San Marcos (LSD 25) - Naval Cruise Book

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Welfare And Recreation It is the function of theWelfare and Recreation Organization to arrange activities such as sports, happy hours, and beach parties for the entertainment of the crew. Of course, liberty is the principal form of recreation, but when the lack of money becomes a problem, the crew members begin to look elsewhere for recreational activities. A Recreation Committee consisting of a CPO and numerous enlisted men representing each of the divisions, including embarked troops, Seabees and LCU personnel meets and suggests activities. These are then submitted to the Recreation ' ' f d them to Councel composed of the Executive Officer and five other Officers, who act on the recommendations and orwar the Captain for final approval. , To finance the recreation program, the progits from the 'operationof Ship's Store, the Soda Fountain, and the little go1d mine coke machine are placed in a Recreation Fund. While the ship has been in the Mediterranean, softball and basketbal teams, repres g h h' ' th Sixth Fleet and severalteams from sport clubs and colleges in the 1 entin the ship and the Fox Battery, Marines, competed with teams from ot er s ips in e various foreign cities. In Catania and Brindisi, the basketball team won several hotly contested games with the local col- lege teams and in Athens, -they split, a two game series with the Pan Hellence Sport Club. The outstanding athletic event was the Sixth Fleet Amphibious Group softballltournament which was won by the members of the Fox Battery, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Team, embarked on the San Marcos. A large silver trophy was presented to the proud members of the team who expect to display it in the trophy room at Camp Lej eune. While the ship was'in'Ai1gusta Bay, Sicily, the recreation committee arranged a series of beach parties. One section 1 ndin was permitted to attend eachlday at 1300, they embarked in one of the LCU's and made a noisy if not combatant a gf at the beach where they enjoyed swimming, touch football, sack races and of course large quantities of beer and hot dogs. After the. ship had been in the Med area for' a few weeks, it becamepapparentthat most everyone missed ,hearing some H good State-Side music. K This situation was remedied when Peicich, SN, instituted a disc-jockey program. e set up shop in radio central and presented two half hour programs each day. In addition he often devoted a lot of his own time spinning a few discs in the evening. Included in the program -were som Armed Forces records of well known radio shows such as the Bob Hope show. ' The final big project was the preparation of this cruise oo fun er p b k d the leadershi of Captain Lockridge, USMC and En- sign Canane. 142

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