W. M., CBM Bibla, W. A., CGM Nolte, L. W., CMM Talbert, H. F., MM1c Levicke, H. C., WT2'7c McCreavy, M. S., MM3c Ewing, D. T., MM3c Jacobi, L. F., EM3c Price, J. R., Bkr3c Stephenson, J. A., Slc Papetti, S. J., Slc Reeves, C. H., Slc Templet, L. W., F1c 1330 Happy Hour featuring Big Johnny Johnson and his immortal rendition of HThe Road to Mandalay. Chief Sullivan, uBig Stupe and WBarrelgut Krause put the finishing touches on the fes- 'tivities, to say nothing of the chocolate meringue which they inhaled to the dismay of their competitors. It is still a matter of discussion which required the greater effort that or the finals of the All Ship Boxing Tournament 1-af' 14 tl: le tim THE athletic program was one of the factors that helped to bridge the yawning gap between the Navy as it should be and the Napa as it was. By roping off a ring on No. 2 hatch for boxing, browbeating bored fleet recreation directors into the loan of softball fields, and converting No. 5 hold into a volleyball court by sheer imagination-power, Napa sports fans kept the spirit of sport alive throughout the Pacific. High point of the program was a 40-game softball sched- ule made possible by our extended stay at Pearl for repairs. Two crack outfits ran roughshod over the rest of the league, a bunch of fighting engineers who would rather play ball than eat, and a spirited MN division outfit sparked by the star battery of Jerry Hinds and Fred Dietrich. The NNP team won the shining trophy made by the engineers' machine shop in a 4-3 contest at the close of the season. Two boxing tournaments were run off in the spring and another in October. Though not as many men entered as was hoped for, there were some good scraps and Mach. Corn- messer provided a peacetime Navy brand of refereeing. Opportunities for basketball were few but a four team tournament was played off at Pearl with the hospital corps- men downing the officers for the title A Napa team lost a hard fought game to the carrier Hancock by six points The Corpsmen also won a tennis tournament at Pearl and wal- loped the officers at the end of the volleyball league schedule after the bralders had led the league for weeks Many l1ttle memories stand out playing pitch and catch in the sand at Lahaina on Christmas 1944 trolling for deep- Guam and going down for the ball when lt went into the Water the team from Napa winning the handy billy contest at Aela Fire Fighting School sweating through a basketball scrimmage 1n the equatorial sun on beautiful Mog Mog. Each of us no doubt, can supply many more To sum up the sports program of the Napa, it s too bad we were unable to do any more, it s remarkable we were able to do as much as we did V u . s 3 0 n - - W . . . 9 . 7 X sea fish from a P-boat, touch football games on the dock at g, F ' . . . if , - 9 I 1 -- F' if 64