Category Archives: military art

Old School

Posted on by Leave a comment

I always love to see the old M-14 clocking in with the fleet. Sure, it is just shooting lines here, but work is work, baby. The steel-and-wood M-14 was officially replaced in service by the M-16 platform in 1967, but is still kicking by all means.

“Crimson Connection.” Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG-113) shoot a line during a replenishment with the fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lewis, May 13, 2026. The John Finn is deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations to support maritime security in the Middle East. U.S. Navy Photo 260513-D-D0477-9009.

The Pascagoula-built Finn, a Flight IIA Burke, entered the fleet in 2017 and is forward-deployed and assigned to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force.

The destroyer’s namesake, Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John W. Finn, would no doubt approve of the M-14. He earned his MoH the hardest of ways on 7 December 1941 when he ran to a VP-14 training stand at Kaneohe Bay and worked a water-cooled Browning during the attack on Pearl Harbor, remaining at his gun even after picking up wounds from strafing Japanese fighters, until ordered to seek medical attention.

Mighty T’s Hat Trick

Posted on by Leave a comment

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma crew members conduct interdiction operations in the Gulf of America, May 8, 2026. Tahoma’s crew, alongside a deployed Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron aircrew, stopped three suspected smuggling vessels carrying narcotics during a maritime patrol approximately 90 miles off Cartagena, Colombia. (U.S. Coast Guard photo 260508-G-G0107-1002)

The 270-foot Famous (Bear) class USCGC Tahoma (WMEC-908) recently stumbled upon three smuggler vessels off the coast of Colombia, and bagged same.

From PAO:

Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma’s crew simultaneously interdicted three suspected smuggling vessels carrying approximately 6,085 pounds of cocaine worth nearly $45.8 million, May 8, approximately 90 miles off Cartagena, Colombia. This seizure represents 2.3 million potentially lethal doses of cocaine that will not reach American streets.

Tahoma’s crew launched their two small boats and their deployed Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron aircrew, stopping all three vessels.

One vessel was non-compliant and required aerial use of force tactics, including precision sniper fire directed at the engines, to compel the vessel to stop, resulting in the suspected smugglers on the vessel jumping overboard. The aircrew released multiple personal flotation devices, and the people were rescued with no reported injuries. The other two vessels stopped when directed by Coast Guard crews.

Commissioned in 1988, the Mighty T is some 38 years young and is homeported in Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, under U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command.

She is one of just a handful of American warships still sporting the MK 75 OTO Melara 76mm gun and carries forward the legacy earned by the previous USCGC Tahoma (WPG-80) during World War II.

The Start of a Beautiful Chapter in Naval History

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 45 long years ago today.

First Lady Nancy Reagan christening the future USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) at Litton Ingalls’ West Bank Yard, Pascagoula, on Saturday, 16 May 1981. The lead ship of her class and the first warship designed to use the Aegis system from the keel up, was sponsored by Mrs. Reagan at a weekend event attended by approximately 9,000 people, including several former crewmen of the aircraft carrier to carry the same name. .

National Archives Identifier 6368659, Agency-Assigned Identifier DNSC8305355, Local Identifier 330-CFD-DN-SC-83-05355

She would commission 20 months later and give 21 years of hard service.

At 9,800 tons displacement and 567 feet overall length, she compared well to the Omaha-class light cruisers (9,500 tons, 555 feet oal) of 60 years prior, although with a much smaller crew and much more advanced armament and sensors unthought of in 1921.

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-10258

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-10257

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-09476

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-10255

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-09477

Tico was the first of the country’s final class of cruisers and, although she was decommissioned in 2004 and kept mothballed as a source of spare parts for 16 years before scrapping, seven of her Flight II sisters endure, with USS Lake Erie (CG-70) being the first U.S. Navy warship to successfully shoot down an in-orbit satellite on February 20, 2008.

Meanwhile, the Aegis system, as further installed on the Burke class DDGs that followed, is afloat in 78 hulls today, with another 21 on the schedule. Arguably, the most capable surface combatants afloat.

Not a bad legacy.

Albuera at 215

Posted on by Leave a comment

“The Flag, Albuera, 16 May 1811.” Painted by William Barns Wollen. In the collection of the British National Army Museum.

NAM Accession Number NAM. 2001-04-325-1

The scene depicts the destruction of Col. John Colborne’s British 1st Brigade (part of the 2nd Infantry Division) by the Polish Vistula Lancers, supported by the French 3rd Hussars (d’Hubert’s outfit), during the battle of Albuera in the Peninsula Campaign.

In particular, Wollen portrays the last stand of the 3rd (East Kent) Regiment of Foot (The Buffs).

The 1/3rd Foot entered the battle with 755 men and had only 112 men left standing at the end of the day, with at least 216 killed, a loss of some 85 percent.

As one says, “It was a bad day for the regiment.”

The four British regiments of Colborne’s brigade, the Buffs, 2nd/48th (Northamptonshire) Foot, 2nd/31st (Huntingdonshire) Foot, and 2nd/66th (Berkshire) Foot, were struck from the flank and rear, and were all but destroyed, with the 2/48th suffering 75 percent casualties, the 2nd/66th Regiment 62 percent, and the 2nd/31st 38 percent.

The Poles captured five British standards and five cannons from the KGL battery that day, in an action now all but forgotten.

In March 1961, after 389 years of service, the Buffs merged with The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form The Queen’s Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment. Then further amalgamated with The Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment, The Royal Sussex Regiment, and The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) in 1966 to form The Queen’s Regiment, which in turn was merged with The Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1996 to form The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (Queen’s and Royal Hampshires), the senior English line regiment of the British Army.

What a dream island (complete with 14 inch guns)

Posted on by Leave a comment

I present a design drawing from the Boston Navy Yard, circa 1917-18, taking dazzle camouflage to the next level.

Official caption: Battleship camouflaged as “an island.” Canvas screens, painted approximately, would be used, as in some foreign service.

National Archives Identifier 6997114.

The above, naturally (see what we did there), reminds us of the 4,000-ton WWII Finnish “lighthouse battleships” Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen, which often blended in with the Baltic littoral through the use of skrim and applied foliage, waiting for the chance to apply their 10-inch Bofors to passing Soviet shipping.

These ships camo’d well. Photo colorized by irootoko_jr http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/

Rhino Supremacy

Posted on by Leave a comment

How about this great overhead shot of a wartime super carrier showing the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) as she sails in the Arabian Sea with CVW-7 AG embarked, 3 May 2026.

US Navy 260503-N-DO477-1121

As you can tell, CVW-7 is Rhino-exclusive when it comes to fixed-wing combat aircraft, carried across five squadrons. This includes the Rampagers of VFA-83, the Jolly Rogers of VFA-103, the Wildcats of VFA-131, and the Gunslingers of VFA-105, all with FA-18E/F models. Added to this are the EA-18G Growlers flown by the Patriots of VAQ-140.

Bush’s AEW is provided by the Sunkings of VAW-116 (E-2C), her rotary wing is made up of the Night Dippers of HSC-5 (MH-60S) and the Griffins of HMS-46 (MH-60R), and she has a support det from the Mighty Bisons of VRM-40 (CMV-22B).

Commissioned 10 January 2009 as the 10th and final Nimitz class carrier, GHWB has always been a Rhino flattop, having her shakedown with CVW-1 off the coast of Virginia that May with three squadrons of FA-18E/F (VFA-11, VFA-136, and VFA-211) rounded out by det of the same type pushed by the Salty Dogs of VX-23 and a Marine F-18C unit (VMFA-251) and a Prowler det and HH-60/SH-60s.

She never knew the touch of the Tomcat, Vigilante, Viking, Crusader, Corsair, Intruder, Skywarrior, or Phantom as her older Cold War sisters did.

LIDAR giving a great look at old coastal forts

Posted on by 4 comments

Capable of holding an amazing 450 cannon in its massive six-sided, double-tiered walls (although never even halfway armed), Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas required 16 million bricks to complete over 15 years and is the largest masonry structure in the Americas.

There were 42 principal masonry forts and dozens of smaller batteries built as part of the U.S. “Third System” of coastal defense between 1816 and 1867 to protect major harbors.

You know many of them as they are preserved as state or NPS parks. Forts Gaines and Morgan in Mobile Bay. Pickens and Barrancas in Pensacola. Massachusetts on Ship Island. Trumbull and Griswold in New London. Pulaski and Jackson in Savannah. Taylor in Key West. A dozen nearly forgotten forts around New Orleans. And so on, and so on.

Constructed using millions of bricks and likely billions of manhours of hard labor, many have been reclaimed by nature, abandoned in the 20th Century as relics made obsolete by better naval guns, aircraft carriers, and missiles.

The folks at LIDAR have been giving us a peek at what remains under the kudzu, pines, and centipede grass at some of these lost fortifications.

This is just a treat for fort lovers like myself.

Lidar Fort McAllister near Savannah, Georgia

Lidar Fort Sherman—Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Lidar Fort Trenholm, SC

Lidar Fort Morgan — Baldwin County, Alabama

Lidar Fort Clinch — Amelia Island, Florida

Lidar Fort Gadsden, Florida

Keep it up, LIDAR!

Stingers!

Posted on by Leave a comment

What a great piece of maritime art!

Seen during a January 1946 visit by four RN aircraft carriers (the light carriers HMS Glory, along with sister Venerable, and along with the larger armored deck carriers Indefatigable and Implacable) to Melbourne, Australia, a yacht closes with the stern of one of the “I” class flattops, which is guarded by a four-pack of 20mm Oerlikons.

State Library Victoria H98.104/2508

Sisters Indefatigable (R10) and Implacable (R86) were laid down in 1939 as improved Illustrious class fleet carriers, but didn’t arrive in the fleet until well into 1944. This limited their European war to harassing Tirpitz in Norway until the call came to join the British Pacific Fleet for much more serious action.

Twin 33,000-ton armored carriers, Implacable and Indefatigable, Janes 1954

Post-war service was limited and, with planned angled-deck modernizations unfunded by a penny-pinching government, both sisters were sold for scrap within days of each other in late 1956.

Champ and her raiders

Posted on by Leave a comment

70 years ago.

A group of 19 Douglas AD Skyraiders forms the letters “LC” as they fly over their home, the recently recommissioned “Long Hull” Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) on 30 April 1956.

U.S. Navy photo from the USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) 1955-1956 cruise book

The aircraft are from  Carrier Air Group 6 (CVG-6), which accompanied “Champ” on a six-month Mediterranean deployment from October 1955 to April 1956, where she carried to AD units (VMA-324 and VA-25) along with a squadron of FJ-3 Fury (VF-33), another of F2H-3 Banshee (VF-62), and one of F9F-8 Cougars (VF-74).

Laid down in drydock by the Norfolk Navy Yard on the Ides of March 1943, the future CV-39 launched on 2 November 1944 and commissioned 3 June 1945, putting her just a skosh too late to the Big Show and had to spend the days immediately after WWII in Magic Carpet duties instead.

Retired to the “Mothball Fleet” by February 1947, Champ was recalled to active duty during Korea and was active off that peninsula with CVG-4 from 11 June to 27 July 1953, averaging 23 helicopter evolutions per day interspersed with as many as 147 combat sorties per day.

Following Korea, she was sent on a series of five different Med cruises and eight shorter Atlantic deployments, and joined in the naval quarantine of Cuba, but her biggest claim to fame was in supporting NASA by recovering Mercury 3 (5 May 1961), Gemini 3 (19 January 1965), and Gemini 5 (29 August 1965).

“Escorting Gemini V to USS Lake Champlain.” USS Dupont was the closest ship for the recovery of Gemini 5. Navy divers from the destroyer recovered the astronauts and transferred them via helicopter to USS Lake Champlain. Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Luis Llorente; 1965; Unframed Dimensions 30H X 22W Accession #: 88-162-CO

88-162-CT These sketches show the sequence of retrieving the command module – recovery by the UDT team, Gemini 5

Champ was decommissioned in May 1966 and subsequently scrapped in 1972. Although her keel had been laid 29 years prior, she had only spent about 17 of those on active duty.

Her ship’s motto, as befitting her name, was Excelsior.

Spitfire at 90

Posted on by Leave a comment

Sporting a pale blue-grey commonly called “French Grey” that was arrived at by adding blue pigment to a grey enamel base, Supermarine F.37/34 fighter prototype serial K5054 made its first flight on 5 March 1936 under the controls of test pilot Capt. Joseph “Mutt” Summers, CBE.

Prototype Spitfire K5054 Air Historical Branch-RAF MOD

After several minor tweaks and a new and improved prop, K5054 reached 348 mph in level flight in mid-May, then Summers flew K5054 to RAF Martlesham Heath and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) where it led to the Spitfire with the Air Ministry placing an inital order of 310 aircraft for roughly £9,500 a pop on 3 June 1936– while A&AEE was still working on its final report!

The first production Spitfire, K9787, rolled off the Woolston, Southampton assembly line in mid-1938, and ultimately 20,351 Spitfires were produced over the next 10 years in 24 main “Marks” (variants).

No less than 341 Allied pilots (including 16 Americans) gained “ace” status at the controls of a Spit during WWII.

Flight Lieutenant W.H. Pentland, of No. 417 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, awaiting start-up in his Supermarine Spitfire Mark VC (s/n BR195 ‘AN-T’) at Goubrine, Tunisia, in May 1943. Other aircraft of the squadron are lined up alongside. Royal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (F/O) IWM TR 861

The type remained, impressively, in front-line service until at least 1961, when it was retired by the Irish Air Corps at a time when jet fighters were entering their third generation.

The Imperial War Museum’s painstakingly built “99 percent accurate” circa 1993 flying replica of K5054 has been making rounds on a two-week tour of the country but has recently returned to Duxford, just in time to celebrate the Spitfire’s 90th birthday.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »