The 7th Staffel of Adolf Galland’s famed Jagdgeschwader 26 (JG 26) “Schlageter,” fresh off the Lowlands and France campaigns and the drawn-out aerial combat against the RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, was sent south to warm the skins of their Messerschmitts along the assorted shores of the Mediterranean some 85 years ago this month.
This left Oberleutnant Joachim “Jochen” Müncheberg (at the time with 23 confirmed aerial victories), with his unit on a well-earned skiing vacation in the Austrian Alps, suddenly ordered off the slopes and rushed to Sicily with his pilots and ground crews (sans planes) to assist in the attempted reduction of stubborn Malta.
The squadron never got another vacation.
Arriving at Gela on 9 February, they received their factory-new Bf 109 “Emil” E-7/Ns, and by the 12th, Müncheberg tallied his 24th victory, a RAF No. 261 Squadron Hurricane flown by Flt. Lt. James MacLachlan (who bailed out, wounded), over Malta.
Messerschmitt Bf 109E4 7.JG26 White 1 Joachim Muncheberg transit flight Sicily, Feb 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E3 7.JG26 White 4 line up Gela Sicily March 1941-01
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7 7.JG26 White 7
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7 7.JG26 White 9 Gela Sicily 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 Gela Sicily April 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 White 12 Joachim Muncheberg WNr 3826 Gela Sicily 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 White 1 Munchenberg Gela Sicily Feb 1941
7./JG 26 would continue its rampage across the theater, relocating to Grottaglie airfield near Taranto for the Yugoslav/Greece campaign in April, shifting to airfields in Greece (Molaoi) for the Crete campaign in May, then to join Fliegerführer Afrika where they operated from Libya (Ain el Gazala) until, with only a couple of planes left, were recalled to France in late August 1941, where they received newer Bf 109 F-4s.
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 Gela Sicily
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 Gela Sicily 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E4 7.JG26 White 3 Ernst Laube Gela Sicily May 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7 7.JG26 armorers 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7N 7.JG26 White 11 Theo Lindemann WNr 4139-Gazala 21st Aug 1941. Note the flare cartridges around his legs.
By the time they did, Müncheberg’s tally had grown to 49 while 7./JG 26 claimed 52 enemy aircraft during their time in the Med without a single pilot lost to the Allies.
While 7/JG 26 never saw the sands of North Africa again, Müncheberg would return there as a Major in command of JG 77 in October 1942– by which time he had over 100 “kills” after Eastern Front service.
In the desert, he met his fate at the hands of Capt. Theodore Reilly Sweetland, USAAF, who reportedly rammed his flaming British-made 2nd FS/52nd FG Spitfire into the German uber-ace’s Bf 109 G-6 during a dogfight over Meknassy, French Tunisia, on 23 March 1943.
The Pomeranian-born Müncheberg, aged 24, is buried at the German cemetery at Bordj-Cedria, Tunisia, and was credited with 135 victories, while the Oakland-born Sweetland was just three months shy of his own 24th birthday. The American is still listed MIA, memorialized at Tablets of the Missing North Africa American Cemetery Carthage, and earned a posthumous Silver Star among other decorations.
In a bit of dark irony, RAF Squadron Leader James Archibald Findlay MacLachlan DSO, DFC & Two Bars, who had lost his arm to Müncheberg over Malta in February 1941, would perish in Pont-l’Évêque, German-occupied France, also aged 24, on 31 July 1943, just three months after Müncheberg and Sweetland’s mid-air inferno. “One-Armed Mac” at the time had 16 claimed victories, a triple ace, and had been shot down over France while piloting his American-made ADFU Mustang, then passed 13 days later at a German field hospital in Normandy.
A burial service was held in late November in Italy for an unknown WWII soldier. A bearer party from the Gurkha ARRC Support Battalion carried him, in the rain, to his final resting place at CWGC Cemetery Arezzo.
The casualty was found in a shallow trench within a forest in Alpe di Catenaia near the town of Subbiano, Italy. Research undertaken by JCCC with help from The National Army Museum established that the soldier was most probably involved in action taking place at the beginning of August 1944 and serving with 20th Brigade of the 10th Indian Infantry Division, which included Gurkha units, notably the 2nd Bn/3rd (Queen Alexandria’s Own) Gurkha Rifles.
According to the NAM, during WWII, more than 110,000 men served in 40 Gurkha battalions in the Western Desert, Italy, Greece, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma. Nearly 30,000 of them were killed or wounded.
Following the capture of Sicily in late summer 1943, the Allies slowly moved up the leg of Italy to penetrate the Gothic line – the Germans’ last line of defense. The Gurkhas and Indian soldiers who served in the 10th Indian Division were involved in every major offensive and played a significant role in Italy. Their stamina, strength, and ability to fight in difficult terrains made them ideal for this offensive.
This soldier can only have served with a handful of units, but the sheer number of casualties testifies to the ferocity of the fighting, making identification impossible. It is believed this casualty was most probably an Indian or Gurkha soldier.
The service was conducted by Reverend Timothy Watts CF, the bearer party was led by Warrant Officer Class One Yogendra Pratap Singh Thakuri, and the musician was Lance Corporal Amar Magar, The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Readings were delivered by Colonel Erica Bridge, Captain Tej Bahadur Gurung, Rifleman Deepen Gurung, and Sapr Munfin Eakten.
Photos courtesy of Sgt S Terry, HQ Public Affairs Office, Crown Copyright
While the old 3rd Gurkha Rifles have been part of the Indian Army since 1947, the current Brigade of Gurkhas in the British Army boasts a strength of some 4,000 soldiers.
Littoral Combat Ship 31, the future USS Cleveland, was delivered to the Navy on 26 November from Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, closing out the line.
While all 19 of the more successful Indianapolis-class variants have been delivered and commissioned (albeit with two early hulls laid up), and are increasingly being used in a minesweeper role, the 16 Freedom-class variants, of which Cleveland is the final hull, have been much less successful, and five of her sisters have already been retired.
Clevelandlaunched in April 2023 and has spent the past 31 monthsfitting out. By comparison, the last Indy, USS Pierre (LCS-38), only needed 14 months between christening (18 May 2024) and delivery (11 July 2025). Pierre’s entire construction period, from keel laying to commissioning, spanned 29 months.
Following commissioning in Cleveland, Ohio, in early 2026, LCS 31 will be homeported in Mayport, Florida, with her 10 active sisters.
When commissioned, LCS-31 will be the fourth U.S. Navy vessel named for the Ohio city after two cruisers (C-19/CL-21 and CL-55), which served in WWI and WWII, respectively, and LPD-7, a Cold War era amphibious transport dock commissioned in 1967 and disposed of in a 2024 SINKEX.
Fincantieri, meanwhile, is continuing to work on the first (and last) two hopelessly behind Constellation class frigates, while the other four on contract will be canceled.
The Navy has agreed to take the blame for the program’s mismanagement, even going so far as to indemnify Fincantieri while the shipyard “is expected to receive new orders to deliver classes of vessels in segments that best serve the immediate interests of the nation and the renaissance of U.S. shipbuilding, such as amphibious, icebreaking, and other special missions.”
Wow.
Buy ROK FFGs?
Perhaps we should just order some frigates off the shelf from Korea, where the third Chungnam-class (FFX) Batch-III frigate, the future ROKS Jeonnam (FFG-831), was launched at SK Ocean Plant in Goseong, Gyeongnam, on 25 November.
Small, 3,600-ton (4,300 full load) ships that run 423 feet oal, they run a CODAG setup that allows a 30 knot speed and 8,000nm range at 16 knots– ideal for convoy and patrol work. They run a phased-array four-sided AESA radar/IRST mast, carry a 5″/62 MK45 gun, have a VLS (64 K-SAAM, 8 land attack) system, all the ASW goodies (hull-mounted active sonar, towed passive, VLA, 324mm tubes), a hangar for an embarked helicopter, and a CIWS.
Why can’t we have nice things?
Jeonnam’s sister, the ROKS Gyeoungbuk (FFG-829), gives a better view of the class. If we could just whistle up 40 of these. Bulk contract. Single source. Roll it!
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Warship Wednesday 26 November 2025: A Sad Affray
Above we see HM Submarine Affray (P421).
One of a class of 16 British A (Amphion/Acheron) class boats designed for use in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan in the latter stages of WWII, she commissioned 80 years ago this week and, while she did not get to fire a torpedo in anger against the Imperial Japanese Navy, Affray did go on to leave a tragic mark on naval history.
The A-class boats
By 1943, the writing was on the wall at the Admiralty that the naval war would soon shift to the Pacific and would be very different than that in the European theatre. Whereas small subs were ideal for work in the cramped English Channel, North Sea, and Mediterranean, larger hulls, more akin to American “fleet boats,” would be needed for far-ranging Pacific service.
The answer was the A-class boats, Britain’s only full-sized subs designed during WWII, which offered faster surface speeds, improved habitability under tropical conditions (they were the first RN boats to have air conditioning), and a double-hull structure. They used all-welded pressure hulls and welded fuel tanks inside, with ballast tanks adapted for extra diesel storage. With their 280-foot length, they were only a little shorter than the typical 311-footers seen in U.S. service while still being much larger than the Royal Navy’s preceding 204-foot “Long hull” V-class submarines of the 1941–42 Programme. Even the RN’s vaunted T-class only ran 276 feet oal.
By comparison, the A boats could make 18.5 knots on the surface (with a 10,500nm range at 11) as compared to the 15.5 knots (8,000nm @ 10) of the T-class, and downright pokey 11.25 knots (3,000nm @ 9) of the V-class. The operating diving depth of the A-class was 350 feet (max 600), versus 300 on the riveted V and T classes.
The As were also heavily armed with 10 21-inch tubes: six at the bow (two external) and four (two external) at the stern. Besides the 10 loaded tubes, they could cram another 10 Mark VIII fish inside the pressure hull for reloads, although typically just six were carried. Instead of torpedoes, 18 1,700-pound Mark II/Type G ground mines could be carried and deployed. Deck guns included a QF 4″/40 Mk XXII in the sail, a 20mm Oerlikon, and up to three .303 Vickers guns. Sensors included a Type 267W air warning radar, which could function at periscope depth, as well as Types 138 and 152 sonars.
The 1943 Programme called for the construction of 46 Type A boats built across six yards: Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness; Cammell Laird, Birkenhead; Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock; Chatham Dockyard, Plymouth Dockyard, and Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker-on-Tyne.
Only two of the 46, the Barrow-built HMS Amphion (P439) and HMS Astute (P447), were commissioned before the end of hostilities, in March and June 1945, respectively. Even at that, they never arrived in the Far East in time to conduct a war patrol, spending their wartime career in workup and tests.
The 14 sister boats– Acheron, Aeneas, Alaric, Alcide, Alderney, Alliance, Ambush, Anchorite, Andrew, Artemis, Artful, Auriga, Aurochs, and our Affray— were completed between late 1945 and April 1948.
HMS Alliance on sea trials, August 1946, off Barrow. Ref: CRTY 2017/139/776/1.
British Amphion-class submarine HMS Alcide (P415). Note her sail-mounted 4″/40 gun and original WWII profile. The photo was taken in 1947 at Plymouth Sound
Two more, the would-be Ace (P414) and Achates (P433), were not fitted out but, launched and afloat, were in turn converted into target boats.
The order for the remaining 28 units (Adept, Andromache, Answer, Antagonist, Antaeus, ANZAC, Aphrodite, Admirable, Approach, Arcadian, Ardent, Argosy, Atlantis, Agile, Asperity, Austere, Aggressor, Agate, Abelard, Acasta, Alcestis, Aladdin, Aztec, Adversary, Asgard, Awake, Astarte, and Assurance) was cancelled.
A-class submarines, 1946 Janes
Meet Affray
Our subject was laid down at the Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead on 16 January 1944, launched on 12 April of that year.
The future HM Submarine Affray after launching at the Cammel Laird ship yard, Birkenhead, 1944 LT CH Parnall, photographer. IWM A28195
Affray commissioned on 25 November 1945, and her first skipper was LCDR Ernest John Donaldson Turner DSO, DSC, RN, a submarine service steely regular who had commanded HMS Sibyl (P 217) for 17 war patrols in 1943-44 and had earned his DSO earlier in the war as XO of HMS L 23 (N 23).
Only two of Affray’s Cammell-built sisters, Aeneas and Alaric, would be completed.
Cold War service
Designed for the Pacific, Affray soon left to join the 4th Submarine Flotilla in Hong Kong, centered around the tender HMS Adamant (A164), and with her four sisters, HMS Amphion, Astute, Auriga, and Aurochs, replacing eight T-class boats that Adamant had been supporting since 1945.
By 1949, Affray and, along with the rest of her class, had received a 60-foot “Snort” device, based on captured late-war German snorkel designs, during regular overhauls back home.
HM Submarine Affray (P421), after her 1949 refit. Note the 4″/40 on her fairwater had been deleted, and she has a forward torpedo tube open.
The device overall proved successful. On 9 October 1947, Alliance dived off the Canary Islands to commence a 30-day “snort cruise,” covering 3,193 miles to Freetown, all while submerged. Andrew later made a 2,500nm run from Bermuda to the English Channel in 15 days.
Previously, British submarines could only spend a maximum of 48 hours submerged, and that was largely stationary.
.A class submarine HMS Aeneas off Gosport, circa late 1940s/early 1950s, sans 4″/40 and with her “Snort” fitted
However, Affray’s Snort reportedly leaked “like a sieve” during dives in the Med, and by January 195,1 the hard-used boat had been placed in reserve at Portsmouth, with the globe-trotter having logged more than 51,000nm in just her first five years of service.
It would be a multi-day operation including “a war patrol, dummy attacks on shipping, combining with mock hostile aircraft attacks, Marine Commandos to be landed by cockle-type canoes for a simulated sabotage and enemy observation exercise, then re-embark.”
Instead of her regular crew, she had to land all but 24 experienced members while the boat was crowded with 24 ratings drawn from a new submarine class, a team of four Royal Marine Commando canoeists, and 22 members of a junior officer Executive and Engineering training class.
In all, 75 souls crammed into a boat built for 60~ with only about a third of them being “old salts.”
Affray had dived 30 miles South of the Isle of Wight, some 60 odd miles southwest of St Catherine’s Light, at 2115 on 16 April, and was due to transit to a position 20 miles southeast of Start Point. However, she failed to report her position on 17 April, and a SUBMISS/SUBSMASH alert stated search operations that eventually numbered over 50 ships, including 24 NATO warships.
These efforts continued fruitlessly until 19 April, with only an oil slick observed over Hurd’s Deep, by which point she was considered lost.
During the search, 161 sustained sonar contacts and as many as 70 uncharted wrecks, including another submarine, the 1944-lost U-269, were discovered, each requiring fruitlessly sending down a diver to verify if it was the lost Affray.
On 14 June, after two months, the frigate HMS Loch Fyne (K429) made the first contact with the wreck of Affray on her ASDIC equipment and sent the signal to the Admiralty in Whitehall.
The submarine rescue ship HMS Reclaim arrived on scene soon after and dropped a diver with a Siebe Gorman oxy-helium helmet to a depth of over 200 feet, who reported what could be a submarine below.
To confirm, Reclaim sent down her new underwater television apparatus on 16 June.
The camera container and lights in their frame, on board HMS Reclaim. IWM A 31970
When it neared the bottom at 260 feet, the first grainy image of the wreck, including the word “Affray” on a conning tower, appeared topside on Reclaim’s TV screen.
There is no shortage of educatedtheories as to what happened to the submarine, the last British boat lost at sea. What is known is that her Snort mast was broken, and all hatches and hull seemed otherwise intact.
Hopefully, it was over quickly.
As noted by Submarinefamily.uk:
Her loss is still a matter of controversy, and the exact reason for her loss may never be known, as she is now protected as a grave for those who died in her. The most likely cause is that her snort mast broke off while she was at periscope depth and that the induction hull valve had failed to operate satisfactorily, resulting in water entering the submarine through a 10-inch hole. With her buoyancy destroyed, she would have sunk very quickly.
Epilogue
The 75 men lost on Affray have their names recorded in the Submariners’ Book of Remembrance in the chapel at HMS Dolphin, Gosport. Their names are also listed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the Submarine Museum Memorial wall at Gosport, and Braye Harbour, Alderney, among others.
Of note, one of the divers from Reclaim working on Affray was LCDR Lionel “Buster” Crabb, OBE, GM, who later became famous when, in 1956, he disappeared in Portsmouth harbor during the visit of a Soviet cruiser with Khrushchev aboard.
The rest of Affray’s class had a happier and much longer service.
At least 10 of her sisters served at one time or another between 1954 and 1967 with the Royal Navy’s 6th Submarine Squadron out of HMC Dockyard, Halifax (stone frigate HMS Ambrose) as “clockwork mice” for ASW training with Canadian and NATO surface ships– with active service deployed North-East of the Grand Banks to warn if Soviet submarines were active during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although not in RCN service, they typically had several “Canucks” as part of their crews, which helped the RCN’s transition to the trio of new Canadian Oberon-class submarines, which began entering service in 1965. The Submarine Room at the Naval Museum of Halifax contains many of their relics, including at least one ship’s bell from HMS Aurochs.
Fourteen received a further modernization akin to the American GUPPY conversions, which removed the old sail and replaced it with a more modern fairwater, as well as a streamlined hull profile. Although their four external tubes and the deck guns were removed, they could still carry 18 more modern Mark 8 Mod 4 torpedoes or 26 1,930-pound Mark V/type Q magnetic/acoustic mines. They also received new sonars (Types 186 long-range passive, 187 medium-range search/attack, and 197 intercept). The big Type 187 attack sonar required a large bulbous dome on the bow, giving the updated Amphions a similar profile to the 1960s Oberon class boats.
When they finished their refit, the GUPPY-fied Amphions received updated S-series hull numbers in place of their old P-series numbers.
HMS Alliance (S67), almost unrecognizable after her modernization.
HMS Artful, Amphion-class submarine, S96
Ironically, despite the original deck guns being removed during modernization in the late 1950s, a very non-streamlined replacement 4″/33 Mark XXIII S gun was installed starting in 1960 on several A boats to counter blockade-running junks during the Indonesian Confrontation with the Singapore-based 7th Submarine Squadron.
Modernized Amphion-class submarine HMS Andrew (S63) leaving Singapore at the end of her service with 7th Submarine Squadron (7SM), in 1968. The crew lining the deck wearing broad terandak hats while a sign hanging from the side reads “Mama Sam’s”. Within two hours of departure, the crew rescued two Malaysian fishermen whose boat had sunk and returned them to Singapore. Andrew was one of the many submarines to leave Singapore in the late 1960s when the decision was made to repatriate all British military “East of Suez”. 7SM closed in 1971. IWM HU 129718
HMS Alliance, in camouflage pattern off Malaysia, 1965. IWM HU 129708
Aerial starboard-bow view of modernized Amphion-class submarine HMS Alliance (S67) seen in 1965 during her service with 7th Submarine Squadron, note her deck gun. She is wearing a camouflage paint scheme appropriate for operations in the shallow waters around Malaysia during the Indonesian Confrontation. IWM HU 129708
Jane’s page on the class, 1960.
The class made appearances in several films, with Andrew filling in for a U.S. nuclear submarine in the 1959 post-apocalyptic film On the Beach.
Sistership Artemis appeared in an RN training film entitled Voyage North, from which stock submarine footage was lifted and reused in movies and TV shows for decades.
Aeneas, however, one-upped her sisters by appearing in the classic Bond film You Only Live Twice in 1967. She later went on to become an SSG, carrying an experimental mast-mounted SAM launcher.
The last of the class in service, HMS Andrew, paid off in May 1977 and was also the final British sub to carry a deck gun.
HMS Alliance, although decommissioned in 1973, would continue to serve as a static training boat until 1979, and survives today.
Alliance has been preserved since 1981 as a museum boat at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Portsmouth.
HMS Alliance, Gosport
Among her relics is a replica wreath of daffodils, carnations, tulips, and lilies of the valley modeled after the one Alliance’s crew dropped over the resting place of Affray.
The Submarine HMS Alliance lays a wreath over the spot where submarine HMS Affray failed to surface during a training dive in 1951 (Manchester Mirror)
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Beachcombers along Wharton Beach, southeast of Perth, came across an old bottle. Sealed, it contained two yellowed and deteriorating pencil-written letters.
Carefully retrieved, they were addressed from “somewhere at sea” and detailed an outward-bound leg on the troopship HMAT Ballarat, which departed Adelaide in August 1916, bound for the Great War in Europe.
Sadly, Neville would be killed months later in France and remains there with a white cross over his grave. Harley survived and returned home, but passed having never seen his letter again.
The families have been found and are finally set to receive their long-lost sea mail.
From Sept. 15 to Oct. 6, UNITAS 2025 saw 26 Allies, 22 surface ships (including ships from as far away as Spain, Japan, and Germany, as well as the first time the Navy of Guatemala has sent a ship), two submarines (including a 209 from Peru), and more than 8,000 personnel.
Iteration LXVI, dubbed “the world’s longest-running annual multinational maritime exercise,” included the Spanish Navy’s Expeditionary Combat Group Dédalo 25-3, centered around the LPD Galacia, conducting a combined amphibious landing near Camp Lejeune with elements of the Mexican, Peruvian, Dominican Republic, and Brazilian navies
As well as a beautiful PhotoEx combined sailing centered around Carrier Strike Group Two (USS Harry S Truman), escorted by a diverse collection of frigates and corvettes from across Latin America.
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 21, 2025) Multinational ships and aircraft participating in UNITAS 2025 steam in formation off the East Coast of the United States in support of UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. UNITAS, Latin for Unity, focuses on enhanced interoperability, building regional partnerships, and brings together approximately 8,000 personnel from 26 allied and partner nations, with multiple ships, submarines, and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 21, 2025) Multinational ships and aircraft participating in UNITAS 2025 steam in formation off the East Coast of the United States in support of UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. UNITAS, Latin for Unity, focuses on enhanced interoperability, building regional partnerships, and brings together approximately 8,000 personnel from 26 allied and partner nations, with multiple ships, submarines, and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 21, 2025) Multinational ships and aircraft participating in UNITAS 2025 steam in formation off the East Coast of the United States in support of UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. UNITAS, Latin for Unity, focuses on enhanced interoperability, building regional partnerships, and brings together approximately 8,000 personnel from 26 allied and partner nations, with multiple ships, submarines, and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft
UNITAS, much like RIMPAC, always includes a few live fire exercises, starting with killer tomatoes and working up to a full-scale SinkEx of a retired naval vessel.
This year saw ex-USS Simpson (FFG-56)sacrificed to the UNITAS SinkEx gods, although five of her older sisters are rusting away on red lead row in Philly.
Other than USS Samuel B. Roberts and Stark, which have already been disposed of, Simpson was perhaps the most famous of her class still afloat.
Commissioned 21 September 1985, Simpson’s first overseas deployment was in the Persian Gulf, where she was on hand for Operation Praying Mantis in 1988, where she fired four SM-1 missiles, which sank the Iranian Kaman-class (La Combattante II type) missile patrol boat Joshan.
In this file photo from Sept. 13, 2014, a rainbow is seen above the guided-missile frigate USS Simpson after an underway replenishment in the Atlantic Ocean. Jorge Delgado/U.S. Navy
Simpson also helped search for the Challenger after the shuttle’s explosion, rescued 22 souls from a sunk oil tanker, was on the “Haitian Vacation” in 1994, and made several repeat trips back to the Middle East. One of her skippers was killed on 9/11 at the Pentagon.
With all that history, it would seem natural that Simpson, the last of her class decommissioned in 2015, would have been ideal for preservation as a museum ship. After all, she was the last Navy warship still in active service to have sunk an enemy vessel besides the USS Constitution.
Instead, she joined at least nine of her classmates at the bottom of the ocean, expended in exercises.
When I was a kid, despite the common trope of “we’ll send you to a military academy” in TV shows and movies, I actually did, really, want to be sent to a military academy. Alas, I had to settle for Scouts and JROTC.
Oh, and watching and rewatching (we taped it off HBO on the Betamax) the 1981 classic, Taps.
That’s why finding out this week that VFMA, founded in 1928 with the motto “Courage, Honor, Conquer,” is closing its doors left me with a pang of nostalgia. Another aspect of my Gen X childhood was erased from existence.
This is because much of Taps was filmed on its campus, and the teen actors, including Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring), and Tom Cruise, spent 45 days of orientation with the students of the academy to learn to drill properly as cadets.
I mean, what military nerd can forget the hallway scene?
Anyway, the real-life academy, which held its 97th Commencement in June for just 21 cadets, will complete the current academic year. Its final Commencement will take place as scheduled on Saturday, May 30, 2026.
“For nearly 100 years, we have maintained a strong tradition of developing resilient young men of character,” said Gray Beck, Board Chairman, Valley Forge Military Academy. “Despite today’s announcement, the legacy of Valley Forge Military Academy will live on in the thousands of graduates, faculty and staff members, and supporters.”
The reasons for closure:
After a thorough review of VFMA’s long-term sustainability, the trustees determined that the Academy is no longer viable for several reasons. First, rising costs have made a boarding school education less affordable for many families. In turn, this has driven sharp declines in enrollment. In addition, changes in Pennsylvania law increased the Academy’s liability exposure, driving steep insurance premium increases and narrowing the number of insurers willing to provide coverage. Together, these factors made the Academy’s future unsustainable.
The related but separate Valley Forge Military College, formerly the Valley Forge Military Academy Junior College, which was founded in 1935, is still going strong and has no plans to close, although it is rebranding as the Military College of Pennsylvania.
19 October 1984: The Twin Towers dot the Gotham skyline as crackerjack-wearing gunners mates stand at attention on USS Iowa’s (BB 61) No. 1 16″/50 gun turret as the battleship approaches the southern end of Manhattan during a scheduled port visit to New York City shortly after the dreadnought was recommissioned for the third (and final) time. Note the full-color recognition flag on the roof of the gun house.
U.S. Navy photo DNST8505245 by PH1 Jeff Hilton, NARA 330-CFD-DN-ST-85-05245
Two other views from the same photographer that day, including a cameo by the Staten Island Ferry.
An MH-53E Sea Dragon, attached to the “Blackhawks” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15, idles on the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), December 12, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky)
The “Blackhawks” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures (HM) Squadron Fifteen are steadily prepping to end their 38-year run as an RH-53A/D and MH-53E Sea Dragon squadron.
Its sister squadrons, “The World Famous Vanguard” of HM-14 and the reserve airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) squadron, the “Golden Bears” of HM-19, were decommissioned in 2022 and 1994, respectively.
With the Sea Dragon slated to retire in FY27, ending the Navy’s AMCM program, which began in 1971 when 15 well-worn CH-53As were acquired from the Marines and rebuilt as RH-53As, the ‘Hawks have shut down “Big Iron,” Det II (DET2), the longstanding four-aircraft AMCM deployment to Bahrain. HM-14 established the first permanent forward-deployed AMCM detachment in Manama in 1999.
The last flight of Det II occurred on 31 August 2025.
231023-N-EG592-1261 ARABIAN GULF (Oct. 23, 2023) The Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Dextrous (MCM 13) sails in the Arabian Gulf during small boat operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob Vernier)
Chaleur was fairly modern, having been built in 1956-57 and only decommissioned in 1998.
HMCS Chaleur (MCB 164) in better days
She was used in a variety of commercial and private tasks until she ended up at the Stockton Maritime Museum and sank at her moorings back in 2021.
Chaleur was tied up alongside the old and very well-traveled MV Aurora (ex-Wappen Von Hamburg, ex-Delos, ex-Pacific Star, ex-Polar Star, ex-Xanadu, ex-Expex, and ex-Faithful) for years before she sank.
As Aurora was scrapped last December, all that is left now is the sheen.
