Navy Pair Gets a Cup-Class Ceremony

In an effort to show himself up, Navy Radioman Second Class John Knowles found himself on the foredeck of Stars & Stripes Friday morning at the Team Dennis Conner base camp.

No, this wasn’t some crazy gimmick devised by a bored public relations staff to keep the Conner name circulating in the media. Knowles called them , with visions of outdoing his first re-enlistment in the Navy, when he took his oath on the 18th green at Torrey Pines in 1987.

So there was Knowles and fellow Beach Master Unit One serviceman Paul Atkinson--both in dress whites--renewing their enlistment vows in the company of Dick Giles, their commanding officer, a few friends and family members and a dozen or so Stars & Stripes crew members.

At the conclusion of the short ceremony, Knowles and Atkinson, both 27, joked with crew members that they would be by later to deliver beer, restitution for making scuff marks on the boat’s deck.

“The black shoes,” explained Barbara Schwartz, a Team Dennis Conner official. “They were afraid their black shoes would leave marks on the deck, so they said they’d bring some beer in return.”

Knowles and Atkinson, a yeoman second class, were also concerned with making their marks in history. The two talked about the ceremony being written up in “Navy Times,” a military publication. More importantly, both said they wanted to re-enlist in a manner that had never been tried.

“If I’m going to give up four years of my life, why not do it in style,” said New York City’s Atkinson, who has been in the Navy eight years and re-enlisted for four more.

Knowles’ stint is still longer. Also a Navy veteran of eight years, he signed up for six more. It was two months ago that Knowles, of Omaha, Neb., was watching ESPN and decided to pursue the possibility of re-enlisting on Stars & Stripes.

“I wanted it to be different and as I watched some sailing program I thought, ‘Gee, wouldn’t that be neat,’ ” said Knowles, whose brother once re-enlisted on the bridge of the Queen Mary and attended Friday’s ceremony. “I knew it had never been done.”

Although both are sports fans, neither follows sailing avidly. Atkinson said he caught a bit of America’s Cup fever in 1987, when he was stationed on board the U.S.S. Tarawa, and the ship was docked in Fremantle, Australia, where he saw Conner win back the Cup.

“At the time, we didn’t have (the Cup),” Atkinson said, “We’d go out in Fremantle and people would give us a bad time about not having it. It was great to see that sporting event. It really got me going.”

It was equally thrilling not to follow the norm, which is to have the ceremony on the lawn of the command grounds, which for Beach Master Unit One, is on the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado.

“This is impressive,” Knowles said. “I think some of the guys were a little envious.”