Happy National Radio Day!
And, as the grandson of a Vietnam-era Fort Gordon Regular Army Signals Corps instructor (MOS 31Z5H, 31W50) with two tours in Vietnam and the two Bronze Stars and 7-starred-VSM on his DD-214 to show for it, big salute to those unsung RTOs with the PRC-25s and PRC-77s on their back, up to their chins in the rice paddies and river marsh, who were still able to smile about it.
Radio…check
While the original circa 2004 Benelli M2 was a linear development of the M1/Super 90 line of semi-automatic shotguns, which were first introduced in 1986, the line has always used the Inertia style recoil-operation system as its heart.
There have been few complaints about the classic Benelli M2 Tactical that we have heard. I had one from about 2005 through 2016 and ran case after case through it without notable issues. I put it through several courses and loaned it out to others going to schools, all with good feedback.
While a classic that delivers a clean, reliable, and adjustment-free system, Inertia takes a back seat to gas-operated piston systems such as the Benelli M4’s ARGO (Auto-Regulating Gas-Operated) system.
Gas guns provide a softer “push” for the user by significantly reducing felt recoil, while also reliably cycling a much wider variety of loads. Plus, gas guns hold up better to high-volume shooting such as in extended military and duty use.
So why not take an M2, give it a gas system upgrade very similar to what is seen on the vaunted “bombproof” M4, and add other upgrades? All purposely engineered to run cleaner, require less maintenance, and stay ready when it matters most.
Well, then you get the new M2-G1.
I recently traveled to the land of spaghetti and preserved meats to get the scoop on it.
Read the full review in my column at Guns.com.
Official caption: Army field artillerymen conduct reload training in the Middle East on a counter-air defense Land-based Phalanx Weapon System, which can eliminate threats with its rapid-fire 20 mm Gatling gun, Aug. 12, 2026.
U.S. Army photo 260812-D-A0839-9196
The patch is of the Marion helmets of the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team “Gator Brigade” of the Florida National Guard, whose ADA units are drawn from the 164th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.
While some 1,000 Mk 16 CIWS mounts have been produced for use afloat around the world in 24 fleets, it is believed that the Army only has between 30 to 45 trailer-mounted LPWS/Centurion C-RAMs in its possession, a number which may be significantly lower with guns given to Ukraine.
Of note, they use specialized self-destructing rounds (M940 MPT-SD or M246) designed to detonate in the air to prevent collateral damage on the ground, and have successfully zapped incoming mortar rounds and rockets in Iraq and Afghanistan going back to May 2005.
Iranian UAVs and cruise missiles are new to the menu.
Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger
If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”
Above we see the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Finch (DER-328), carrying another tin can’s hull numbers and still outfitted with very real depth charges, getting ready to fire her forward 3″/50 Mark 34 mount for the cameras, circa 1969. You could say she is ready for her close up.
A WWII Atlantic Convoy veteran, Finch would later serve on the big screen in the Pacific Fleet’s first battle (as well as actual occupation duty in Chinese waters).
She also had a brief Korean War career– in Coast Guard service– recommissioned from mothballs some 75 years ago this week.
A total of 85 Edsall-class destroyer escorts were cranked out in four different yards in the heyday of World War II rapid production with class leader USS Edsall (DE-129) laid down 2 July 1942 and last of class USS Holder commissioned 18 January 1944– in all some four score ships built in 19 months. The Arsenal of Democracy at work– building tin cans faster than the U-boats and Kamikazes could send them to Davy Jones.
The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Edsall (DE-129) underway near Ambrose Light just outside New York Harbor on 25 February 1945. The photo was taken by a blimp from Squadron ZP-12. Edsall is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-306257
These 1,590-ton expendable escorts were based on their predecessors, the very successful Cannon-class boats but used an FMR type (Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive) propulsion suite whereas the only slightly less prolific Cannons used a DET (Diesel Electric Tandem) drive. Apples to oranges.
Armed with enough popguns (3×3″/50s, 2x40mm, 8x20mm) to keep aircraft and small craft at bay, they could plug a torpedo into a passing enemy cruiser from one of their trio of above-deck 21-inch tubes, or maul a submarine with any number of ASW weapons including depth charges and Hedgehogs. Too slow for active fleet operations (21 knots) they were designed for coastal patrol (could float in just 125 inches of seawater), sub-chasing, and convoy escorts.
This all brings us to…
Our subject is only the second U.S. Navy warship to carry the name of the small bird, following a small minesweeper/auxiliary seaplane tender (AM-9) built for the Great War and lost off Corregidor in the Philippines in 1942.
USS Finch (AM-9) taken in the summer of 1934, off Tsingtao, China, while serving in the U.S. Asiatic Fleet. 80-G-1025944
Speaking of lost in 1942, LT(j.g.) Joseph Warren Finch, Jr.,USNR, gave his last measure aboard the destroyer USS Laffey (DD-459) off Guadalcanal, aged just 22, when his ship was sunk in an action that earned it the Presidential Unit Citation. A Northwestern grad, LT Finch had just 17 months in the colors and Laffey was his first ship. The next Finch would be dedicated to him.
Our subject, the USS Finch (DE-328) was one of 66 Edsall-class destroyer escorts block ordered from the Consolidated Steel Corp of Orange, Texas on 7 August 1942. She was laid down on 29 June 1943, with sister USS Kretchmer (DE-329) laid down beside her the next day.
The future USS USS Finch side-launched on 28 August 1943, by sponsored by Miss Grace Gushing, the grieving fiancée of the late Lt. Finch.
Our greyhound was commissioned 13 December 1943, her construction spanning just 168 days. Her plankowner crew was commanded by LCDR Albert Henry Nienau, USNR (University of Washington, NROTC).
In all, Consolidated Steel had been contracted to build 111 DEs during the war, of which only nine were canceled. The last delivered by the Texas Gulf Coast yard was USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800) on 7 March 1944.
Finch was assigned to Escort Division 57 for convoy duty and arrived at Curacao in the Dutch West Indies the same day Wilke was delivered. She spent the next three months there, escorting large tankers from the Caribbean to Casablanca and Algiers on two convoys (OT.13 and OT.14) and back (TO.13/TO.14).
It was during this time that LCDR Nienau got orders to take over the newly commissioned sistership, USS Dufilho (DE 423), which was headed to the Pacific. Her new skipper was LCDR Clement D. LeHardy, who formerly commanded the USS PC-483 (PC-483) and USS SC-499 (SC-499).
Returning stateside in June 1944, Finch then spent three weeks at the Fleet Sound School in Key West in ASW exercises, followed by a two week overhaul at Boston Navy Yard and two more weeks of gunnery drills in Casco Bay, Maine, preparing for invasion work in Europe.
USS Finch (DE-328) off the Boston Navy Yard, 14 July 1944. Courtesy of A.D. Baker III NH 91575
Same as above NH 91574
Same as above NH 91573
She then took part in the periphery of the August 1944 Dragoon Landings in Southern France, screening troopships carrying 13,597 GIs as part of Convoy UGF.13 from Hampton Roads passed Gibraltar for the invasion, returning to the East Coast with empties in Convoy GUF.13.
Then came more cross Atlantic convoy work for the rest of the war in Europe.
This included four outbound CU convoys and five returning UC Convoys:
USS Brister (DE-327), Unknown DE, USS Finch (DE-328), USS Kretchmer (DE-329), USS Thomas J. Gary (DE-326). Marseille, France V.E. Day. No 2007.34.13, USS Slater collection.
After VE Day, our proven little escort ship prepared for Pacific Fleet duty, and arrived at Pearl Harbor 12 July 1945. She then sailed on to Guam, where on 13 August she joined a jeep carrier task force (CarDiv 27, with baby flattops USS Block Island, Gilbert Island, Kula Gulf and Salerno Bay), which upon the cessation of hostilities was ordered into Leyte 17 August.
On VJ+3, sisters USS Kretchmer (DE-329) and Thomas J. Gary (DE-326) arrived in Keelung (Chilung or Jilong, Formosa, now Taiwan) to pick up American POWs, joined the following day, the USS Brister (DE-327) and Finch, the low-draft tin cans being the largest vessels able to pull alongside the damaged piers. Finch would take aboard at least 221 former prisoners of war, 171 of which were later transferred to Santee. She carried the remaining 50 to Manila herself.
In all, the four ships took away about 1,200 prisoners of war and transferred most them to Block Island (CVE-106) and Santee (CVE-29) to be sent to Manila to prepare for their return home.
Finch remained in the Far East until 1 April 1946, carrying mail and inspection teams, sinking floating mines (29 Sept ’45), surviving typhoons (October), supported the landing of occupation forces on Formosa, rescuing crashed aviators while on plane guard duty (LT Jack E. Perry USMCR, off Salerno Bay, 15 October), swapping out her second skipper (LeHardy) for her third (LCDR Eugene Taylor MacDonald), and spending lots of time steaming between Guam and China.
USS Finch (DE-328) at Whangpoo River, Shanghai, China, 11 February 1946. Courtesy of Richard L. Hawkins. NH 92325
She finally returned stateside, the long way round, via the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, completing a 10 month circumnavigation at Charleston, South Carolina on 29 May 1946.
Finch was decommissioned and placed in mothballs at Green Cove Springs, Florida on 4 October 1946, having made port calls at 63 harbors around the world in her 27 months of global service.
Finch did not earn any battle stars for her WWII service despite her 15 convoys, but was listed as eligible for the Occupation Service medal, with China service listed from 2-7 Sep 45, 12-22 Dec 45, and 1 Jan – 2 Apr 46.
With the dramatic surge in air and maritime traffic across some downright vacant stretches of the Pacific that came with the Korean War, the USCG was again tapped to man a growing series of Ocean Stations. Two had been formed after WWII and the Navy added another three in 1950, bringing the total to five.
These stations would serve both a meteorological purpose– with U.S. Weather Bureau personnel embarked– as well as serve as floating checkpoints for military and commercial maritime and air traffic and communication “relay” stations for aircraft on transoceanic flights crisscrossing the Pacific. Further, they provided an emergency ditch option for aircraft (a concept that had already been proved by the Bermuda Sky Queen rescue in 1947, which saw all 69 passengers and crew rescued by the cutter Bibb.)
As detailed by Scott Price in The Forgotten Service in the Forgotten War, these stations were no picnic, with the average cutter logging 4,000 miles and as many as 320 radar fixes while serving upwards of 700 hours on station.
Ocean station duty could be monotonous at one moment and terrifying the next, as the vessels rode out storms that made the saltiest sailors green. One crew member noted: “After twenty-one days of being slammed around by rough cold sea swells 20 to 50 feet high, and wild winds hitting gale force at times, within an ocean grid the size of a postage stamp, you can stand any kind of duty.”
A typical tour was composed of arriving at Midway Island for three weeks on SAR standby, three weeks on Ocean Station Victor midway between Japan and the Aleutian Islands, three weeks on SAR standby at Guam, two weeks “R and R” in Japan, three weeks on Ocean Station Sugar, three weeks on SAR standby Adak, Alaska, and then back to home port.
To stand post on these new ocean stations and backfill for other cutters detailed to the role, the Navy lent the USCG 12 mothballed Edsalls (Newell, Falgout, Lowe, Finch, Koiner, Foster, Ramsden, Rickey, Vance, Lansing, Durant, and Chambers), nine of which the service had originally operated during WWII.
To man these extra vessels and fill other wartime roles such as establishing new LORAN stations and pulling port security, the USCG almost doubled in size from just over 18,000 to 35,082 in 1952.
The conversion to Coast Guard service included a white paint scheme, an aft weather balloon shelter (they would have to launch three balloons a day in all sea states), and the fitting of a 31-foot self-bailing motor surfboat for rescues in heavy weather. The USCG designator “W” was added to the hull number, as was the number 100 so they wouldn’t be confused with Barnegat class AVPs in CG servcie.
Thus, USS Finch (DE-328) became USCGC Finch (WDE-428), under the command of CDR G. R. Boyce, Jr., USCG, on 24 August 1951.
USCG Finch (WDE 428) at Mare Island. She was in overhaul at the yard from 07 January to 16 April 1954. (U.S. Navy photo #DE 328 20362-3-54)
Stationed at Alameda, Finch served on all six Pacific Ocean Stations during the war: OS Uncle; 21 Jul-9 Aug 52, on OS Victor, on OS Sugar 30 Aug-18 Sep 52, on OS Queen 3 Nov-14 Dec 52; back on OS Uncle 15 Feb-8 Mar 53; on OS Nan 10-31 May 53. back to OS Victor 4-25 Aug 53; and finally on OS Sugar 4-25 Oct 53.
It was during this lonely service that, Finch, while taking a break from on Ocean Station Nan on SAR standby at Midway, unsuccessfully searched for “The Royal Hawaiian,” a downed Transocean Air Lines Flight 512 (N90806) DC-6A in July 1953.
Of the 12 DEs loaned to the Coast Guard during Korea, nine earned Korean Service Medals between 1951 and 1954, including our Finch:
Finch was decommissioned the second time (the first from the USCG) on 23 April 1954, having served 32 months in CG white during the Korean era vs 27 with the Navy in WWII. She was handed over to the Navy at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
The DER program filled an early gap in the continental air defense system by placing a string of ships as sea-based radar platforms to provide a distant early warning line to possible attack from the Soviets. The Pacific had up to 11 picket stations while the Atlantic had as many as nine. A dozen DEs became DERs through the addition of SPS-6 and SPS-8 air search radars to help man these DEW lines as the Atlantic Barrier became fully operational in 1956 and the Pacific Barrier (which Finch took part in) by 1958.
To make room for the extra topside weight of the big radars, they gave up most of their WWII armament, keeping only their Hedgehog ASW device and two Mark 34 3-inch guns that would eventually be fitted with aluminum and fiberglass weather shields.
DER conversion of Edsall (FMR) class ships reproduced from Peter Elliot’s American Destroyer Escorts of WWII
Detail of masts. Note the WWII AAA suite, one of the 3″ guns, and centerline 21-inch tubes have been landed
Finch’s conversion began at Mare Island on 1 October 1955 and 10 months later, on 17 August 1956, reclassified as DER 328, recommissioned.
17 August 1956: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Cal. – Commissioning ceremonies for USS Finch (DER 328) at Mare Island. She was converted to her DER configuration at the yard from 01 October 1955, to 12 October 1956.
(U.S. Navy photo #DER 328 30746-8-56)
Finch as DER
With her eight skipper (sixth Navy), LCDR James Keith Athow, in command, she was assigned to Escort Squadron 5 at Seattle.
The next two years consisted of quiet seaborne radar early warning duty, shifting to Pearl Harbor in September 1958, and to Treasure Island (San Francisco) in May 1960.
The 1960 Jane’s entry for her class:
Upon the disestablishment of the floating radar barriers in 1965, when the seaward extension of early warning lines was discontinued, Finch and her sisters would have probably been decommissioned but instead the Navy found another, new, mission for them.
Finch made five tours off the coast of Vietnam, in support of Operation Market Time, between January 1966 and October 1968, often working alongside her DER sisters. During these deployments, the ship’s primary mission was coastal interdiction, to prevent the seaborne infiltration of weapons and supplies to enemy forces. It was lonely stints of halting and searching junks, interspersed with UNREPs every few days.
She often served as a “mother ship” for up to a half dozen U.S. Navy Swift Boats (PCFs), providing logistical and personnel support for “brown water navy” operations in the Mekong River Delta.
A typical log entry from the period:
She also occasionally provided naval gunfire support ashore with her 3-inch guns. CONGA lists 16 gunfire support records for her, mostly bunched in July 1968 off Nin Thuan, and in October 1968 off Quang Ngai. During the former she was working in conjunction with the USCGC Point Young (WPB 82303).
From her October ’68 log:
Gearing-class destroyer USS Leary (DD-879) and Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Finch (DE-328) “during a Nam cruise.” Finch was a very old girl by that time….
Finch earned six campaign stars and a Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation for her tours in Southeast Asia.
Shifting port to Pearl Harbor on 15 January 1969, Finch, a three-war veteran, was tapped by the company filming Tora, Tora, Tora! to portray the Wickes-class Great War-era four-piper destroyer USS Ward (DD-139), which had famously sank a Japanese midget submarine just prior to the general attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December. This included picking up the old Ward’s hull numbers, although the two ships had little else in common other than size (1,600 t /306 feet oal vs 1,300 t/314 feet).
She had previously appeared in the 1960 film, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, moored outboard of sistership USS Durant (DE-389/WDE-489/DER-389) while at Pearl.
Finch’s role in Tora, Tora, Tora!, which was released in September 1970, came while she was in her fourth (and final) stint in mothballs.
She had been decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 3 October 1969 and placed in reserve where she swayed until September 1974 when, stricken seven months prior she was sold to the Levin Metals Corp. of San Jose for breaking.
All in all, Finch accumulated 18 years and 8 months in commission across her two Navy and one Coast Guard service stints, alternating with about 12 years in mothballs, which isn’t bad for an expendable war baby designed to survive a few convoys.
She had 18 skippers, including two who were USCG regulars. Among the most notable was her first, Al Nienau, who, as commander of the DE USS Dufilho, was one of the first rescue ships to reach the site of the USS Indianapolis survivors– ordering his men to turn on their 24-inch searchlights to facilitate the search in the inky darkness. He passed in 2004, aged 88, survived by at least “eight devoted grandchildren and eighteen loving great grandchildren.”
The Navy has not had a third USS Finch, which is a shame.
The USCG does have a cutter named Finch these days, though it recalls S2/c Florence Ebersole Smith Finch, USCGR, a WWII SPAR who clocked in on intelligence efforts in the occupied Philippines who was later captured and tortured by the Japanese.
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Florence Finch (WPC 1157), a 154-foot Fast Response Cutter (FRC) commissioned in 2024 and based in Astoria, Oregon, and Military Sealift Command submarine support vessel USNS Eagleview (T-AGSE 3) sail alongside the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Maine (SSBN 741) as it transits the Strait of Juan de Fuca, March 18, 2025. PA1 Steve Strohmaier
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Some 50 years ago this month, two sister sluggers, the 8-inch-gunned heavy cruisers USS Des Moines (CA-134) and Newport News (CA-148), rest on red lead row in Philadelphia, August 1976
USN Photo K-117046.
The massive Des Moines, tipping the scales at 21,000 tons, entered the fleet in November 1948 and was laid up just 13 years later, her nine 8″/55 RF Mk 16 guns quiet after a spate of Cold War service in the Mediterranean and Europe.
Sister Newport News, commissioned 1949, had a longer career and was only laid up in June 1975, a bit over a year prior to the above image. While Des Moines served in quiet strength, Newport News raised a racket in three tours on the gunline off Vietnam, earning six battle stars, two Navy Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Citation, and the Republic of Viet Nam’s Gallantry Cross.
She fired more than 50,000 major-caliber rounds on 525 missions against nearly 4,000 targets and avoided at least 1,924 enemy counter-battery rounds in 46 separate incidents.
Both ships were kept in mothballs until the Cold War ended, just in case, and were only sold for scrap in the early 1990s.
While the huge (37 ounces, unloaded) H&K Mk23 SOCOM freakbeast in .45ACP is well known in the West, at least in video game use, the Bundeswehr’s similar (in concept) P12 flies largely under the radar.
You know, this bad boy:
The beefy Mk23 was a stepping stone for HK to create the USP (Universal Self-loading Pistol), which the Bundeswehr adopted in 9mm in 1994 as the Pistole 8 (P8) to replace the Walther P1– which itself was just an aluminum-framed Walther P-38.
With the Bundeswehr eager to fill a niche for a full-time suppressed pistol with subsonic ammo for commando and sniper support roles, the USP Tactical in .45ACP got the nod for adoption as the P12.
It comes in a tiny bit lighter (32 ounces, unloaded) but confusingly uses a longer standard suppressor (7.7 inches) than the 7.5-inch KAC found on the Mk23!
Meanwhile, the German Landespolizei also uses the 9mm USP Compact as the P10, but that’s a different story.
OK, Ok it isn’t the size of a guided missile cruiser on wheels, but Rheinmetall has marked a key advance in modern loitering munition technology by successfully demonstrating the FV-014 loitering munition/kamizakee drone launching from a container while in motion.
Developed entirely in-house, the system was launched from a modular Containerized Missile Launcher at the National Test Centre in Cochstedt in July 2026. During the test, the loitering munition demonstrated its flexibility by launching from an 18-cell VLS HX truck both while stationary and while moving, then completing simulated attack flights.
For reference, the 66-pound FV-014 can pull off recon, target tracking, precise single or swarm attack scenarios with a range of about 60 miles before delivering its 13-pound HEDP warhead with a penetration capacity of more than 24 inches of rolled armor.
In other words, it is akin to a smart TOW missile with a whole lot longer range and without the need for guidance wires.
What began as a dredging effort to deepen Savannah Harbor near old Fort Jackson became one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries in the city’s history.
The artifacts have now been unveiled at their new home, the Savannah History Museum. In early 2021, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews working on the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project unexpectedly pulled a cannon from the riverbed. Another scoop brought up two more, prompting crews to halt dredging and call in archaeologists and divers.
The resulting recovery effort uncovered 21 cannon and additional artifacts, including anchor fragments and pieces of a ship’s bell, from the bottom of the Savannah River, where they had been hidden for nearly 250 years.
Some cannon were recovered in pieces, and two fragmented examples displayed at the Savannah History Museum served as placeholders while also showing the effects of corrosion without proper conservation.
In February 2023, 17 cannon and several other artifacts were sent to the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University. Over more than three years, experts removed corrosion, stabilized the iron, extracted wood plugs, paper wads, cannonballs, and intact gunpowder wads from 14 of the cannon, and conducted scientific analysis.
The 17 fully conserved cannon and related artifacts returned to Savannah on June 3, 2026. On July 2, after an official unveiling ceremony, they went on public display at the Savannah History Museum in the exhibit “Loyalists and Liberty: Savannah in the American Revolution.”
Sentinel (Webber) class Fast Response Cutters USCGC Douglas Denman (WPC-1149 and Forrest Rednour (WPC-1129) transit in formation during a photo exercise off the coast of San Diego, July 23, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Chris Sappey)
The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Denman (WPC 1149) returned to her homeport at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan on Saturday, following a 41-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific. Douglas Denman conducted 42 investigative boardings and queries in support of Operation Border Trident along the sea frontier south of San Diego.
That’s a lot of time underway on a 154-foot boat.
Speaking of which, we have an update on the former PATFORSWA flotilla of six 154s that fell back from Bahrain through the Straits of Malacca and appeared in Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines since the war with Iran made their old base and mission in the Persian Gulf untenable.
It has been confirmed by U.S. Undersecretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby earlier this week in a speech during a forum organized by the Stratbase Group in Makati City, PI, that four of the former PATFORSWA boats, now designated the Expeditionary Cutter Squadron (ECS), will be in that Westpac archipelago on a rotational basis. I’d imagine the other two FRCs will be in yard/workup periods in Guam, co-located with the three 154s currently based there.
The USCG is falling back on its FRCs to fill in the gaps left by the stalled $20 billion frigate-sized Offshore Patrol Cutter. The 66th of 77 planned FRCs was delivered in June, bound to be the fourth 154 sent to Guam, set to join the family in a couple of months.
Meanwhile, another sister is roaming off the coast of Panama, winning hearts and minds.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Robert Ward (WPC-1130) alongside Mexican, Ecuadorian, Colombian and Panamanian vessels conduct tactical signaling training during Panamax in the Pacific Ocean near Panama, Aug. 7, 2026. The exercise was designed to improve interoperability, sharpen skills, and demonstrate the ability to respond and deter threats to the region and its critical waterways. (Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class William Kirk)
The animated film Heavy Metal premiered in the United States and Canada on August 7, 1981, making it 45 years young this month.
As any Gen Xer can vouch, HM and the magazine that went along with it were transformative.
Besides perhaps the Harry Canyon segment, the most affective, at least to me, was the B-17 Pacific Pearl segment, and we wouldn’t have had it without illustrator Michael G. Ploog— who knew guns and militaria firsthand.
Ploog, born in Mankato, Minnesota during WWII, signed up with the Marines in 1958 and remained on active duty for ten years, working on the Corps’ Leatherneck Magazine, among others.
Working for Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, he did side work for Will Eisner on the Army’s PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, guide.
A typical spread from Will Eisner’s U.S. Army publication PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly #224 (c. 1971), with art attributed to Ploog.
Of course, Mike went on to work with Marvel (Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night, et al), DC (The Spirit), Dark Horse (The Goon), and clocked in on the amazing 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, and so on.
He is still around and deserves to be honored in the likes of Frazetta, Wrightson, and Moebius.
