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Praise for service on USS Waupaca

To you Navy men, who have gone where brave sailors go after 70 years, or if by rare chance you are still around, we salute you for your dedicated service against the Japanese in World War II.

You six officers (commanded by Lt. William G. Brown, USNR, and later, Lt. Elliot Nichols Jr. USNR.) and 56 crewmen of the USS Waupaca must have been thrilled when you learned you had been assigned in early 1945 to your newly commissioned Navy ship.

You knew that your 220-foot long Navy fuel-supply tanker had recently been built and launched at the East Coast Shipyard in Bayonne, N. J. and that it could carry, at a speed of 10 knots, diesel and lubricating oil and gasoline up to a capacity of 12,000 barrels.

During the USS Waupaca’s months in combatant waters for war duty, you served valiantly with Service Division 102 at the major forward-based anchorage of Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands from which you fueled many types of ships, mainly amphibious crafts, PCs, and mine craft.

Although no major direct confrontations with the enemy were reported for you during those war months, we know some of your enlisted men manned in harm’s waters the ship’s three AA gun mounts on guard for potential battle.

We know that for gallant service and bravery in combatant waters, the men of the USS Waupaca tanker received the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Navy Occupation Service Medal.

Jerry Chappell
Waupaca

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