Warship Wednesday 22 April 2026: The Morning Star

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.

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Warship Wednesday 22 April 2026: The Morning Star

Photo via the Danish Naval Museum (Orlogsmuseet) Archives THM-6115

Above, we see the small protected (krydserenGejser (also variously known as Gisjer and Geyser) of the Royal Danish Navy in Copenhagen, with the historic St. Alban’s Church in the background.

The class leader of a new series of modern warships under the Dannebrog, she joined the fleet’s 1st Squadron (I Eskadre) some 130 years ago this month and would go on to perform a solid 30 years of enjoyable, even picturesque, service, punctuated by a moment of horror.

Danish cruisers

The first warship rated as a “cruiser” in Danish service was the 2,663-ton ram-bowed iron-hulled sail-rigged steam schooner cruiser (skonnert-krydseren) Fyen, which commissioned in 1884. She carried an impressive 16 5.9-inch Krupp guns (two 149/32 RK L/35 C/80s and 14 shorter 149/22 RK L/25 C/78s), along with two 356mm bow torpedo tubes, protected by 39mm of armor plate. Capable of 12.5 knots, she was swathed in a 1.5-inch armored steel deck.

Danish cruiser Fyen’s armor and gunnery plan, showing her impressive battery of 16 5.9″ Krupp guns and two torpedo tubes, which wasn’t bad for 1884

Danish cruiser Fyen photographed during the winter of 1885-86, likely during one of her early Mediterranean cruises. By 1907, replaced by newer and more modern ships, she was disarmed and immobilized, turned into a barracks/school hulk, a role she held until scrapping in 1962. NH 85361

Then came a quartet of old (built 1862-78) armored screw schooners/sloops: St. Thomas (1,550 tons) Dagmar (1,200 tons), Ingolf (1,019 tons) and Absalon (533 tons) which were modernized in 1885-88 with new powerplants and a main battery of 4.7″/27 RK L/30 C/84 Krupp guns, backed up by 87mm and 37mm QF guns, to be reclassed as 3rd rate cruisers (krydstogtskib 3. klasse), to remain in service as such for a decade.

The 228-foot Danish Orlogsskonnerten St. Thomas in white tropical paint with yellow stacks and masts, common for service in the Danish West Indies (the Virgin Islands), where she was a station ship during the Spanish-American War. She had been re-armed in 1885 with eight 4.7″27 Krupp breechloaders along with six 37mm Hotchkiss 1-pdrs and redesignated a cruiser corvette (krydserkorvet)

Then came the British-built 3,000-ton krydserkorvet (cruiser corvette) Valkyrien, a close cousin of the Armstrong-built Chilean protected cruiser Esmeralda. Entering service in 1890, she cruised the world and waved the Dannebrog as far away as Siam and Hong Kong, and is most notable for overseeing the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) to the U.S. in 1917.

Valkyrien, dansk krysser, krigsskip, Oslofjorden Norwegian archives HHB-15663

This brings us to the 1,322-ton Helka, which would be the first of three planned protected cruisers to replace the old, converted 3rd rates, which were nothing but a stopgap for new construction. Laid down as Yard No. 70 on 9 April 1889, at the Royal Dockyard Copenhagen (Orlogsværftet, København), Hekla had a sloping (1.75-inch to 1-inch) “turtle back” armor deck right, fore, and aft, protecting engines, magazines, steering engines, and shell hoists. Meanwhile, her open gun mounts were all protected by shields.

Danish cruiser Hekla Farenholt collection NH 66303

As noted in 1889’s (London) Engineer [notes mine].

The upper deck is clear fore and aft, leaving ample scope for firing the two 6-inch [149/32 RK C/88 Krupp Schnelladekanone Länge 35] guns, one of which is placed at each end of the ship. Amidships are four [57/40 M.1885] rapid firing guns and two torpedo [381mm] launching tubes. Above the deck houses are six machine guns [37mm M.1875 Hotchkiss 1-pounder Gatling types]. The bridge and a conning tower constructed of nickel steel armor plate are forward. A powerful electric search light is placed on the top of the conning tower and another at the stern of the ship. The Hekla is 225 feet long, her breadth being 33 feet, and of light draught. The engines have been supplied by the Burmeister and Wain Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Copenhagen.

Before she was even fully outfitted and commissioned, the guns on the old third-rate cruisers were evaluated on the new Hekla.

Danish protected cruiser Hekla photographed at Copenhagen dockyard, 1891, after trials of her cellulose protection in which a 4.7″ shell was fired at 30-35 m. distance by gunboat (3rd rate cruiser) Absalon. The dotted line indicates the bow wave. Searchlights and secondary armament are not in place. NH 85349

Same as above of Hekla, NH 85363

Proven satisfactory in terms of arms and armor, Hekla’s 8-pack of coal-fed locomotive boilers and twin VTEs generated 3,000 shp on twin screws, which was good for 16 knots. Her bunkers could hold 113 tons of coal, which was enough for 1,700nm at 10 knots.

The Danes thought they could tweak that powerplant to do better.

Meet Gejser

Named for the turbulent steam and water discharge common to Iceland (then a Danish territory), Gejser was based on Hekla and nearly identical above water save for the fact that she had a single funnel rather than Hekla’s twin pipe arrangement.

Ordered from Burmeister & Wain, the future Gejser launched on a beautiful summer day on 5 July 1892 with HM King Christian IX in attendance.

Gejser photographed at launch, 5 July 1892, at Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen. Note her forward 450mm torpedo tube in her ram bow, restraining cable, two old hulks (probably steam frigates Sjaelland and Jylland) in the background, and coast defense battleship Helgoland to the right. Local reports noted, “The beautiful weather had lured many spectators out to the naval yard to watch the launch, both ladies and gentlemen.” NH 85379

As completed, Gejser had roughly the same armament scheme as Hekla save smaller main guns (4.7″/38 QF L/40 C/92s) rather than Hekla’s 5.9s, while retaining the same four 3.45″/37 SK L/40 secondary guns, six 37mm Hotchkiss 1-pdr machine guns, and four torpedo tubes (one 450mm bow, two 381mm beam, one 381 over the stern).

She also had two 35-inch searchlights (Spejlprojektører) and two 8mm machine guns. It should be noted that, while our cruiser had smaller main guns than Hekla, Gejser’s guns could fire more than five rounds per minute compared to one round in Hekla, to a range of 9.2 km compared to 8 km for Hekla’s guns.

Danish Krydseren Gejser

Danish cruiser Gejser NH 85350

Danish cruiser Gejser NH 85354

Gejser had more significant changes from her half-sister when looking below deck, which included the first installation in an armored ship (not a torpedo boat) of eight Thornycroft water tube style boilers (instead of the locomotive boilers on Hekla), which enabled a combined SHP of 3,157 on her full power trial and a speed of 17.1 knots. Further, the smaller (and faster to heat) boilers and other minor changes shaved some 80 tons off Gejser’s displacement when compared to Hekla, even while allowing a gently strengthened armor scheme because of lessons learned from the latter’s 1891 trials.

Via the December 1892 edition of the Engineer (London):

The Danes liked the new Thornycroft boilers so well that they used them on the new “bathtub battleship” armored coastal defense ship Skjold, which was 2,160 tons and mounted 9.4-inch SK L/40 Krupp guns and had up to 10 inches of armor.

Gejser and Skjold in Aarhus THM-6470

The Danes also ordered a near carbon-copy of Gejser, the single-funneled Orlogsværftet-built cruiser Hejmdal (Heimdall), which launched in August 1894 and commissioned in 1895. Meanwhile, Hekla had her boilers upgraded to the new standard in a later refit.

The one-stacked Danish Gejser-class cruiser Hejmdal anchored in a harbor, probably in France, during the summer of 1910 when she was employed as a training ship for naval cadets. She spent much of her early service as the Icelandic station ship, patrolling those waters from March to October-November, then retiring to metropolitan Denmark for the winter. THM-16033

Danish Krydseren Gejser, Heimdal, Hekla, Janes 1904, with several errors. 

Quiet Peacetime service

Delivered on 8 May 1893, Gejser spent her first few years in the fleet in a series of extended tests, trials, and showboating, later steaming that fall on a Baltic cruise with the coastwise battlewagon Iver Hvitfeldt, the cruiser Valkyrien, and four torpedo boats.

Gejser, showing off her stern “stinger” torpedo tube. THM-3241

Then came a series of shipyard availabilities in 1894, followed by a mission to neighboring German waters in the summer of 1895 with her sister Hekla, and the torpedo boats Narhvalen, Støren, Søløven, and Havhesten to represent Denmark at the opening of the Kiel Canal. Seventy-six warships totaling 380,000 tons from 15 different nations anchored in the roadstead for this historic event.

The Danish ships were positioned in the international naval parade ahead of the German cruisers SMS Kaiserin Augusta and Gefion and behind the American USS Marblehead (Cruiser No. 11) and New York (Armored Cruiser No. 2), anchored just off the German Marine Akademie.

The squadron representing Denmark at the official opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal in Kiel in 1895. The ships, identified in verso of the frame, consist of modern war vessels: the torpedo boats “Nahrvalen” (launched 1888), the “Havhesten”, the light cruiser “Hekla” (launched 1890), the torpedo boat “Støren” (launched 1887), the light cruiser “Gejser” (launched 1892) and the “Søløven” by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.

Plan of the harbor, showing anchorages of warships present for ceremonies opening the Kiel Canal, June 1895. NH 89539

Fully operational, Gejser joined the 1st Squadron in 1896 and remained in the fleet’s first line until 1903. One of her skippers during this period was Prince Valdemar, a career naval officer who just happened to be the last son of King Christian IX of Denmark and brother to King George I of Greece and Frederick VIII of Denmark.

She was then tasked as a training ship (Øvelsesskib), home to the gunnery and torpedo school.

She would continue in this role, clocking in for regular Squadron exercises each fall, until November 1905, when she was used, along with the bruising coastal battleship Olfert Fischer, to escort the royal yacht (kongeskibet) Dannebrog to Oslo, the latter taking Prince Carl of Denmark to become the king of newly independent Norway upon the dissolution of that country’s near century-long union with Sweden.

The Danish Prince Carl sailing on his way to becoming King Haakon VII of Norway. The Dannebrog was escorted by the Danish coastal defense ship Olfert Fischer (to the right) and the small cruiser Geiser (behind O.F.). Painted by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.

Prince Carl and Princess Maud arriving in the Oslofjord as King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway in 1905. The royal yacht Dannebrog leads the column, escorted by the Danish naval ships Olfert Fischer and Geiser and joined by two Norwegian coastal defense ships. Painted by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.

After spending most of 1906 in refit (she had 10 years of squadron service behind her), Gejser shipped out with the Royal Division (Kongedelingen) alongside the Danish EAC steamer Birma (ex-Arundel Castle) to carry King Frederick VIII and the members of the Danish Parliament to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in the summer of 1907.

King Frederik VIII’s departure from Reykjavik, 1907. Frederik VIII visited Iceland in 1907 with a deputation of members of parliament. The picture depicts the king’s departure from Reykjavik on board EAC’s Birma. Cruiser Gejser following. Painted by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.

Gejser then returned to service as the training ship for the Artillery and Torpedo School (Artilleri- og Torpedoskolen), a stint interrupted by escorting Frederik on his visit to relatives in Russia (the Tsar was his first cousin) in the summer of 1909, with the Danish royal family gathering at the Tsar’s palace at Peterhof.

Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Queen Louise of Denmark, Victoria Battenberg, King Frederik, Tsar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga, Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Marie, Grand Duchess Anastasia, Princess Thyra of Denmark, and Princess Dagmar of Denmark in front of the Lower Dacha in Peterhof, July 1909.

During a circa 1910 refit, both Gejser and Hejmdal landed their half-dozen 37mm Hotchkiss guns in exchange for a quartet of more modern 57mm 6-pounder M.1885 Hotchkiss high-angle anti-aircraft (antiluftskytskanoner) guns. Meanwhile, older half-sister Hekla was transferred to the reserve and disarmed. Hekla was converted into a depot and logistics ship by 1913. Hejmdal returned to service as a cadet training vessel.

In ordinary from 1 October 1912 to 7 January 1914, Gejser was brought back into active service for use as a submarine tender, leaving the Valkyrien as the Danish Navy’s only active cruiser.

At the time, the Danish fleet had nine submarines: eight Whitehead (Fiume) diesel-electric types of 129 feet/200 tons and the older gasoline-engined Fiat-built 114-foot/130-ton Dykkeren.

War!

When the lights went out across Europe in August 1914, the Danish navy counted some 4,000 officers, men, and cadets. They protected not only the country’s coastline and overseas possessions (Iceland, Greenland, Faroes, West Indies), but also its merchant fleet, which at the time had some 558 registered steamers (398,323 tons all told) and over 3,400 sailing vessels of all sizes.

At its disposal were five coastal battleships (Peder Skram, Olfert Fischer, Herluf Trolle, Skjold, and Iver Hvitfeldt), three remaining cruisers (Gejser, Hejmdal, and Valkyrien) rushed back to front-line service, 20 assorted torpedo boats, the nine small submarines detailed above, and a handful of mine ships, gunboats, and “fisheries cruisers” (inspetionsskibe), with none of the latter larger than 700 tons.

With that, on 4 August 1914, the fleet was put on a war footing and, as the Security Force (Sikringsstyrken), was divided between the 1st Squadron in the Øresund in the North between Denmark and Sweden and the 2nd Squadron in the Great Belt (Storebælt) to the West between Zealand and Funen.

Gejser spent most of the war alternating between squadrons, with exceptions for a refit (from September to December 1916) and for brief stints as a training ship.

She even carried King Christian X from Copenhagen to Korsør in November 1915.

King Christian X onboard Danish cruiser Geiser in snow squall on the way to Korsor, 25 November 1915, with three torpedo boats following. By Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen

One of Gejser’s past skippers, CDR Rord Hammer, who commanded her from 1905-09, would lead the delegation carrying the bodies of the men killed aboard HM submarine E.13, which, after being grounded at Søndre Flindt, was fired upon by German torpedo boats on 19 August 1915.

Post-war tragedy

With peace, of a sort, falling over Europe, Gejser was moved back to her regular mission of summer cadet cruises and school ship duties, interspersed with training evolutions.

Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33595

Coal gang during Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33597

Cutlass drill during Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33598

Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33599

To the cutlass! Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33605

Gejser’s training cruise, 1919. THM-35518

Danish Krydseren Gejser 1921 Janes

A ship designed with naval thinking that predated the Spanish-American War, Gejser was well past her prime in the 1920s. Her typical service during this period was in summer exercises and maneuvers (May-July).

The worst day aboard Gejser came on 25 May 1923 when, during a demonstration of a new fog generating apparatus (Taageudviklingsapparater), an explosion occurred.

The device used “the devil’s element,” yellow phosphorus, held in a tank that, when fed via a steam line from the ship’s boilers, would yield great clouds of billowing smoke used to hide the cruiser and its accompanying force. Shown off to an assembled crowd of officers gathered from throughout the fleet, the novel device exploded with a shot like that of a cannon, and Gejser was enveloped in an extremely poisonous and flammable cloud of vaporized phosphorus, glowing like a morning star through the smoke.

No less than 47 men were extremely injured, including her skipper, Capt. Godfred Hansen, the famed second-in-command of Amundsen’s Gjoa expedition through the Northwest Passage in 1903-06.

Most of the commanders of the exercise squadron’s nine torpedo boats and three minelayers were also among the wounded. LCDR Paul C. Rützou, commander of the torpedo boat Delfinen, died at the Garrison Hospital in Vordingborg after an agonizing 16 days. Crown Prince Frederik (later King Frederik IX from 1947), then a junior officer, had only left Gejser moments before returning to his torpedo boat.

Many of the men suffered terrible disfigurement, with Sir Harold Delf Gillies, known as the father of plastic surgery in Britain, traveling to Denmark especially to treat them.

Gejser was repaired and returned to service. Notably, she conducted a series of cadet training cruises around the Baltic and Mediterranean in 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927. She also functioned as an escort ship in the Royal Division for King Christian X’s trip to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in 1926.

Danish cruiser Gejser 1926

Geyser in dry dock Naval Yard 1926 THM-7305

She was removed from the fleet’s list on 28 May 1928 and sold for her value in scrap.

Her sister Hejmdal was likewise disposed of in 1930.

Danish cruiser Hejmdal circa 1922 THM-8985

Their collective older half-sister Hekla, hulked in 1915, amazingly was only disposed of in 1955.

Epilogue

Little remains of our cruiser that I can locate, other than an abundance of maritime art.

Danish cruiser Gejser, by Vilhelm Arnesen, showing off her bow torpedo tube

As Iceland gained sovereignty as a separate kingdom under the Danish crown in 1918, and then moved toward complete independence in 1944, Denmark had little impetus to name another warship after geysers.

When it comes to Gejser’s former skippers, Emmanuel Briand de Crevecoeur (as headmaster of the artillery school in 1923 and then as her commanding officer proper from 1926-27), was a rear admiral holding the tough dual seats of Chief of the Naval Command and Acting Director of the Ministry of the Navy in 1940 after the Germans occupied Denmark, assuming the spots vacated by RADM Hjalmar Rechnitzer, who had resigned in disgrace. Later interned by the Germans, De Crevecoeur retired after liberation in 1945, wrapping up a career that he began as a cadet in 1898. Spending his retirement as a professor of languages at Krogerup College, he passed away in 1968.

Perhaps the best-known of Gejser’s skippers, the polar explorer Hansen, recovered from his wounds and held several further seagoing commands before becoming commandant of the Danish naval academy. He passed in 1937, aged 61, while still a rear admiral on the naval rolls.

However, the legacy of Gejser’s 1923 explosion echoed well into the 1950s.

One of Gejser’s junior officers, 1Lt Kai Hammerich, was so debilitated in the blast that he was under medical treatment in both Denmark and England for several years thereafter. Later transferring to the country’s lighthouse service, he soon became active in the Danish Red Cross and, as head of the organization in 1950, took command of the 356-bed Danish hospital ship MS Jutlandia during the Korean War. Serving for 999 days during the conflict, Jutlandia cared for 4,981 gravely wounded soldiers from 24 different nations, as well as over 6,000 Korean civilians.

Royal Danish Navy Reserve Capt. Kai Hammerich aboard MS Jutlana during the Korean War, one of Gejser’s most prominent veterans. Hammerich was awarded a South Korea’s Order of Merit (대한민국장), the country’s highest honor, in March 1952 UN Photo 7667766

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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The Return of SHORAD

An AIM-92 Stinger missile is fired down-range from the US Army’s new Interceptor launch platform at the Eglin Air Force Base range on March 23. The 96th Test Wing hosted the Army’s Stinger-Based Systems and Raytheon for two days to demonstrate the new launch platform’s capabilities. The interceptor can hold up to four missiles and can be mounted and launched from a variety of ground vehicles.(Photo: Samuel King Jr./US Air Force)

Via the Army University Press, this great 31-minute film covers the return of Short Range Air Defense, a doctrine and skill set thought all but dead after 1991, but now more important than ever.

It starts with some great Cold War footage of the old-school Vulcan Air Defense System (VADS) and M48 Chaparral system, then advances through Stingers, Avengers, C-RAMs, and current initiatives like Sgt Stout.

It’s good stuff!

Those wacky Ethiopian Type 68 AKs are here

RTI, which has been bringing in the massive larder that has been Ethiopia’s accumulated military surplus going back to the 1940s, is now landing Ethiopian GAEC Gafat-1 pattern AK parts kits.

Ethiopian GAFAT-1 rifle from ConflictID (https://conflictid.c4ads.org/weapons)

My friend Vladimir Onokoy, probably the world’s foremost AK expert, wrote about these in TFB late last month, noting field experience with GAFAT guns in Somalia.

Ethiopian AKs are certainly not the best Kalashnikov rifles out there. But they do have a unique and fascinating history, and I am sure the gunsmiths in the US will do a better job putting them together than Ethiopian factory workers. So I am kinda excited that parts that I never expected to see outside of Africa will be available at the US civilian market.

According to RTI, “Ethiopian-produced ET-97 AK Parts Kits available now! These rifles were produced by the Gafat Armament Engineering Complex based upon the North Korean Type 68 rifle and further updated with some features similar to an AK-103.”

They are 7.62×39 and accept common AK-pattern mags, but have an AK-74 muzzle device, AM-72 style stocks, and two bayonet lugs.

These guns are riveted differently from just about anything else, and have seriously odd trunnions and sights.

More from RTI, below:

The Hun in Southeast Asia: 65 Years in the Rearview

A U.S. Air Force North American F-100D-85-NH Super Sabre aircraft (s/n 56-3415) fires a salvo of 2.75-inch rockets against an enemy position in South Vietnam in 1967. This aircraft was lost with its pilot, 1Lt Clive Jeffs, after an engine failure near Nha Trang on 12 March 1971. VIRIN: DF-SN-82-00883

The North American F-100 Super Sabre, remembered simply as “The Hun,” had the distinction of being the longest-serving American jet fighter-bomber to fight in the Vietnam War. The first six F-100s were deployed from Clark Air Base in the Philippines to Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base on 16 April 1961, some 75 years ago this week.

F-100 flying low over Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam, in 1969, providing close air support

F-100F Super Sabre 56-3923 90th TFS 3rd TFW Bien Hoa Vietnam 1968ish

The type was only withdrawn from the country in 1971, after serving as the first Wild Weasel SEAD aircraft and serving on “Misty” FAC missions.

A staggering 242 F-100s of various models were lost in Vietnam over its decade “in country.” While none of those were to PVAF fighters, 186 were downed by assorted anti-aircraft fire, seven destroyed in Vietcong sapper attacks on airbases, and 45 lost in operational incidents.

Notably, F-100s fought the USAF’s first air-to-air jet combat duel in the Vietnam War, with the 416th TFS’s “Green 2” Capt. Donald W. Kilgus, downing an enemy MiG-17 via cannon fire in a pursuing dive on 4 April 1965 while some 76 miles from Hanoi.

The thing is, though Kilgus painted a MiG kill marking beneath the windscreen of his Hun and another on the F-105G Wild Weasel that he flew later in the war, he was never given official credit for the kill, although even the Vietnamese say it happened.

Captain Donald Kilgus in his F-100D Super Sabre, 55-2894, named Kay Lynne.

An interesting factor about the F-100’s service in Vietnam was that four Air National Guard squadrons were activated in 1968 and deployed overseas to see combat, a rare use of the Guard during the war.

  • 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Colorado ANG (Deployed April 1968)
  • 174th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Iowa (May 1968)
  • 188th Tactical Fighter Squadron, New Mexico (May 1968)
  • 136th Tactical Fighter Squadron, New York (June 1968)

Two other outfits, the 119th TFS of New Jersey and the 121st TFS of the District of Columbia, provided so many volunteers to the active-component’s 355th Tactical Fighter Wing that it was referred to as the “fifth Air Guard squadron” in Vietnam.

“Scramble at Phan Rang” By William S. Phillips shows pilots of Colorado’s 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron running to get their F-100 Super Sabre aircraft airborne during an enemy rocket attack. The 120th became the first Air Guard unit to arrive in Vietnam, less than four months after mobilization. Flying F-100C Super Sabre aircraft it, like the other three mobilized Air Guard units to serve in Vietnam, will primarily conduct low-level ground support missions in coordination with American and South Vietnamese units operating in South Vietnam. These include precision bombing plus machine gun and rocket attacks on enemy emplacements and troop concentrations. The 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron entered combat on 5 May 1968, two days after its arrival, and completed its 1,000th mission 51 days later.

Tuy Hoa F-100C from 188th TFS, NMANG, Albuquerque, NM

During the Air Guard’s 11 months of service in Vietnam, the four deployed F-100 squadrons flew 24,124 combat sorties and accumulated 38,614 combat flying hours.

The last F-100s, operated by the ANG’s 114th TFG (South Dakota) and the 185th TFG (Iowa) were retired in 1977.

One of the two Huns in the collection of the National Museum of the Air Force wears Vietnam camo and for good reason. F-100F (s/n 56-3837) was a Misty FAC aircraft assigned to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phu Cat Air Base, Vietnam.

Marking the passing of Brigade 2506 including Baker, Gray, Ray, and Shamburger

Today marks the end of the attempted liberation of Cuba by Brigade 2506 (Brigada Asalto 2506), which landed at the island’s Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on 17 April 1961 and, surrounded and cut off, laid down their arms on 20 April, some 65 years ago.

Special Demolition Frogman, Brigade 2506, Cuban Bay of Pigs, by Stephen Walsh, Paratrooper from 1st Bn, and a Brigadista with a MP40

Brigade 2506, Cuban Bay of Pigs, Stephen Walsh

The brigade, 177 airborne paratroops and 1,297 landed seaborne, fought valiantly but, facing upward of 25,000 Cuban troops backed by militia and police, never stood a realistic chance, especially once the Cubans controlled the air over the beachhead.

An estimated 114 drowned or were killed in action, and 1,183 were captured, “tried” before a kangaroo court, and imprisoned.

Exile groups in the U.S. raised $53 million worth of food and medicine in ransom to exchange for the release and repatriation of Brigade prisoners to Miami starting on 23 December 1962.

Four Americans, Capt. Thomas Willard “Pete” Ray, TSgt. Leo Francis Baker, Major Riley W. Shamburger, and TSgt. Wade C. Gray was killed when their Brigade 2506-marked B-26s were shot down over the beachhead. The CIA had recruited all through the Alabama Air National Guard and posthumously earned the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.

A new museum of the Brigade 2506 Association just opened in Miami.

The Southern Museum of Flight, joined by the 117th Air Refueling Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard, will assemble in Birmingham on 21 April in solemn remembrance to honor four Alabamians who paid the ultimate price.

And so we remember…

In Coast Guard News…

In honor of 4/20 (haha), this seemed appropriate.

Just catching folks up on the operations of the country’s most unsung maritime force.

How about this cutter task group steaming in the Florida Straits, 23 March 2026. They include the 1960s-vintage 210-foot Reliance class cutters Vigorous (WMEC 627), left, and Resolute (WMEC 620), right, with the center being held by two much newer 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class FRCs Raymond Evans (WPC 1110), center-forward, and William Flores (WPC 1103), center-rear.

It is a decent little OPV SAG, with 200~ assorted Coasties embarked and spots for two MH-65 Dolphin helicopters (and/or assorted UAVs), four RIBs (two 26-foot OTH-IVs and two 19-footers), making it capable of some serious littoral interdiction.

If things get kinetic, they have four (two stabilized Mod 2 and two older Mod 0) Mk 38 25mm mounts and 16 crew-served .50-cals to fall back on, plus well-stocked small arms lockers for their boarding teams.

Of note, Vigorous, seen above, just returned to her home port in Virginia Beach last week following a 26-day patrol.

Busy Tampa

Speaking of returning from patrol, the 270-foot Famous (Bear) class cutter USCGC Tampa (WMEC 902) just offloaded “enough cocaine to kill more than 1.4 million Americans” in Miami after two interdictions in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean through Operation Pacific Viper on a 74-day patrol.

Note that she is one of the last cutters with a Mk 75 76mm OTO. Her sisters are getting them replaced with a Mk 38 Mod 2 25mm (!) during refits

Typical of such patrols, Tampa had a HITRON helicopter detachment aboard, who surgically riddled several go-fast outboards with .50 cal rounds from afar.

They brought back the engine covers for trophies:

Coast Guard Cutter Tampa’s (WMEC 902) crew poses for a group photo during a drug offload at U.S. Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida, April 16, 2026. Tampa’s crew offloaded nearly $28.7 million in illicit narcotics interdicted in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Reese Hindmarsh)

Bertholf returns after 80 days

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) departs the San Francisco Bay on Jan. 21, 2026. Bertholf departed for a deployment to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Courtesy photo) 260121-G-G0200-1001

Likewise, the class-leading 418-foot Legend-class USCGC Bertholf (WMSL 750) just returned to her Alameda homeport after an 80-day counter-narcotics deployment to the Eastern Pacific.

Bertholf departed Alameda on Jan. 21 to support Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean, but prior to transiting the Panama Canal, the cutter was retasked to remain in the Pacific theater, shifting focus to counter drug trafficking and transnational criminal threats on the high seas in support of Operation Pacific Viper.

Bertholf traveled nearly 20,000 nautical miles during the deployment, crossing the equator multiple times while patrolling maritime smuggling routes from Central and South America. The cutter conducted 24 approaches or boardings of suspected drug trafficking vessels and responded to two search and rescue cases, including a vessel fire near Costa Rica.

Bertholf’s crew conducted more than 180 flight operations with helicopter aircrews from Air Station San Francisco, Air Station Ventura, and Air Station San Diego, refining proficiency in shipboard landings, in-flight refueling, and vertical replenishment. The crew completed more than 120 hours of small boat training, strengthening the capabilities of law enforcement teams and cutter boat pursuit crews. Additionally, Bertholf executed two live-fire gunnery exercises, employing minor caliber weapons as well as major weapon systems including the 57 mm and the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System.

In other news, the service just announced it intends to homeport the first two (of up to 11) new Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska, a change from basing polar vessels in Seattle.

How about an NFA compliant 18 inch PDW with a Honey Badger Brace?

Featuring a 5.5-inch barrel, Colt-pattern 32-round magazines, and an SB Tactical HB brace on a three-position receiver extension, the new Saint Victor PDW from Springfield Armory is maneuverable and uncompromising.

Springfield introduced its first 9mm blowback-action Saint Victor model AR in late 2022, featuring a Melonite-coated 16-inch CMV barrel with a 1:10-inch twist, ambidextrous safety, nickel-boron-coated flat trigger, and a standard GI-style charging handle. In a departure from the widespread use of Glock double-stack mags for 9mm PCCs, the Victor carbine accepted 32-round Colt SMG stick mags, which are widely available. We’ve evaluated these carbines in the past and found them to deliver on the range.

Since then, the stick-magged 9mm PCC proved popular, with Springfield responding to customer feedback by delivering more compact models, including an 8.5-inch and a 5.5-inch pistol outfitted with an SB Tactical SB-A3 stabilizing brace. The 5.5 incher, in particular, taped out between 20 and 22.5 inches due to the adjustable receiver extension.

Going even more compact, the new Saint Victor 9mm PDW sticks with the 5.5-inch barrel, while its SB Tactical HBPDW brace, paired with a short buffer system, shrinks the overall length to 18.5 inches and feels much more solid.

And that brings us to this:

The new Saint Victor 9mm PDW uses forged 7075 T6 aluminum, Type III hardcoat anodized receivers finished in a low-glare Tungsten Gray Cerakote. 
With its HBPDW brace collapsing into its shortest format, the pistol is 18.5 inches long while still offering a 23.5-inch extended length. Like the rest of its family, it runs Colt-pattern 32-round stick mags.

Sporting probably the best brace I’ve felt and using a common ($30) double-stack steel mag that gives it a very SMG vibe, this new AR-9 from Springfield knocks it out of the park and fits in just about any bag big enough to hold a laptop.

We found the Victor PDW to fit easily in a 5.11 LVC12 Backpack. The bag is small enough (19″ H x 11″ W x 7.5″ D) to be discreet with a clean, urban profile, and still has lots of extra storage available besides the pistol and extra mags.

If you want a solid and utterly dependable 9mm PDW platform that can live in just about any bag that stands 19 inches high, this is it. The tolerances are tight. It is well thought out. It has a vibe.

About the worst you can say is that it is hefty by comparison, about a half pound heavier than a Kuna, which has a softer recoil and is a little cheaper. Plus, when you first load those Colt pattern sticks, take your pre-workout because you have to work on it to get to 32. After a while, they break in, but you have to climb that hill first.

Still, if you are looking for an AR-9 platform that can fit in almost any bag, here you go.

the new Springfield Saint Victor PDW
The MSRP on the new Springfield Saint Victor PDW is $1,399

Glock Generational Differences

My bud (and podcast partner) Alexander went through the GDC Vault at work, pulled all seven generations (G1-6, plus V, minus the 4.5s), and compared them in a great piece on the site. I just couldn’t pass up the chance to repeat the profile pictures here for those of you guys who may be interested.

As you can tell, the Glock over the past 40 years has basically retained the same profile and manual of arms while showcasing a variety of minor internal tweaks and lots of gentle ergonomic improvements, the latter evolutionarily sculpting away at the pistol’s inherent blockiness.

Each in turn:

Glock Gen 1

Glock Gen 2

Glock Gen 3

Glock Gen 4

Glock Gen 5

Glock Gen V

Glock Gen 6

The article here.

Nothing More Stirring than a Super Delta

The Thunderbirds took a slight detour on their way to SUN ‘n FUN from Panama City to link up with the Blue Angels over the Emerald Coast.

Offical caption: The U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (NFDS) – the Blue Angels – and the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron (USAFADS) – The Thunderbirds – took part in a rare formation flyover of Pensacola Beach April 14. The Super Delta formation, a much anticipated event, stems from joint training opportunities held in 2020 and 2021 and serves as a show of both teams’ discipline and skill.

Photo by Bruce Cummins VIRIN: 260414-N-GO179-9001

The image also shows the big difference in size between the Birds’ 10-ton F-16C/D Vipers they have been flying since 1992 and the Blues’ more recently acquired (2021) F-18E/F Rhinos, which run 16 tons empty.

Have a great weekend, guys!

Guppy foursome

Some 60 years ago this week.

Subron-21’s GUPPY IIIs, complete with high “North Atlantic” sails, motor by in a tight formation on 18 April 1966.

USS Clamagore (SS-343) is in front, with USS Corporal (SS-346) on Clamagore’s port side, USS Cobbler (SS-344) on Clamagore’s starboard side, and USS Blenny (SS-324) bringing up the rear.

All four submarines were part of the Balao-class, and all were commissioned into the U.S. Navy in the final two years of WWII, although only Blenny arrived in time to make war patrols that earned battle stars (four) before VJ-Day.

In formation on 18 April 1966. The boats seen are: USS BLENNY (SS-324), CLAMAGORE (SS-343), COBBLER (SS-344), and CORPORAL (SS-346)

Formation on 18 April 1966. The boats seen are: USS BLENNY (SS-324), CLAMAGORE (SS-343), COBBLER (SS-344), and CORPORAL (SS-346)

Of the quartet, Clamagore survived the longest, retired in 1980, and was scrapped in 2022 after four decades of slowly wasting away as a museum ship in Charleston.

Blenny, the WWII combat vet, decommissioned in 1973, was scuttled off Ocean City, Maryland, on 7 June 1989.

Cobbler, which transferred to Turkey in 1973, was renamed TCG Çanakkale (S 341) and somehow served until 1998.

Corporal also transferred to Turkey in 1974 and commissioned TCG Ikinci İnönü (S333), serving until 1996.

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