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After signing up for the Navy, Pappy went on a train to a Navy Boot camp. Everywhere he went, the new sailors had to line up in alphabetical order. At first it was hard because none of the sailors know each other. Soon it got to be easy because all you had to remember was the one sailor in front of you. Pappy’s last name was Larsen. He had to line up behind a sailor named Laine. Behind him was a sailor named Lawson. The new sailors had to line up to get a checkup from a doctor. Then they had to line up to take a hearing and vision test. Then they had to line up to get their hair cut. The barber asked them if they wanted their sideburns long or short and then just shaved everybody’s hair right off! It was a barber joke. The sailors had to line up to get their Navy uniforms and then line up again to take a test.

They put the new sailors into groups of 200 men depending on where they came from. These groups were called Companies. Pappy was put into a Company made up mostly of men from the south side of Chicago. He liked the men. They were not very big men, but they were scrappy! Each Company picked their best baseball players and put together Company teams. Pappy liked playing first base, but the sailor in charge of his team decided he wanted to play first base so he made Pappy the starting pitcher. Usually Pappy was the closing pitcher, too. Pappy and his team won every game they played, and they won the Boot camp championship. After Boot camp, the sailors were sent to different schools to learn their Navy jobs. Before they left, the Schools baseball champions asked it the Boot camp champs wanted to play one more game. Pappy’s team said “Sure!” They got to the field and saw the Schools championship team. They were a bunch of guys from Texas and man, were they huge! They looked like they could hit each ball a mile. The Schools champs were up to bat first. Pappy threw the first pitch. Strike one. Pappy threw the second pitch and the Schools batter hit it clean out of the ball field. A home run on only the second pitch of the game. But Pappy and his team weren’t nervous. This just made them more determined than ever. That home run turned out to be the only run the Schools team got all afternoon. Pappy and the Boot camp champs won the game 9-1.