To cap RIMPAC 26, two large SINKEXs took place, targeting the long decommissioned Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship ex-USS Peleliu (LHA-5) and the more recently laid up Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser ex-USS Mobile Bay (CG 53).
The event took place in deep water (+6,000 feet) north of Hawaii to keep the broken wrecks safe from unwelcome eyes.
Of course, Big Navy did what Big Navy is well-known for, deep-sixing ships De Soto style that some on Capitol Hill would like to see returned to service. Peleliu, the last of her class, had been laid up since 2015 but drew interest as a short-term replacement for Bon Homme Richard for a few years until a new ‘phib could be completed. Likewise, cruiser fans hate to see every Tico get a hard goodbye, especially if they still “look” so good.
I mean, look at Mobile Bay when she was decommissioned just under three years ago:
SAN DIEGO (Aug.10, 2023) – The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) sits pier side during a decommissioning ceremony. The Mobile Bay was decommissioned after more than 36 years of distinguished service. Commissioned Feb. 21, 1987, Mobile Bay served in the U.S. Atlantic, Seventh, and U.S. Pacific Fleet and supported Operation Desert Storm. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stevin C. Atkins)
If they are at the bottom of the Pacific, the NDAA can’t authorize millions to reactivate elderly vessels– so that the money can be spent on shiny new ones.
Mobile Bay SINKEX from Royal Canadian Navy submarine HMCS Cornerbrook.
Mobile Bay SINKEX from Royal Canadian Navy submarine HMCS Cornerbrook.
Plus, obtaining valid weapons testing evaluations on a big deck LHA– from a class that the Navy’s current LHAs and LHDs are based upon– is worthwhile.
Peleliu had already been towed out to sea from her retirement home in the West Loch earlier this year to simulate battle damage in various spaces and then towed back to Ford Island as part of an extensive Repair Technology Exercise (REPTX) which brought together various technologies for inspection, repair, and/or prevention of damage.
Although, to be fair, HMAS Sydney did get a chance to test out one of the RAN’s new Naval Strike Missiles.
HMAS Sydney (V) conducts a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) firing during RIMPAC Sea phase off the coast of Hawaii, United States.
Getting Spiked
Of note, among those who got in licks were a flight of AH-64D Longbow Apaches from the Fort Lewis-based 16th Combat Aviation Brigade of the 7th Infantry (Hourglass) Division, which carried Israeli-made Spike NLOS missiles. The 75-pound fire-and-forget missile has a 20+ mile range and a 28-pound warhead while only costing about $250K. In effect, a sort of super Hellfire.
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division (Multi-Domain Command – Pacific) load a Spike missile on the an AH-64 Apache in preparation for their role in a sink exercise, where each aircraft fires a Spike missile at a decommissioned warship for the purpose of at-sea live-fire training during exercise Rim of the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii, on July 11, 2026. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Christian Morton)
Said Army Apaches flew from USS Essex (LHD-2) alongside Marine Cobras (Vipers) and Hueys (Venoms).
Note the Spike aboard
Two U.S. Army AH-64 Apaches from the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division (Multi-Domain Command – Pacific) participate in a sink exercise, where each aircraft fires a Spike missile at a decommissioned Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG 53), for the purpose of at-sea live-fire training during Exercise Rim of the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii, on July 11, 2026. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Christian Morton)
A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache from the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, Multi-Domain Command – Pacific, fires a Spike Non-Line of Sight missile at the USS Mobile Bay for a Sink Exercise during Rim of the Pacific in Hawaii, July 11, 2026.
The Spikes were joined by Penguins fired from an RNZN SH-2G SeaSprite (they do exist!), a Marte from an Italian SH-101 flying from the frigate Giovanni Delle Bande Nere, and Hellfires from RAN MH-60Rs flying from both Sydney and cross-decked from USS Wayne G. Meyer (DDG 108).
RNZN SH-2G SeaSprite Penguin RIMPAC SINKEX
Italian Navy SH-101 launching a Marte anti-ship missile during Exercise RIMPAC, flown from Giovanni Delle Bande Nere
Flight 607 personnel load Hellfire missiles into MH-60R Seahawk “DUNDEE” on the flight deck of HMAS Sydney (V) during RIMPAC sea phase off the coast of Hawaii, United States.
So long, Tarawas
In the end, let’s pour out one for the Tarawas, which were first ordered 1 May 1969, amid the worst part of the Vietnam War. Peleliu’s sinking closes the book on the class, spanning a 57-year run.
Artist’s conception of a very preliminary design of the LHA, released by DoD, 15 February 1967. USN 1120262
They held the line in the Cold War and multiple evolutions of the Sandbox, combining big Harrier and Super Stallion capable air decks with large LCAC and LCU capable well decks and room for 1,700 embarked Marines. Nothing else came close before the class.
Of the five members, USS Belleau Wood (LHA 3) was the first disposed of, sunk in 2006, followed by Saipan (LHA 2), which was scrapped in 2009, Nassau (scrapped in 2021), and Tarawa herself, which was sent to the bottom in RIMPAC 24.
141022-N-NZ935-083 PHILIPPINE SEA (Oct. 22, 2014) The amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5) is underway as part of the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group and is conducting joint forces exercises in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Joshua Hammond/Released)
Some 60 years ago this week, over the skies of the Republic of Vietnam.
An LTV F-8E Crusader of the “Hunters” of Fighter Squadron 162 (VF-162), fires 2.75-inch Zuni rockets in support of ground forces in South Vietnam during USS Oriskany (CVA-34)’s 1966 West Pac deployment. The photo is dated 23 July 1966. Eighteen rockets are visible in this image.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph USN 1117222, now in the collections of the National Archives.
VF-162 was established aboard NAS Miramar on 1 September 1960 as a Douglas F4D outfit but only flew their pokey Skyrays on their first deployment aboard USS Intrepid in the Med in 1961-62.
Switching to the speedy F-8 in 1963, they would make their next four deployments from Oriskany’s deck on Westpac cruises (Aug 63 – Mar 64, Apr 65 – Dec 65, May 66 – Nov 66, and Jun 67 – Jan 68).
A Sidewinder-armed F-8E Crusader from the VF-162 Hunters prepares to launch from USS Oriskany (CVA 34) on a mission over North Vietnam in August 1967. Note the “Hunters” moniker on the aircraft’s wing roots.
Keeping the Tonkin Gulf in their blood, the Hunters shipped out in 1969 for another Vietnam tour aboard USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and their last on USS Shangri-La (CVS-38) in 1970.
With 16 aircraft lost in action, VF-162 had the second-highest combat loss rate after VF-111 of the F-8 fighter units deployed to Vietnam, but had two confirmed A-to-A MiG kills (9 October 1966, when CDR Dick Bellinger bested a VPAF MiG-21; and 14 December 1967, when LT Richard Wyman shot down a VPAF MiG-17).
VF-162 disestablished on 29 January 1971, having just nine years on the books but lots of time in combat.
The squadron’s last “deployed” aviator downrange, LCDR Richard Minnich, shot down over North Vietnam by an SA-2 in December 1968, had his remains repatriated in December 1985 and identified the next year.
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Warship Wednesday 23 July 2026: Semper Laborantes
USCG Photo 26-G-07-26-56(13). National Archives Identifier 205592132
Above we see the Balsam (Iris “C”)-class armed ocean-going buoy tender USCG Hornbeam (WAGL-394) hard at work at the scene of one of the most infamous maritime disasters in modern history, some 70 years ago this week.
In the photo, the once-proud Italian liner Andrea Doria lists dangerously in over 200 fathoms of water off Nantucket, with two of her lifeboats alongside Hornbeam.
The Balsams
In 1916, the Revenue Cutter Service and Lifesaving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard, to which the Bureau of Lighthouses was added on 1 July 1939, and as such, all U.S. lighthouses, tenders, and lightships became USCG installations and ships.
The thing is, the lighthouse and buoy tender fleet was a hodgepodge of antiquated single-use vessels to which the Bureau had been looking to replace with a new series of 177-foot lighthouse tenders modeled after the USLHT Juniper, the last vessel designed by the Bureau.
Taking these plans, the Coast Guard made some changes and produced an 180-foot/950-ton single-screw steel-hulled ship that incorporated some new features that the USLHS never needed (an ice-strengthened bow, search and rescue equipment and mission, allowance for armament, etc. al).
The first of these, USCGC Cactus (WAGL-270), was appropriated for $782,381 on 20 Jan 1941 and laid down at Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, Minnesota, on 31 March.
USCGC Basswood through the Straits of Mackinac- 12 May 1944, a good example of the “180s.” Note the 3″/50 behind her wheelhouse facing over the stern as well as her 20mm mounts. ASW weapons, firefighting gear, and buoy-tending equipment were also shoehorned into these ships. Further, as shown above, they could break light ice, a feature that was to serve the units headed to the Pacific well!
The 39 Balsams were built in three slightly different flights: A, Cactus (13); B, Mesquite (6), and C, Iris (20).
All ships of the three subclasses have the same general characteristics, but with slight differences (e.g., the “A/Cactus” class tenders may be differentiated from the other two classes of 180-foot tenders by their unique “A” frame main boom support forward and their large 30,000 gal fuel tanks that allowed an economical 17,000nm cruising range on their gentle diesel suite.)
Likewise, they were constructed at three yards, Marine Iron & Shipbuilding (6 Cactus, 5 Mesquite, 10 Iris), Zenith Dredge (7 Cactus, 10 Iris)– both in in Duluth, Michigan– and the USCG Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland (1 Mesquite), with the first hull laid down on 31 March 1941 and the final ship commissioned 22 November 1944, an impressive run.
The building process averaged 192,018 hours of labor per vessel.
Which brings us to…
Meet Hornbeam
Our subject was the only warship named after the American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), a small hardwood tree.
Laid down as Yard No CG-152 at Marine and Iron Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, on 19 June 1943.
USCGC Hornbeam during construction at Duluth- 17 July 1943. USCG Photo
She hit the water in a side-launch on 14 August 1943 and was commissioned on 14 April 1944.
Launching of USCGC Hornbeam- 14 August 1943. USCG Photo
Our little tender was constructed in 300 days flat for a cost of $864,296. Only one C-series (Iris) Balsam class tender was constructed for cheaper (USCGC Sassafras) and that only barely so ($864,032).
LCDR Taylor accepts USCGC Hornbeam from the builders. USCG Photo
War!
Following a short workup, Hornbeam served on the Great Lakes, between April and July 1944.
USCGC Hornbeam- 15 June 1944. USCG Photo
She was used for general ice-breaking (in spring) and aids-to-navigation work (in summer) before heading to the East Coast via the Weiland Canal (the St. Lawrence didn’t open until 1959).
Arriving at Woods Hole, Massachusetts on 14 August 1944, Hornbeam was a First CG District asset used for coastal ASW patrol in addition to her buoy and marker work.
She was well equipped for the task, delivered with a WEA-2 sonar, two depth charge racks, two forward Mousetraps over the bow, and four Y-gun type depth charge throwers. For surface action, she had her amidships 3″/50 on a bandstand behind the stack, two 20m Oerlikon singles, and a SL-1 radar.
Official wartime caption: “The latest U.S. Coast Guard armed buoy tender is shown slogging into a head sea during an Atlantic storm in this oil painting by USCG Combat Artist Hunter Wood. This type carries heavy guns in case it runs upon a U-boat.” Released February 11, 1944. National Archives Identifier 205575897
It was during the war that she came to the assistance of the USCGC Nemesis (WPC-111) following the 165-foot patrol cutter’s collision with SS Felipe de Neve on New Year’s Day 1945.
To Black Hull Service
Post-war, the Balsams continued in service, albeit without having to keep an eye peeled for Zeroes and U-boats. This meant most of their ASW weapons were removed, and they received a more work-a-day black hull scheme rather than grey and camouflage.
Enlisted crew of USCGC Hornbeam on her quarterdeck,1952
For tenders stationed in more northern climes, like our Hornbeam, this meant summers working buoys and markers while being on call for search and rescue and LE missions and the winters breaking ice.
The class was used for any number of ancillary duties. For example, one member, Redbug, was lent to the MSTS for use as a light cargo ship (AKL) in the 1950s, running around remote Pacific bases. The white-hulled Evergreen (later classed as WAGO-295) served as the USCG’s only oceanographic vessel off and on from 1948 through 1982.
Jane’s 1954 entry for the class, noting 38 in USCG service, with Redbud in MSTS but not mentioning Evergreen.
Settling in her regular beat, Hornbeam became one of a series of cutters who had an alternate identity in the Republic of Nantucket, dubbed the RONC Par A Sec 4.
The practice came as noted by the USGC Historian’s Office:
The commanding officers or officers-in-charge of Coast Guard cutters that are assigned to or visit Nantucket play the “Ring Game” with the Nantucket Angler’s Club for “ownership” of the cutter. If the skipper loses, then the Nantucket Angler’s Club becomes the cutter’s owner. The skipper is entitled to decide the newly acquired cutter’s “RON” name.
She clocked in where needed.
Besides her regular work, she regularly ferried personnel and supplies to the five manned lightships marking the northeast coast. She served temporarily as the Nantucket Light Station when the regular light ships were unavailable, and helped them regain station when drifting.
With the huge Gloucester fishing fleet in her stomping grounds, it was often that our tender was called out in an emergency, such as when she came to the assistance of the trawler FV Flamingo near Pollock Rip on 17 Feb 1954. She then came to the aid of FV Shamos, aground at No Man’s Land, that September. In November 1955, she towed the disabled FV Mideay, then turned around just days later and towed the similarly disabled FV Ballard. In 1956, she escorted the distressed MV Chelsea to New Bedford.
That was just a warm-up for something much bigger.
Andrea Doria
The collision between the westbound 29,083-ton luxury liner Andrea Doria, out of Genoa, Italy, racing behind schedule at nearly 22 knots to New York, and the motorship Stockholm (12,165 GRT), steaming east at 18.5 knots out of New York headed for Gothenburg, on the late night of 25 July 1956 while in heavy fog off Nantucket, is very well documented.
Fatalities were light, all things considered. Five were killed on Stockholm, 46 on Andrea Doria. However, it set the stage for a heart-pounding all-hands rescue, with the liner flooding and listing sharply, rendering half her lifeboats immediately unusable.
Although cracked up, Stockholm ended up carrying 572 survivors (327 passengers and 245 crew members) from Andrea Doria, in addition to her own passengers and crew, to New York under her own steam.
The stately but aging 46,000-ton CGT liner, SS Île de France, rushed to the scene and, of 1,706 surviving passengers and crew of the Andrea Doria, about 753 were transferred aboard the Frenchman in six hours.
Other ships were there too.
The Munargo (United Fruit) Lines Liberty ship SS Cape Ann picked up 129 survivors.
The Hornbeam sortied out– along with the cutters Campbell, Evergreen, Fredrick Lee, Owasco, and Yakutat— and made it to the scene just before sunrise.
She took aboard the survivors of the last two lifeboats, composed of the final crew to escape the doomed liner. They had remained aboard working the pumps in vain hope she could be saved.
Hornbeam with the badly listing Andrea Doria in the foreground on the morning of 27 July 1956, some 55 miles off Nantucket. Note her eight portside lifeboats are still in their davits. USCG Photo 26-G-07-26-56(04), National Archives Identifier 205592110
Andrea Doria’s skipper, 58-year-old Capt. Piero Calamai, watched his proud vessel slip below the waves from the deck of Hornbeam. Reports range from 45 to 77, the number that Hornbeam took aboard. As the boats had a capacity of 58, either number seems possible.
Andrea Doria rolling. Likely taken from Hornbeam. Note she still has all of her portside lifeboats in their davits. USCG 26-G-07-26-56(17)
Andrea Doria down. Likely taken from Hornbeam. The cutter brought two lifeboats back to Woods Hole, and those that could not be salvaged were sunk by gunfire to prevent them from being shipping hazards. USCG 26-g-097-123-003
Hornbeam transferred her survivors to the larger and faster destroyer escort USS Edward H. Allen (DE-531)to land at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and brought the two large lifeboats from Andrea Doria to shore at Woods Hole.
For her assistance, the destroyer was officially thanked by the Italian Government and her commanding officer, LCDR Boyd Henry Hempen, USNR (OCS ‘43), was decorated with the Italian Legion of Merit.
Allen’s list of 77 Doria survivors, including Calamai, landed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard early on the 27th:
Hornbeam’s skipper, LT Roger F. Erdmann, joined LCDR Hempin of the USS Allen in a ceremony where 35 Navy and USCG personnel were decorated at the Italian Embassy in DC on 18 January 1957.
His Excellency Manlio Brassio [Brosio] [Brosio], Ambassador of Italy, decorates Lieutenant R. F. Erdmann, USCG, for assistance rendered the Italian ship, Andrea Doria, USCG Photo via NARA
Post-Doria
Hornbeam picked up her tackle and got back to work, yet continued to come in as a lifesaver in the clutch.
On 8-9 July 1957, she assisted the MV American Packer off Buzzards Bay
On 25 October 1957, she assisted MV Nicolos, which was aground at Hog Island
On 4 April 1958, she assisted MV Fort Felerman.
On 30 April 1958, she assisted FV Venture 1.
On 7 Aug 1958, she assisted following collision between MVs Graham and MT Gulf Oil in the East passage of Narragansett Bay.
On 29 January 1961, she assisted her sister cutter Spar, which was aground in Narragansett Bay.
USCGC Hornbeam off Nantucket in 1963. USCG Photo
In April 1965, she escorted the icebreaker USS Atka, which was taking on water off New Bedford.
In late November 1965, she assisted U.S. MVs American Pilot and Maume Sum following their collision west of the Cape Cod Canal
In January 1968, she freed the research ship Gosnold from ice near Woods Hole.
Still a warrior
She also undertook some genuine naval work in 1962, leaving her normal cruising grounds to participate in the shipping quarantine around Cuba.
Hornbeam shepherded several small (82 and 95 foot) patrol boats dispatched from New England that were involved in the operation that turned away several Soviet ships carrying offensive missiles intended for deployment in Cuba.
By this time, she carried an UNQ-1 sonar and SPN-11 or SPS-10 radar, and had ditched her Oerlikons for M2 .50 cals but still had her 3″/50 deck gun until at least 1967 when it was landed, leaving her just the .50s and her small arms locker.
Around this period, her unit patch included Semper Laborantes (Always Working), and for good reason.
Insignia patch of buoy tender assigned to First Coast Guard District, Boston. “Semper Laborantes, Aids to Navigation.” Description: Courtesy of Commander George Wildes, USCG, 1978. Catalog #: NH 88137-KN
Upgrades
In 1965, the service redesignated most large buoy tenders from WAGL (auxiliary lighthouse tender) to WLB (oceangoing buoy tender) to reflect the vessels’ evolving multi-mission capabilities– and the phasing out of manned light ships and light houses, with the latter declining from 670 in 1939 to just 158 by 1965.
The USCG kept these versatile 180-foot tenders in operation well past their prime. Of the 38 remaining Balsams, only 11 did not receive either a Major Renovation (MAJREN) in the 1970s (at which point they were in their 30s) and/or a Service Life Extension (SLEP) rebuild in the 1980-90s (at which point they were in their 40s and 50s).
Hornbeam was in the club of 12 that only ever got the 1970s MAJREN refit, picking up $17.5 million worth of work between 1 July 1976 and 29 Apr 1977 at the CG Yard.
Under the MAJREN program, vessels received new diesel engines while the main electrical motor and its control systems underwent a thorough overhaul. New electrical wiring and switchboards were installed, as were entirely new water piping and sewage handling systems. Each vessel received a bow thruster to improve its maneuverability in close quarters. Future crews benefited from the replacement and modernization of all furnishings in the living areas. Decreasing the size of the forward hold allowed the expansion of the living area itself. Fourteen 180s went through the MAJREN program. These repairs and improvements extended each vessel’s service life by an estimated ten to fifteen years
Following her MAJREN, Hornbeam shifted from Woods Hole, which she had called home for 32 years, and arrived at Cape May, New Jersey in early May 1977.
Post MAJREN and racing-stripe equipped USCGC Hornbeam underway on 15 February 1984. Note the ice accumulation amidships. USCG photo.
Based at Cape May, she was co-located with the service’s boot camp (TRACEN). This allowed her, whenever not on her regular ATON and SAR duties, to serve as a floating training bed for budding coasties and a host of assorted high-profile programs.
Yorktown, Virginia (Apr. 26 1999)–The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Hornbeam (WLB 394) secures the buoy chain after pulling a buoy out of the water as part of the JCOC demonstration at Reserve Training Center Yorktown. The Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC), sponsored each year by the Secretary of Defense, brings together 60 noted civilians from around the country–a broad cross-section of opinion leaders–and gives them a weeklong, intense orientation on the U.S. military. The program begins with high-level briefings at the Pentagon and then takes the participants to various installations across the country for “hands-on” experiences. USCG photo by PA1 Telfair Brown.
Still, with her ice-strengthened bow, she came in handy on ice patrol and in coastwise icebreaking even at her advanced age.
USCGC Hornbeam underway on International Ice Patrol in 1984
In January and February 1994, Hornbeam, “during a record cold spell,” spent seven weeks breaking ice and installing ice buoys in the Delaware Bay and Delaware River.
While in Cape May, her patch touted Marvin the Martian, noting the tender was “Doing the Impossible.”
End Game
Starting in 1972 with Redbud decommissioned and transferred to the Philippines, the Coast Guard began whittling down the 180s. Before the end of the decade, four further 180s, all from the earliest Cactus variants (Balsam, Cowslip, Woodbine, and Tupelo), were taken out of service and disposed of.
Three of the 180s were lost in accidents.
Cactus ran hard aground in 1971, and the damage was so extensive that the government decided to decommission the vessel rather than repair her– nearly 30 years into her service career.
In January 1980, USCGC Blackthorn collided with a commercial tanker in Tampa Bay, Florida, and capsized the buoy tender, taking 23 members of her crew to the bottom.
In December 1989, USCGC Mesquite grounded on a rock pinnacle jutting from the bottom of Lake Superior, which damaged her so severely that the USCG decided to decommission the old gal, and she was scuttled by a commercial salvage company in 1990.
By the 1980s, Evergreen, no longer needed with the service shuttering its oceanographic office, along with sisters USCGC Citrus (WLB-300) and Clover (WLB-292), were redesignated as Medium Endurance cutters (WMEC) to combat the rising drug trade and replace smaller 143-foot Sotoyomo-class fleet tugs that had been transferred from the Navy in the 1950s. These would later be replaced themselves in the early 1990s by much more effective 270-foot Bear-class cutters.
With the service moving to commission the new and much more capable 225-foot Juniper class of ocean-going buoy tenders, the writing was on the wall for the remaining 180s.
Hornbeam was decommissioned on 30 September 1999, capping a busy and oft-unrecognized 55-year career.
The laid-up tender was berthed first in Custis Bay, then in Baltimore after 2002, where she sat idle next to the Domino Sugar Factory.
The former USCGC Hornbeam (WLB-394), at Baltimore, MD, May 14, 2007.
In November 2007, the sugar factory had an explosion, and the ship was covered in black sugar soot residue.
The old girl was sold on the commercial market in January 2009 to Integrated Technologies & Systems, Ltd, and soon was floating around the Caribbean as the coaster M/V Rum Cay Grace (IMO 8660624).
It was in April 2010 that she was chartered to Volunteer Ministers, the outreach program for the Church of Scientology, to carry earthquake relief supplies (“including an ambulance, a pickup truck to be used as an ambulance, MREs, stoves and wood pellets, and wheelchairs, walkers and crutches”) from Miami to Haiti.
Scientology Volunteer Minister Ship, M/V Rum Cay Grace, (ex USCG Ship Hornbeam), arriving in Haiti, April 2010, bringing 165 tons of materials, food and other aids to the disaster-stricken country. Via Wiki Commons.
Left to languish in Haiti, the abandoned coaster was hijacked by “two old pirates” and a skeleton crew, and sailed to Panama in 2012, where she grounded and wrecked the following year, the end of her tale.
Hornbeam’s skipper during the Andrea Doria rescue, LT Roger F. Erdmann, USCG, retired as a captain. An exhibit honoring him is at the North Point Lighthouse outside of Milwaukee, where he was stationed from 1957 to 1961. He later commanded the famed 327-foot cutter Duane (WHEC-33) from 1969-1971 before ending his career in the 1st District in Boston. He passed in 1984, aged 65, and is buried in the Central Maine Veterans Cemetery in Augusta.
Two of Andrea Doria’s aluminum-hulled human-powered (Fleming geared) lifeboats, #1 and #13, survive, of which I believe the former was one of the two brought to Woods Hole by Hornbeam immediately after the disaster. No. 13 reportedly was found washed up in New York in 1981, having broken loose from her davits after the liner sank.
After the sinking of the Andrea Doria, Calamai, her final captain, retired. He had joined the Italian Navy in 1916 as an ensign, and had a solid 40 years of military and commercial maritime service under his belt. He is reported to have told one of his friends after the sinking, “Before I used to love the sea. Now I hate it.” When he died in 1972 at the age of 74, his last words were recorded as “Are all passengers safe?”
Wikipedia doesn’t even mention the Hornbeam in its entry on the infamous passenger liner. The USCG Historian’s Office long ago deleted her entry.
When it comes to her sisters, a few 180s survive in overseas service (Buttonwood, under a Dominican flag) while some others are in commercial or private hands as museum ships. One, Sundew, was at Hornbeam’s birthplace this week and still looks great.
To the crew of privately-owned former USCGC Sundew, departing Duluth this afternoon for the big USCG Festival in Grand Haven, Michigan, on July 24 – August 2. USCGC Spar (WLB-206), seen in the distance, will not be participating this year. Duluth, MN – July 20, 2026. Photo by David Schauer.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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Don’t get me wrong, it looks kind of cool, almost like an “advisor gun” of the type that the original SF A-Teams (the “Gypsies of the Battlefield”) liked in the early days of the CIDG program in Vietnam, but I have to wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze and they got the dwell time worked out to where it works better than the old Universal Enforcer.
I give you, Auto-Ordnance’s factory SBR M-1 Carbine:
According to AO’s press release (emphasis mine):
Designed for optimal maneuverability and modern application, the M1 Carbine SBR boasts an overall length of just 30 inches, featuring a 12-inch barrel equipped with a standard 1/2-28 threaded muzzle for easy suppressor or compensator attachment.
To further bridge the gap between historic utility and current shooting requirements, the firearm includes integrated M-Lok slots along the bottom of the forearm, allowing for the seamless attachment of modern accessories.
Finished in a durable, non-reflective matte black, the SBR ships with either a 15-round (AOM230) or 10-round magazine (AOM240).
The new SBR M1 Carbine takes an already handy rifle and makes it even more useful in tight spaces. On top of that, the threaded barrel lets the shooter go quiet when silence is the best option.
This modernized platform is available now at an MSRP of $1,870 for both 10- and 15-round models.
Still, tax stamps (for now) on SBRs are zeroed out, and my last Form 4 went through in three days…so forgive me if something happens.
Look who just popped up at AMARC at Davis–Monthan in Tucson: “Nutz”, an aggressor-livery F-18E series aircraft, late of the “Fighting Omars” of VFC-12 out of NAS Oceania.
Yup, the series is getting that old.
Boeing F/A-18E-54-MC Lot 23 Super Hornet (MSN 1530/E026) BuNo 165783 was part of the Low-Rate Initial Production 3 (LRIP 3) Rhinos, funded under the U.S. Navy’s fiscal year 1998 defense budget, and produced circa 2000-01.
So she is 25-26 years young and is probably high hours, being formerly of the “Eagles” of VFA-115, where she was Modex NK-202 then NF-302.
F/A-18E Super Hornet (VFA-115 / CVW-5) BuNo 165783 at MCB Hawaii, MCAS Kaneohe Bay – April 2023
The Eagles logged the first fleet Super Hornet combat deployment, flying 214 combat missions in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Southern Watch in 2002 from Abraham Lincoln, dropping 370,000 pounds of ordnance over Iraq. They then returned to OIF support in 2006 aboard Reagan, and 783 was surely there.
VFA-115 turned in their Rhinos in 2024 when they went to an F-35C outfit, which is likely when the Omars acquired 783, transforming her into Nutz, running the reduced “Mako scheme” to be a smaller Su-57 Felon.
Hopefully, Pima manages to pick her up for display eventually, complete with her aggressor scheme.
How about this great series of photos of T/5 Walter Barnett of Oklahoma City, captured in July 1943 at Fort Pepperrell, Newfoundland, showing the correct form for riflery in sitting, prone, and standing positions with an M1 Garand. Note the M1941 “Daisy Mae” Army boonie hat, HBT dungarees, and M1938 leggings.
Photographer: Cpl. Howard Warner, 21st Sig. Serv. Co., Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive. SC 364548
Photographer: Cpl. Howard Warner, 21st Sig. Serv. Co., Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive. SC 364546
Photographer: Cpl. Howard Warner, 21st Sig. Serv. Co., Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive. SC 364549
All the above are great for training on a flat range, but often went out the window in more kinetic situations when the targets moved and returned fire.
For those curious, Fort Pepperrell was one of the British bases in the “Destroyers for Bases” deal between FDR and Churchill in 1940.
The first American troops, the “Old Guard” Regulars of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, arrived the following May, and by late 1942 some 5,500 yanks of all stripes were in attendance, ranging from Coastal Artillery and Army AAA units to Navy stevedores, civilian contractors, the USAAF’s 6604th Air Base Wing, and ground defense battalions. It was used primarily as a stepping stone to ship men and material across the Atlantic to Europe.
Following the post-war drawdown, the base transferred to the newly established USAF as Pepperrell AFB in 1947. Its runways and 208 buildings were handed over to the RCAF in 1961, well short of the original “99-year” lease.
A small portion of the old base is retained by the Canadian Forces as Garrison St. John’s under RCN control, with some 450 full-time military and civilian personnel, 1,500 reservists, and 5,000 cadets. Other sections are preserved as parks and have been developed for commercial use.
As to T/5 Burnett, I believe him to be Walter Loe Barnett, who graduated from Central High School, Oklahoma City, and served in the U. S. Army during WWII. He was 27 in the above photos (note the wedding ring). Post-war, he returned to the Sooner State, worked for Southwestern Bell for 42 years, and passed in 1997, aged 81. He left behind his wife, Peggy, and a host of family.
You know the old 40th Tank Battalion of WWII from this amazing period Kodachrome, showing the outfit’s M-4 Shermans lined up in a snow-covered field, near St. Vith, Belgium, just after the Battle of the Bulge.
M4 Shermans in temporary position near St. Vith, Belgium, fire on enemy positions beyond the city. 40th Tank Battalion. 7th Armored Division.” Date: 24 January 1945. Salis, U.S. Army Signal Corps photo 111-SC-199467
Constituted 13 January 1941 in the peacetime Regular Army, the 40th Armored Regiment soon became the 40th Tank Bn. It was attached to the 7th Armored Division for the duration of the European War, earning campaign streamers for Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland, the Ardennes (Alsace), and Central Europe.
In the process of refitting with water-kit-equipped Shermans (as the 40th Amphibian Tractor Battalion) for the Olympic Landings in Japan, VJ Day caught up to the unit, and they were disbanded in February 1946.
Cold War reactivation saw the unit attached to the 4th Infantry Division (1948 to 1957), one of the only armored units in Alaska, as part of the 171st Infantry Brigade (1957 to 1969), then part of the Fort Polk-based 5th Infantry Division from 1987 to 1997, when it cased its colors once again.
Stood back up in 2005 as the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment (Airborne) at Fort Richardson, Alaska; it has been part of the 25th Infantry Division and then the 11th Airborne Division in the past 21 years, with breaks to earn four campaign streamers in Afghanistan and two in Iraq over that period.
U.S. Army Soldiers walk through a stream during a patrol near Sar Howza, Paktika province, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2009. The Soldiers are deployed with Bulldog Troop, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment. Photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew Smith
Since 2005, 1-40 CAV’s unit insignia, a t-rex holding a charged sword, earned it the nickname “Reptar.”
The troopers of the 40th earned their unique silver spurs, which included airborne wings and the 25th ID’s “electric acorn” patch, during the multi-day Denali Spur Ride rite of passage.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Alejandro Peña)
During this most recent stage of 1-40’s life, it became the last ground (not Air) cavalry squadron in the Regular Army and the final cavalry unit to be airborne-certified.
I say this because, last Friday, 1-40 CAV conducted its final airborne operation into Malemute Drop Zone, taking that “leap of faith” from C-17As of the 535th Airlift Squadron.
The same day, 1-40 CAV reflagged as the 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, “restoring one of the Army’s most distinguished airborne lineages to active service as part of the Army’s ongoing transformation efforts.”
The old 511th, formed in 1943, was one of the 11th’s regiments during WWII and is best known for its combat jump onto Tagaytay Ridge and its role in the Raid at Los Baños, where paratroopers helped liberate more than 2,100 civilian internees from a Japanese prison camp. The unit had such a reputation for being on hopeless “behind the 8-ball” missions that they even added it to their patch
General Kruger Discussing Plans For A Paratroop Drop With Officers Of The 11Th Airborne Division, 511Th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 4:30 a.m., 23 June 1945, at Lipa Airstrip, Luzon, In The Philippine Islands. (U.S. Air Force Number A60741AC)
During the war, the regiment earned two Medals of Honor, nine Distinguished Service Crosses, 326 Silver Stars, 1,126 Bronze Stars and 884 Purple Hearts before serving in the occupation of Japan. The regiment was inactivated in 1957.
The Italian Navy has declared its stockpile of Cold War-vintage 9mm Beretta burp guns that are surplus to its needs and is actively seeking to part with them.
The Italian Defense Industries Agency (L’Agenzia Industrie Difesa) recently announced it is accepting bids for 16,165 assorted Moschetti Automatici Beretta, or MAB, submachine guns. Brig. Gen. Massimo Boschetto detailed in a tender announcement that the guns are located at three naval bases, Taranto (7,512), La Spezia (8,404), and Augusta (249), and are being sold as-is/where-is and sans magazines.
The MAB, Beretta’s Model 1938 submachine gun in 9mm Para, was a big hit for the company and can still be found in limited service around the world.
The MAB was a staple not only of the Italian military during WWII but also saw widespread use with guerrilla/resistance groups of all stripes and ultimately was in service with over 30 nations.
It was one of the more successful sub-guns of the conflict and was a favorite of Italian marine, mountain troop, and paratrooper units, seen here with “samurai” magazine holders.
A brainchild of Beretta’s storied chief engineer Tullio Marengoni – who also designed the Beretta M15, M17, M35 and M51 pistols, the latter the basis for the famed Model 92 – the MAB was first fielded in 1938 and remained in production until the early 1960s when it was replaced in the company’s catalog by the M12 SMG.
It is believed over 1 million MAB/Model 1938s were produced in a dozen variants.
This case in the Beretta Private Collection is full of assorted Model 38s with early circa 1930s Model 38As to the left and more simplified Model 38/44s and 38/49s to the right. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Several MAB variants exist in U.S. museums and in the collection of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, brought back from all over the globe. (Photos: SANHS)
Even after the Italian army and national gendarmerie (Carabinieri) hung up the MAB in the 1960s and 70s, it remained in service with the Italian air force, as seen in these images during a NATO exercise in 1985, vibing alongside U.S. Air Force Security Police at Aviano Air Base. (Photos: USAF via the National Archives).
And it endured with the Italian navy for both base and ship defense, seen here aboard the training ship Amerigo Vespucci, which recently took part in the Sail 250 events in Norfolk, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. (Photos: Italian Navy).
While current ATF import regulations don’t allow for these beautiful and historic guns to be brought in intact for commercial sale, should a U.S. importer manage the high bid (which is likely), we could soon see some very nice parts kits show up over here.
The 1,200-ton HMS Saxifrage is the last of 112 Flower-class sloops constructed during WWI, the last of 366 Q-Ship “Special Service Vessels” from the same conflict, and only one of three remaining British warships from the era.
IWM SP 1650
After the war, she then spent a full six decades, from 1922 to 1988, as a floating Royal Naval Reserve drill ship, HMS President, including training gun crews during WWII.
As such, she was the last Royal Navy warship to wear Victorian battleship livery of black hull, white superstructure and buff yellow funnel and masts.
In 2014, as part of the First World War commemorations, her hull was covered once more in a distinctive ‘dazzle’ design, courtesy of artist Tobias Rehberger.
After being decommissioned and serving as a floating venue on the River Thames for decades, she was moved to Chatham Docks in Kent in 2016.
Because the site operator requires the berth for redevelopment, the absentee owner and site operators arranged to have her towed and dismantled at a scrapyard in Erith.
She was delivered to the breakers over the weekend.
GPS Iberia and GPS Arcadia with HMS President leaving Chatham for Erith, Photo by Marquis
GPS Iberia and GPS Arcadia with HMS President leaving Chatham for Erith, Photo by Marquis
GPS Iberia and GPS Arcadia with HMS President leaving Chatham for Erith, Photo by Marquis
GPS Iberia and GPS Arcadia with HMS President leaving Chatham for Erith, Photo by Marquis
Some 105 years ago, 18 July 1921, off the Virginia Capes
Successive leisurely flights of land-based Army and Navy bombers dropped an assortment of bombs over the moored and abandoned 6,600-ton German Wiesbaden-class scout cruiser SMS Frankfurt, formerly of the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet, and (eventually) sank same.
To help with aimpoints, she even conveniently had two round targets painted on her deck, fore and aft.
From the Alfred A. Cunningham Collection (COLL/3034) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division
Frankfurt, commissioned in October 1915, survived Jutland specifically, the Great War as a whole, and even scuttling at Scapa Flow.
She was hard to kill.
The German Wiesbaden-class scout cruiser SMS Frankfurt, late 1918, Scapa Flow. IWM (Q 64195)
Ceded to the U.S. as a war prize on 11 March 1920 in England, commissioned there on 4 June as USS Frankfurt, she was towed to the East Coast and disposed of via SINKEX.
Capable of over 27 knots on a 31,000shp plant, she was built for speed, not to take punishment. Her armor scheme only included a 2.4-inch belt and deck coverage over her vitals (magazines and fire/engine rooms), and 3.9 inches on the conning tower.
Moored about 50 miles, 83 degrees true, off the Virginia Capes, the bombing took place from 0912 that morning until 1651 that afternoon.
A total of 74 bombs, a mix of 250, 500, 520, and 600-pounders, were dropped in sticks by the Navy and singly by the Army, with only two direct hits and 10 very near misses (counted as hits). She settled on the bottom 28 minutes after the final drop. The average passing speed for the lumbering bombers was about 85 knots.
The tests of the Frankfurt began with an attack by Navy planes carrying 250-pound bombs. Twenty-four of them were dropped, scoring five direct hits. This was followed by an attack by Army planes which dropped twenty-nine 500-pound bombs, registering two hits. Navy planes then dropped seven 520-pound bombs, of which three were hits. The final attack, with fourteen 600-pound Army bombs, scoring two hits, resulted in sinking the vessel.
It would be fair to conclude, then, that attacks upon light cruisers should be with bombs of 500 pounds or heavier. Of the Navy bombs scoring hits, none of the 250-pound bombs detonated, and one of the 550-pound bombs failed. All Army bombs detonated.
NH 44010
NH 44015
NH 44012
NH 44017
NH 44026
The final dive. NH 44016
Frankfurt now rests in about 400 feet of water in the Southern Drill Grounds. 70 miles off the Virginia Capes, and has been extensively surveyed by NOAA.
