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One strange thing about being in the war was that you became close friends with people you really didn’t know at all. It wasn’t like your old friends in the neighborhood who you grew up with and knew everything about. It was different with the guys in the Navy. You slept with them, worked with them, ate with them fought with them and hung out with them when you had free time. But they were still really strangers and sometimes they surprised you.

Whenever a ship got to a port, the sailors would set up a boxing ring on the foredeck and would put up their best boxer against any challengers. When the President Jackson came into its first port with its new crew, Pappy and some of his shipmates walked over to watch a boxing match on another ship. The ship champ was a great big muscular man who weighed about 250 pounds. “I am the Golden Gloves champion of New York City!” he proclaimed in a big booming voice and flexed his big strong muscles. “I challenge any man to get into the ring with me! I am the King of New York City!” All the sailors looked around at each other, but no one accepted the challenge. It looked like the King of New York would be the champ without lifting a glove. There was one man from Pappy’s ship whose job was in the kitchen. His main job was to make ice cream for the crew. Everybody called him the Ice Cream Man. The Ice Cream Man was not very big, maybe 175 pounds, and was very quiet. All of Pappy’s shipmates were surprised when he stood up and raised his hand and began to climb into the ring. The referee of the boxing match was a man who used to work at a YMCA and was very nice and very fair. He scratched his chin and said “Wait a minute. I don’t think I can allow you to fight him. It looks like he out-weighs you by about 75 pounds! It wouldn’t be a fair fight. “Well,” said the Ice Cream Man, “How about we give it a try and then if it’s too one-sided, you can call off the fight.” “OK, if you say so,” the referee agreed, so the fight was on. Everybody wanted to bet on the King of New York. The fight started and the Ice Cream Man hit the King of New York so hard and so loud and so often that people came running from all over the ship to see what the noise was. Finally, just into the second round, the referee stopped the fight for being too one sided, but it was one sided in favor of the Ice Cream Man! The Ice Cream Man had beaten the King of New York! No one on the whole ship or at the whole port wanted to fight against the Ice Cream Man. He climbed out of the ring and Pappy asked him how he learned to fight so well. “Back home,” said the Ice Cream Man, “I am a professional boxer!”