Rankin (LKA 103) - Naval Cruise Book

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El Wallace Anlone SN Alexander Bell SN xx' 1 i 0 gk yQf,ff 'fv fff ff , 1,7 ff. , ., - fy, P, .,, Off, 7 a'Vf,f,7 ' V7 fx! .H -Q4 W, ff f ' f, 4 f f 1'- ' iff Cfy fri ,X , f f 1' 1 WW ' ff A f , ff! J f ff X X 552 f M QW 1 I f ' fyw ' f f if if if X f I X 3 I ,M f' , W hn Benlco SA Ai slew Blake SN Kevin Burgess SN Roberf Common SN We vw ,,, ww - ' W x.: 1, ,, W -W --11 Mr, Williams ponders over Liberly Boat! Defender of lhe Faith one of his sixteen problems 'IQ' lN1 b xm YM we 'sn y,.,...f S3 s. A-1 NMS? an A H A u su Bernard Blanda SA Glenn Chrise AA Gerard Couture SA Rick Johnson SN William Krewson SA Richard Kusnierek SN 14

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N l I Y HSA HERB E 5 i N - ,ara- Jw ll :I 5 J X. ' f' X K s - .. -si ' 'sis .3- P X X sw., X ss if .3593 x X 2 sewn! I XX ff' LT. Michael Williams Boat Group Commander ' i fgk e x Q5 . 'f- Q N ,7 Q1 A J s i T Swv so . T i f. ft 'V i fi lx wg. f se QB? X J., ' s 0 J' f qi' V ' J X Xml Harold Henline BMI Lloyd Simpson BMI Jimmy Jackson BM2 Victor Angeleri BM3 The RANKlN's Boat Group is responsible for the ship's B LCMs, 6 LCVPs, and 2 LCPLs. This responsibility includes driving these sixteen landing craft and it also includes the never-ending task of trying to make the work horses of the AMPHlBs look like show horses through the use of paint brushes and gallons of haze gray and white paint. At the start of the MED 2-69 Cruise, Third Division had only a few old timers with the maiority of the 36 men a bunch of rookies from boot camp . The big question when we got underway on July 22 was how were we going to make all our boat commitments? The answer came through hard studying and many many hours of Hon the iob training . Gradually the rookies became old salts and Rankin's Boot Group successfully carried out their mission through 5 maior Ship-To-Shore Operations transporting hundreds of Marines and thousands of tons of equipment. We had another goal to achieve during MED 2-69. This goal was to qualify for the Assault Boat Award for the third con- secutive year. lt was to be attempted at Timbakion, Crete. Our first practice landing was a complete disaster. The surf was so rough that we could not practice hitting the beach and retracting. The second practice met with the same results. By now one would have thought that Third Division should have been down in the dumps. The third attempt was for grade and it turned out iust beautiful. The Boat Group came through and made a great show. As a result of hard work, pride and the desire to do the best iob possible, Third Division returned to Norfolk qualifying for the Amphibious Force Assault Boat Award. T, , f,,f'5l. agp. I Vxk my 3 , T gs 'Vg XX i ' se J 'K . 'Q gg if 1 e 355 X 5 Armen Melkonian BM3 Allen McKellips BM3 Willie Epting BM3 William Ruger BM3 13 , -- Sw.. ::r,'.x K. . W.-x, 1 . 'Pvlii-1

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aa a . P-R k 5 y Timothy Latimer SA ix. L. McDonald SA Louis Mischier SA Timothy Murphy SFX! Kenneth Paavilainen SA Michael Pirog SA Not Shown: Milton Moore SA Cosmo Valente SN N, a Armenian Power G, Third Division at work Harney Brothers and Snide If A . l SEQ g K V I gn, ,W V x K X V X lj , ' A A firr Q, 2 A . ' it 2039 SN Y 'K' r I S war- ii S -4-M 2 ' r SXNN XM N , P 3 S, .,ir X S Q My f ' ' Aflhur Pollack SA Gary Plant SA Richard Powell SA Nicho i5 A x M XXX NX . i li, A rg las Sisneros BMSN Howard Smith SN Anthony Volino