HomeClassic Paintball ScansRichard Yabuki remembers his days on Navarone (c.1985-1987)

Richard Yabuki remembers his days on Navarone (c.1985-1987)

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Richard Yabuki’s squad patch for Armageddon.

Last week I received an email from Navarone player Richard Yabuki. Yabuki played on “Team Navarone” in their very early days and competed in many of national tournaments. Yabuki started as a players on Navarone’s second squad Apocalypse (Red Patch) and then moving up to Armageddon (Blue patch).

navarone-apocalypse-armageddon-patches
Navarone squad patches, apocalypse and armageddon.

Richard writes:
“The [red] patch was the apocalyspe team, or 2nd team. After Poconos I was asked to come up to Armageddon.”

Navarone Armageddon at 1987 PBGA
Navarone Armageddon (Blue Squad) pictured at the 1987 PBGA tournament after taking 1st place.

Here is the Navarone A squad (Armageddon) at the PBGA tournament in the 1987.

Navarone Apocalypse numbered for identification (see below)
Navarone Armageddon numbered for identification (see below).

And here is the numbered image. Richard pulled out his phone tree and identified the players:

1. Paul Grimmy
2. Bill Homa
3. Cecil Jenkins
4. Mike Campbell
5. Rod Plunkett
6. Lucas Foster
7. Andy Greenwell

8. Mark Christian
9. Steve Pilcher
10. Lance Skank
11. Mike Gibbons
12. Billy Saugez
13. Steve Rickman
14. Mark Bower
15. Bob Schrryver

navarone-1987-champions-front
Navarone Tshirt front side.

Over the past week Richard has been sending tons of photos of his old shirts, patch and equipment over, a few photos of Navarone’s Championship patches, some from his patch jacket, a few from tournaments and my favorites, his Tshirt collection!

In many of the old magazines players on all teams could be seen wearing their team shirts and of course Navarone had some as well. Richard actually kept several of these shirts and they are some of the first photos I’ve seen of them, besides in magazines.

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Navarone Tshirt back side. 1987 Air Pistol Open championships.
navarone-world-champions-collared-shirt-1
Navarone World Champions collared shit.
navarone-world-champions-collard-shirt-2-copy
Navarone World Champions collared shit. Close up.
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The Wild Geese of New Hampshire team tshirt.

Two particular Navarone patches I hadn’t seen before were the Navarone “Top Gun” and “Top Gun 750” Canon patches.

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These two Navarone patches signify 750 confirmed kills (eliminations) and 1000 confirmed eliminations.

I do know that Cary Snodgrass left Navarone to form his own team, Top Gun and create the “Top gun” pump marker but according to Richard these early “Top Gun” patches were for 750 and 1000 confirmed eliminators.

Yabuki writes:
“The black canon [with 750] signifies that you had 750 “kills” and just the [plain] black canon was 1000!!!”

navarone-world-champions-patch
Navarone world champions patch. Showing the events navarone places in.
skirmish-store-jt-usa-patches
The skirmish store and JT USA patch. Both were navarone sponsors early on.
1st-air-pistol-open-1987
1987 Air Pistol Open in NY.
2nd-air-pistol-open-1988
1988 Air Pistol Open in NY.

Navarone was well known for their early on domination tournament paintball, which is why wore shirts and patches with “Navarone, World Champions” embrodered into them.

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Richard Yabuki’s Navarone Pin on a JT USA hat.

Navarone also had a lot of exclusive team “Swag,” such as brass “shield” pins, navarone “sandanas,” silkscreened tiger stripe jerseys and were one of the first teams to earn a major sponsorship, which came from from JT USA.

budweiser-patch
Budweiser paintball patch worn by Navarone.

“I also had a patch from Budweiser when they were going to sponsor us. They backed out [from the deal] because they didn’t want to be associated with “war games.” Richard writes. And in the early JT ad you can see the Navarone players wearing the Budwiser patch. 

Navarone players pose in an early JT USA ad for the 1st gen whipper snappers.
Navarone players pose in an early JT USA ad for the 1st gen whipper snappers. Scan from the January 1988 issue of APG.

Yabuki identifies the three Navarone players pictures as:
”Three man photo taken on our home field…the guy on right is Rod Plunkett (#3), [the players in] the middle is Bill Homa (#1), [and on the] left is Jim Daniels (#2).”
“Our field was in Riverside somewhere close to lake elsinor it was just down the street from Andy’s house of course! Off of Nichols road [close to the ] 15.”  Yabuki writes.

Full scan of the JT USA ad in the January 1988 APG.
Full scan of the JT USA ad in the January 1988 APG.
Numbered photo of the Navarone Players.
Numbered photo of the Navarone Players. (Jan-88-apg).

This would have placed Navarone’s home field in the center of Sat Cong Village, Field Games, War Zone and what is now Jungle Island.

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Navarone patches. The blue patch is the A squad, Armageddon and the red patch is the B squad, Apocalypse.
ippa-patch-copy
Ippa patch

Richard goes onto write:
“You had rules before you got onto team like:
20 fields to play on.
750 kills ( yes you kept track and honor system).
You had to have to someone nominate you onto to team.”

early-007-nelspot-direct-feed-knurled-pump
Yabuki’s custom modified Navarone 007 nelspot.

Navarone is most well know for shooting their Diamond Dust hard ano (green) team Bushmasters and then moving into their polished pewter Navarone cockers.
But when Yabuki started playing, Ross Alexander hadn’t brought the Bushmaster or even the earlier breech drop Skirmish out so Navarone players used 007s.
They upgraded their 007s to direct feed pumps action but stood by 12 grams (both because 12 gram were more universally accepted at tournaments and because Navarone prefered the skill that came with limited air/paint setups.

nelspot-12-gram-drop-out
Nelson 007 drop out cut into grips.
powertube-end-bored-out
Bored out Powertube end.

Richard writes:
“We changed all the springs and drilled out valve tube even stepped the valve tube to get more gas expansion (if that was even possible!) got a good 21 shots out of 12 gram !!”
“That was 85 or so when we mod’d the 007’s. We had a machinist make us the pumps, barrels and side feeds.”

“I [modified] the power tubes for Navarone when I was on [the team]. Mike [last name?] and I did a lot of them in my dad’s garage.

bored-out-powertube
bored out 007 powertube out of a nelspot.
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Broken powertube form over boring in a nelspot

Richard originally started playing paintball on ”Dambo’s Commandos which was a group out of Disneyland(In Late 84) , but [we] were told to disband since Disney also didn’t want to be associated with “war games.”” Richard goes on to write, “Dan [last name?] knew Andy and they asked us to join Navarone.” 

Yabuki estimates that Navarone started around ”84, but they didn’t start playing tourneys till 86-87.” 

In those days Navarone was well know for their W they would use to sweep the field. Richard remembers, ”I think Andy came up with the “flying W” in 85 and started winning games against local teams like Bushmasters, Kamakaze Shooters Sudden Death…… then he [Greenwell] knew he could win tourney’s.”

Richard is unsure exactly when he stopped playing with Navarone but he does remember he left close to the time they picked up their Line Si Navarone Bushmasters.
“I quit just before the team [was] sponsored by [Line SI with the] Bushmaster, [around] like 2 weeks before. There was some unfairness on who got money from some of the tourney’s and who didn’t.
I didn’t agree with Andy’s politics at the time so I bailed. My Buddy has an original Team Navarone green bushmaster!!

Richard would love to get in touch with some other Navarone members so if Navarone players want Richards contact information email me.

Thanks to Richard for all the photos of his gear, patches and memorabilia!

Edit 11-26-13: Correct a few errors, misspellings and the Navarone Squad order and names.  A Team was Armageddon (Blue Patch) and B team was Apocalypse (Red Patch). Also added dates, paragraph on Dambo’s Commando’s and Richard’s Navarone Pin on the JT USA hat.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. I was part of Navaronne Armageddon. It was the best group of guys you could find to play together. We had each others backs off and on the field. I

    • Hey, I was just a kid, but my dad played for Navarone. He always brought me to the fields to watch you guys play. I loved it.

  2. I was one of the original Armageddon team members. Best bunch of guys to be team members. We had each others backs on and off the field. will never forget the times

  3. Please contact me, I need to see if you know how to get a hold of him. (Andy Greenwell) Team Navarone paintball team.
    I was his sponsor from JT goggles.
    Thanks
    Marty Tripes

  4. I played middle point man for the Armageddon, Mike Gibbons was my guard. Playing on that team for four years was the best time. I miss the team it was the best of the best. I hope everyone on that is doing well. Rickman

  5. Had so much fun playing with this team! Great bunch of guys. I always felt like we had no weak links on this squad and, everyone on the team had a unique set of skills that made them dangerous. Truly a wonderful time in my life!

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