Shore Leave In Naples

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

I was up in Wisconsin visiting family,  from my mother's side of the family. She was born and raised in Central Wisconsin, In a little town called Wautoma. We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle Jerry and Nancy Mankowski, who are still living on the old dairy farm.

One afternoon on the kitchen table Jerry is telling stories about his Navy days. He served for the USS Wadleigh in the fifties. The Wadleigh was a small destroyer. Jerry told us a story about when he got shore leave in Naples, Italy.

This was not long after World War II and all the devastation that entailed! Jerry in a couple of friends with the town in Naples. They got a hotel room for three days and two nights for only ten dollars! It was a very nice hotel. But after World War II, not a lot of tourists were going to Italy because of the war devastation.

Jerry and his friends partied in the town and had a nice supper that evening. They said the meat and their food tasted kind of strange. After the shore leave was over, They started talking with some of the guys on the ship. They said a lot of restaurants in Italy are still using dog and rat meat in their food. 

Jerry and his friends did not understand how poor the Italians were after World War II. In order to get by they would use marginal meats and just not tell anybody about it. The mayonnaise would make no mention of what type of meat it actually was! But that's okay It didn't kill him!

William James Roop

 Roop-Crappell Ministries 

 Hospice Volunteer Stories 

 The Trucking Tango 

 Apostolic Theological Seminary 

Swimming In The Mediterranean

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

I was up in Wisconsin with my wife and mother, visiting my mother's family, who still lives up there. We were staying with my Aunt and Uncle, Jerry and Nancy Mankowski, who are still living in the old farmhouse.

One afternoon we are sitting around the kitchen table telling stories. Jerry was telling about his old Navy days back in the fifties.  He served on the destroyer USS Wadleigh, DD 689. Wild board that ship they went on a Mediterranean cruise.

They stopped in many ports throughout the Mediterranean when they were there. One of the places they went was off the coast of Israel and Lebanon. Country of Lebanon was having political issues. The USS Wadleigh was assigned to cruise, very slowly, at only five knots an hour, up and down the coast of Lebanon and Israel.

Those two countries are very small so going very slow is not a problem. While they're sailing up the coast, the captain ordered crew swimming! That means the crew can take turns jumping into the sea for a swim. Times of cruise swimming was very popular among the crew. It was also very rare for that captain to give that order. 

Uncle Jerry has a lot of stories from his Navy days, it seems it was a good memory for him. I can understand that I spent four years in the United States Air Force in the eighties, and I have lots of good memories from those days as well.

William James Roop

 Roop-Crappell Ministries 

 Hospice Volunteer Stories 

 The Trucking Tango 

 Apostolic Theological Seminary