The Navy’s latest battle: Sailors v. school children
February 2nd, 2010 | Life at Sea Morale The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
The crew of the Green Bay, seen here on their commissioning day, is set to take on a squad of middle-schoolers in a geography bee this month // MC1 Jose Lopez, Jr / Navy
In the latest trial for the salty crew of a mighty U.S. warship, sailors from the amphibious transport dock Green Bay are getting ready to take on their biggest challenge yet — middle school kids.
Scoop Deck’s corporate cousins at the Green Bay Press Gazette report that sailors from Green Bay, the amphib, will take on kids from Green Bay, the place, in a geography bowl scheduled for Feb. 12, answering questions via satellite link. The Navy guys already have one advantage: They’re dialing in from their sunny homeport of San Diego, while the contestants from Lombardi Middle School (motto: “we’re in-VINCE-able”) will be shivering up there in ice-choked Wisconsin.
Then again, the kids are probably studying furiously in preparation for the geography bee, while the sailors from the Green Bay have actual jobs busting rust, scraping paint and keeping an eye on the lube oil system. Whatever happens, chances are very good that everyone will enjoy themselves — the Green Bay seems to have a pretty good relationship with its namesake city; it went so far as to custom-decorate its capstans out of hometown pride.
(Just don’t tell the NFL.)