Armed Forces softball live at NASP

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Sailors, soldiers, airmen, Marines and coast guardsmen from around the world have converged on Naval Air Station to participate in the 2019 Armed Forces Softball Championships, which begins Aug. 13 and runs through Aug. 17. Two NASP-area sailors - Chief Aircrew Survival Equipmentman Brandon Sterns from the Naval Survival Training Institute (NSTI), a component of the Navy Medicine Operational Training Center (NMOTC), and Lt. j.g. Monica Shifflet, attached to Training Squadron (VT) 86 – were selected for the All-Navy Team and will be gunning for Armed Forces gold. The All-Navy men’s team has high hopes this round after a heartbreaking defeat in the gold-medal game in 2018. The women’s team is feeling pretty confident, too, but has only six veterans, says All-Navy Women’s Head Coach, Operations Specialist 2nd Class Olivia Arellano of USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) in San Diego. Each team will play nine games. The number of players from each team that get to go on to represent the military as a whole for the All-Armed Forces Team depends on where they finish in the tournament. Sterns said he saw thousands of people watching the 2018 games via Facebook Live. The games will again be on a Facebook Live stream at: https://www.facebook.com/mwrpensacola/. Pensacola Morale, Welfare and Recreation has hosted the All-Navy Men’s and Women’s Softball Team for tryouts and training camp for 25 years. After this year, the All-Armed Forces Championship will be headed to a different service base. The Navy will not host it again until 2026. The games are to be played on Barrancas Field aboard NASP. (Source: NAS Pensacola 08/12/19)