Category Archives: US Navy

Mandatory Fun, 1944 Kodiak Island edition

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Coming off of the long Independence Day weekend (I hope you got four days of downtime, my friends!) I thought this view of how the “Eight Ballers” of the 8th Special Naval Construction (Seabee) Battalion kicked back on their July 4th celebration 80 years ago while stationed at Women’s Bay on Kodiak Island in the Alaska Territory.

From the 8th Special’s 201-page WWII cruise book:

For the record, the “Special” designation for the 8th SNCB comes from the fact that they were formed in April 1943 largely from professional East Coast longshoremen whose expertise in rapidly loading and unloading cargo was desperately needed. 

They deployed to Alaska– after a modicum (14 days) of military training under Marine Corps DIs followed by a three-week A school to make sure they were all on the same page– first to Kodiak (“Island X”) in August 1943 and then to Attu (“Island Y”) where their specialized skillset was put to hard use in extreme conditions. Smaller dets went further west in the Aleutans including Adak and Shemya, often having to build the docks while they worked them.

Don’t think of these guys as “cargo apes” as the work they did was often very technical, for instance, take a look at this balance chart for a liberty ship:

Those guys no doubt earned their day off on Kodiak’s bear-prone beach.

Shipped back to the West Coast post-war, the 8th SNCB was inactivated at Port Hueneme, California on 29 October 1945 and has never been reformed.

Warship Wednesday, July 3, 2024: Brace for Ramming

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile 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, July 3, 2024: Brace for Ramming

U.S. Navy photograph, 80-G-700007, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Above we see, just south-east of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the mine-filled shattered bow of the German Type XB U-boat, U-233, pointing to the sky just before plunging to the bottom after the submarine was rammed by the Cannon-class destroyer escort USS Thomas (DE 102) some 80 years ago this week– 5 July 1944. The unlucky U-233 was on her first combat patrol, tasked with sowing mines off key Canadian and American harbors.

She never made it that far and was one of Thomas’s three U-boat kills during the war.

And that was just in the destroyer escort’s first career.

What were the Cannons?

USS Cannon (DE-99) Dravo builder’s photo. USN CP-DE-99-19-N-51457

The Cannon class, ordered in 1942 to help stem the tide of the terrible U-boat menace in the Atlantic, was also known as the DET type from their Diesel Electric Tandem drive. The DET’s substitution for a turbo-electric propulsion plant was the primary difference from the predecessor Buckley (“TE”) class. The DET was in turn replaced with a direct drive diesel plant to yield the design of the successor Edsall (“FMR”) class.

Besides a heavy ASW armament, these humble ships carried a trio of Mk.22 3″/50s, some deck-mounted torpedo tubes to be effective against larger surface combatants in a pinch, and a smattering of Bofors/Oerlikon AAA mounts.

In all, although 116 Cannon-class destroyer escorts were planned, only 72 were completed. Some of her more well-known sisters included the USS Eldridge, the ship claimed to be a part of the infamous Philadelphia Experiment. The vessels were all cranked out in blocks by four yards with Thomas— along with class leaders Cannon and Bostwick— among the nine produced by Dravo.

Meet Thomas

Our subject was the second warship named for LT Clarence Crase Thomas (USNA 1908). A son of Grass Valley, California, Thomas served pre-war in the USS Maryland (ACR-8), USS Yorktown (PG-1), USS Denver (C-14), USS Cleveland (C-19), USS West Virginia (ACR-5), and battleship USS Florida. Once the U.S. entered the Great War, he was detailed to command the naval armed guard det on the merchant steamship SS Vacuum in April 1917.

Lost to a German U-boat just two weeks later, Thomas was the first U.S. naval officer to lose his life in the war with Germany and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

His name was almost immediately issued to a Wickes-class destroyer (DD-182) then under construction, and sponsored by LT Thomas’s widow, Evelyn. That four-piper flush deck greyhound was decommissioned in 1922 and laid up until 1940, then transferred to the Royal Navy as part of the “bases for destroyers” deal, becoming first the Town-class destroyer, HMS St Albans (I15), then the Free Norwegian Navy’s HNoMS St Albans, and finally the Soviet destroyer Dostoyny/Dostojnyj before being scrapped in 1949.

Meanwhile, our subject, the second Thomas, DE-102, was laid down on 16 January 1943 by Dravo and commissioned on 21 November 1943 at Portsmouth, her build time spanning just 310 days.

War!

Assigned to Escort Division 48 as flagship, she was surrounded by five sisters– USS Bostwick, Breeman, Bronstein, Baker, and Coffman. Her shakedown took place off the East Coast and she spent the Christmas 1943/New Year’s 1944 holiday in Bermuda.

07 December 1943: Portsmouth, Va. – A starboard quarter view of Thomas taken near the Norfolk Navy Yard. U.S. Navy photo #CP-DE-102-19-N-60229

Her first bite at Dönitz’s grey sharks came as part of the hunter-killer group attached to the jeep carrier USS Block Island (CVE-21) for six weeks in February-March 1944. This included the 1 March 1944 kill north of the Azores of a submarine credited by the Navy as the Type VIIC U-boat U-709 (Oblt. (R) Rudolf Ites), sunk with all hands. Alternatively, some reports hold this was actually U-441, which was severely damaged but escaped.

Then came a stint riding shotgun on Convoy UGS 39 and its return (GUS 39) from the U.S. to the Med.

Then came more hunter-killer taskings.

USS Thomas was taken on 5 July 1944 from the escort carrier USS Card (CVE-11). 80-G-366262

On 5 July 1944, sisters Thomas (DE-102) and USS Baker (DE-190), from the jeep carrier USS Card’s hunter-killer force (Task Group 22.5), ran U-233 (Kptlt. Hans Steen) to ground off Halifax, Nova Scotia. The action began at 1910 when Baker picked up a sound contact at 1,500 yards.

Just 17 minutes and two depth charge patterns later, a submarine’s bow broke the surface and Baker took the enemy boat under surface fire, with Thomas closing in and opening up with her deck guns shortly after. The end came when Thomas rammed the shell-riddled U-boat on its starboard side just aft of the fairweather. By 1947 it was all over and the tin cans were plucking survivors from the water.

From the 12-page report filed by LCDR David M. Kellog, Thomas’s skipper:

A great series of shots captured from Thomas show the last dive of U-233.

German U-Boat, U-233, sinks as it is rammed. 80-G-700006

80-G-700005

Thomas picked up 20 of U-233’s 69-man crew, including Kptlt. Steen, who later died of wounds. The survivors, along with two Enigma coding wheels recovered from the pockets of one of the men, were transferred to Card.

Interrogations later revealed U-233’s mission and her cargo of 66 new type Drückunterschiedsmine (pressure differential mines) along with four T-5 and three G7e torpedoes, none of which the boat had a chance to use.

As far as Thomas was concerned, she suffered only minor damage from her ramming kill, chiefly in two flooded peak tanks and a leaking chain locker. Proceeding to Boston Navy Yard for repairs, she was back on duty by 18 July and spent the next six weeks shepherding new submarines out of Portsmouth and Groton undergoing shakedown in Long Island Sound.

USS Thomas (DE-102) underway while supporting submarine operations off the U.S. East Coast, 21 August 1944. Note the track of a torpedo that is passing under the ship. The ship is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. Her hull number is painted atop the front of her bridge to assist identification by aircraft. NH 107610

September 1944 found her back with the Card hunter-killer group, surviving hurricane-force winds at least twice at sea before the end of the year as the task group roamed the stormy North Atlantic.

She would continue to serve with the Card group into 1945, alternating going to the rescue of sinking ships and chasing down sonar contacts. On 30 April 1945, Thomas, along with the frigate Natchez (PF-2), and sisterships Coffman and Bostwick, came across what is cited by the Navy as the advanced Type IXC/40 U-boat U-548 just east of Cape Hatteras but is now generally believed to be sister U-879 (Kptlt. Erwin Manchen), sending her to the bottom with all 52 hands.

Post VE-Day, Thomas would spend the next four months in a series of exercises before she was detailed to New York to take part in the massive Navy Day celebrations there and in November was tasked to escort the infamous Type IXC/40 U-boat U-530 (Oblt. Otto Wermuth), which had surrendered in Argentina two months after the end of the war in Europe.

Following a series of war bond tours with Thomas and U-530, the latter was utilized for a series of tests and deep-sixed in torpedo drills off Cape Cod.

USS Toro (SS-422) torpedoed the surrendered German submarine U-530, during tests 40 miles northeast of Cape Cod. Photo released 28 November 1947. Note the effects of torpedo explosion. 80-G-704668

However, by that time, Thomas had been decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida, in March 1946 and added to the 500-strong mothball fleet that swayed at a series of 13 piers built there just for the purpose.

USS Thomas (DE-102) likely in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Photo by Ensign Carl Gene Coin, USN, via Wikimedia commons.

She was not even listed in that year’s Jane’s Fighting Ships entry for her class.

Jane’s 1946 listing for the 57-strong semi-active Bostwick class, noting numerous transfers to overseas allies.

Thomas received four battle stars for World War II service.

Plank owner LCDR Kellogg, who earned the Legion of Merit for the U-233 ramming and commanded the vessel throughout the war, faded into history and I cannot find any further information on him.

A long second life

While Thomas’s initial service would last just three years, others could desperately put the low-mileage destroyer escort to good use.

Ultimately 14 of the Cannon/Bostwick class went to France and Brazil during the war, followed by another eight to the French– who apparently really liked the type– four to Greece (including USS Slater which returned home in the 1990s to become the only destroyer escort afloat in the United States), three to Italy, two to Japan, six to the Dutch, three to Peru, five to the Philippines, two to South Korea, one to Thailand, and two to Uruguay.

When it comes to Thomas, she and three sisters: Bostwick, Breeman, and Carter, in a short ceremony on 14 December 1948, were transferred to Nationalist (Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT) China. Thomas became class leader Taihe (also seen in the West as ROCS Tai He and ROCS Tai Ho) with the hull/pennant number DE-23.

The four destroyer escorts were soon put into emergency use. During the last phase of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the 26 loyal ships of the ROCN engaged in the protection of supply convoys and the withdrawal of the Nationalist government and over 1 million refugees to Taiwan.

These ships were captured in great detail during this period in Nationalist use by LIFE magazine.

In this image, she still has her 3″/50 Mk22s up front

Fuzing 40mm Bofors rounds. Note the traditional crackerjack and flat cap used by the Nationalists

Crackerjacks combined with M1 helmets and US Navy Mk II talker helmets

The No. 3 mount now has an additional 3″/50 rather than the 40mm Bofors. Also, that is A LOT of depth charges for those 8 throwers and two rails! Ash cans a-go-go

Needing bigger guns for the work envisioned of them, the Chinese quickly upgraded their two forward 3-inchers to a pair of 5″/38 singles in open mounts, as well as substituting the stern 40mm mount for one of the same which gave the ships a 2+2 format with twin 5-inchers over the bow and a 5-inch over a 3-inch over the stern. 

The 1950s saw the fleet heavily involved in the pitched and tense engagements around Kinmen (Quemoy), Matsu, and the Yijiangshan and Dachen Islands in the Taiwan Straits as well as the clandestine Guoguang operations in which the KMT tried to retake the mainland by landing would-be guerilla organization teams in Red territory.

Taihe notably took part in the Battle of Pingtan Island in August 1949, covered the retreat from Hainan Island in April 1950, the Battle of the Wanshan Islands in May 1950 (where she is credited with sinking the gunboat Jiefang and the LCI Guishan), the running Battle of the Tohoku Islands where she escaped a trap set by six Red corvettes and frigates, damaging the Changsha (216)– formerly the Japanese Type D coastal defense ship No. 118– in the process; rescuing the torpedoed destroyer Taiping (DE-22, ex USS Decker DE-47) during the Battle of Yijiangshan Island in November 1954, and conducting a series of tense patrols in the Spratly Islands in 1956.

Propaganda shells fired into Red-controlled areas. By John Dominis LIFE

In all, Thomas and her three sisters continued to hold the front lines of the Taiwan Straits for 25 years and, for the first decade of that, were the most powerful assets available to the ROCN, a title they held until two Benson-class destroyers (USS Benson and USS Hilary P. Jones) were transferred in 1954.

They were also later fitted in the 1960s with Mk.32 12.75-inch ASW torpedo tubes for Mk 44s– which were a lot more effective than depth charges.

Taizhao, ex Carter anchored at the Kaohsiung Xinbin Wharf, late 1940s.

Jane’s 1973-4 listing for the Taiwan Bostwicks, including Carter.

As part of the pressure on Communist China at the tail end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the Nixon administration transferred a huge flotilla of more advanced warships to Taiwan between late 1970 and early 1973 that included two GUPPY’d Tench-class submarines (one of which is still active), five Gearing-class destroyers, six Sumner-class destroyers, four Fletchers, and USS McComb (DD-458)— a late Gleaves-class destroyer that had been converted to a fast minesweeper. With all these “new-to-you” hulls, the long-serving destroyer escorts could be retired and, by the end of 1973, Thomas and her three sisters in Formosan service had been disposed of for scrap. 

Epilogue

Few relics remain of Thomas in the U.S. Her war history and diaries are in the National Archives.

A painting of Thomas ramming U-233 by maritime artist John G. Gromosiak of Cincinnati is in the U.S. Naval Museum at Annapolis but I can only find this small image of it, via Navsource.

The U.S. Navy has yet to recycle LT Thomas’s name for a third vessel, which is a shame.

Besides the museum ship USS Slater (DE-766), now sitting dockside in Albany New York, and the pier side training ship USS Hemminger (DE-746) (now HTMS Pin Klao DE-1) in Thailand, there are no Cannon-class destroyer escorts still afloat.

USS Slater is the only destroyer escort preserved in North America– and is Thomas’s sistership

The Destroyer Escort Sailors Association honors the men of all the DEs, regardless of class. Sadly, their 45th annual convention in 2020 was their last as their numbers are rapidly declining.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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The Elusive Navy MK2 7.62 NATO Garand (not so Elusive for now)

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While upwards of 6 million M1 Garand rifles were produced between 1936 and 1957, almost all of these were .30-06 models made under Army (War Department) contract and then filtered out through the U.S. military.

A much smaller slice was the Navy-ordered circa 1960s MK2 7.62 NATO conversions of which AMF upgraded 17,050 rifles and H&R another 15,000 rifles using a 3:1 mix of converted .30 caliber barrels (the MK2 MOD 0 rifle) and new-made 7.62mm barrels from Springfield Armory (the MK2 MOD1).

Few of these rifles have floated out to the consumer market over the years, typically being prize guns won by Navy and Marine personnel at marksmanship events then subsequently later sold to local gun shops and collectors.

The Civilian Marksmanship Program, the DOD’s clearinghouse for surplus civilian legal rifles, has typically just sold isolated stripped receivers and the occasional gun at auction.

That is until the organization recently obtained a stockpile of these guns from naval storage.

They have both models available as of this post, with the following information (and prices) noted by CMP:

MK2MOD0. These rifles were conversions of the M1 Garand to 7.62 NATO using a chamber bushing to convert the barrels from 30.06 Springfield. CMP categorizes these rifles as unserviceable due to the likelihood of “bushing ejection”. These will be inspected and generally complete but will be shipped in an inert state that maintains the rifle’s historical integrity. A waiver must be signed to acknowledge receipt of this NLU as a non-functioning display piece along with CMPs intention that no attempt be made to reactivate the firearm to a functional state. Parts will not be gauged, and no implication of serviceability should be implied. Transferred exclusively for collectability and display, these rifles are being sold “as-is” with no refunds or exchanges. $950.

The MK2MOD1 was a purpose-built 7.62 NATO caliber rifle, built without the problematic “barrel bushing”. The MOD1 has a 7.62 NATO chamber without the barrel bushing and is safe to use with 7.62 NATO ammunition. These rifles have been inspected, repaired as needed and function fired. Cosmetic condition is good, but Throat and Muzzle readings may exceed normal service-grade criteria. These are being sold as is. Purchase will require written acknowledgment regarding EXCLUSIVE compatibility with 7.62 NATO, Mil-Spec ammunition. These rifles should not be assumed safe for use with commercial spec, .308 WIN ammunition. $1,600

With these guns suddenly a thing, the Garand Collector’s Association has made several Navy MK2 articles available to the public to help provide some more knowledge on these rare rifles.

Reading Material

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A list of yearly magazine subscriptions for the Gato-class fleet boat USS Drum (SS-228), circa 1944, numbering 16 titles, two copies each, for a cost– “less clubbing discount”– of $58. While some titles make sense in a 72-man crew full of 20-ish WWII American males, others are more curious.

Drum, laid down at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in September 1940, commissioned just five weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor and received a full dozen battle stars for her WWII service, across 14 war patrols, with a tally of some 80,580 tons of Japanese shipping on her scoreboard– with her crew apparently thumbing back-issues of Cosmo and True Detective between depth charge attacks.

Post-war, she was never given the GUPPY treatment and instead was used as a pierside USNR training hulk in the D.C. area’s Potomac River Naval Command until 1967 when she was finally retired. As part of the USS Alabama Museum since 1969, she is the oldest American submarine on public display– and one of the few in her correct WWII arrangement– and I took the above photo while on a tour of her.

Big Al Gets New Deck

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The USS Alabama Museum has been working on replacing the ship’s original, but dangerously deteriorating, teak decking for the past three years– and the $8 million project is now complete. 

As noted by the Museum:

After over 80 years of wear, the battleship’s main deck required replacement. Beginning in 2021, the three-year teak deck replacement project was underway. With over 20,500 square feet of decking, the project was expected to be completed in October 2024. Broken into five phases, each area would include erecting a containment system, dry blasting, priming, and the installation of the new teak panels. Contracting crews have completed all five phases, finishing the job seven months ahead of schedule.

The Museum hosted assorted dignitaries including the state governor for the ribbon cutting over the weekend.

As for the original, historical teak, those interested in purchasing pieces made from that material have several options to choose from.

Yankee Sub Chasers Walking the Beat

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Official caption, February 1919: “American troops in Fiume, Hungary [today Rijeka, Croatia], aboard a Yankee ‘Submarine Chaser.’ In the harbor of Fiume, members of [the] 332nd U.S. Infantry, stationed in the city, hold a reunion with some bluejackets from ‘back home.’ American soldiers now occupying Fiume (on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea) are those who operated with the Italian army on the Piave River.”

Note the ash cans over the stern and the mix of blue jackets and Ohio Doughboys. U.S. Army photo 111-SC-50709. National Archives Identifier 86707176.

A trio of the Navy’s 110-foot subchasers, USS SC-124, SC-125, and SC-127, called at Fiume several times between late November 1918 and early March 1919. The strategic port, once home to the Austrian Navy Academy and a large part of the Kaiser’s fleet, was claimed by several in the post-war disintegration that followed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The chasers, which had originally been dispatched to serve on the Otranto barrage, would have a hectic five months in the Adriatic during the occupation and often had to stand up to much larger “allies.”

“Three Yankee Submarine Chasers docked in harbor of Fiume, Hungary attract the attention of spectators on the waterfront” SC-127 is shown moored between SC-124 and SC-125. Behind the three sub-chasers are two Italian Destroyers, Giuseppe Siritori (SR) and Vicenzo Orsini (OR). In the background are a battleship of the Emanuele Filiberto class (1897) and an armored cruiser of the San Giorgio Class (1908). Army 111-SC-50714. National Archives 86707186

First National Guard Unit Gets Hands on Next Generation Squad Weapons, Navy Next?

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A North Carolina unit is the first in the National Guard to field test the new SIG Sauer-made XM7 and the XM250, which is replacing the M4/M4A1 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, respectively.

The 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, a National Guard outfit that carries the “Old Hickory” lineage of the World War I & II era infantry division of the same number, earlier this month conducted a qualification table range session with the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon platforms at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), North Carolina.

The unit is the first in the Guard to receive the XM7 and XM250, just months after the first regular Army unit, the famed 101st Airborne Division, began receiving their NGSWs.

A soldier of the 30th ABCT, a North Carolina Army National Guard unit, with the XM7 on the range at Fort Liberty earlier this month. (Photo: Cpl. Nigel Hatcher/U.S. Army)

This comes as ADM Daryl Caudle, commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, toured SIG Sauer’s new Academy and SIG Experience Center in Newington, New Hampshire, earlier this month. Images released by the Pentagon show Caudle and staff inspecting the state-of-the-art facility where over 480,000 M17 and M18 handguns have been produced for the military thus far. 

And include Caudle handling an NSGW.

240610-N-XX999-1001 NEWINGTON, N.H. (June 10, 2024) Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, examines a firearm during a leadership meeting and tour at SIG SAUER Academy and Experience Center (SEC) in Newington, New Hampshire, June 10. 

Of note, the Marines have been interested in the platform going back to 2020.

190th is the Charm: Houthi Sink 80,000-ton Bulk Carrier in Combined Arms Attack

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As detailed in an On-the-Record Press Briefing by Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh Holds, the current count of Iranian-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea area since 19 November stands at over 190 incidents. Two of the latest were very successful.

Last week, the Yemen-based Houthis struck two cargo ships: the bulk carrier M/V Tutor (82,357 DWT), which is Liberian flagged, Greek-owned, and Filipino-operated as well as the M/V Verbena (20,518 DWT), which is Palauan flagged, Ukrainian-owned and Polish operated.

The June 12 attack on the Tutor resulted in severe flooding and damage to the engine room.  

The guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) responded to distress calls from the Tutor. Aircraft from the cruiser and partner forces helped evacuate 21 of 22 personnel from the vessel. This operation took place in the Red Sea and within range of Houthi weapons, making it a risky and complex operation, she said.

Iranian, Russian, and Chinese naval vessels were among the ships within response distance that did nothing to assist the Tutor, Singh noted.

Tutor was hit by “an unknown airborne projectile” after being hit in the stern by a drone boat, with one of her Filipino crew left missing and later confirmed deceased.

She was carrying an armed guard detachment which apparently shrugged off the drone boat– a converted local fishing craft– until it was too late.

An update from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office on Tuesday said that military authorities reported seeing debris and oil in the last known location of the Tutor and then sunk in position 14’19’N 041’14’E.

This is the second incident resulting in the death of mariners in the conflict, following the deaths of three crew members on the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier M/V True Confidence (29,104 GT), struck by a Houthi anti-ship missile in the Gulf of Aden in early March while carrying steel products and trucks from China to Jordan.

It is also now the second confirmed sinking in the conflict, following the Belize-flagged bulk carrier MV Rubymar (19,420 GT) which, hit by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on 18 February 2024, was abandoned and subsequently sank in foul weather 12 days later. All 24 crew members of Rubymar were rescued and landed at Djibouti.

Meanwhile, Verbena, carrying cargo from Songkhla (Thailand) to Venice, was reportedly hit by two missiles, causing fires and extensive damage, which left one civilian mariner severely injured and later airlifted for medical treatment. The crew later abandoned the ship due to the inability to contain the fires.

Central Command in the past 72 hours since then has advised they have destroyed: two Houthi uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea, eight Houthi uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen, as well as four Houthi radars and one uncrewed surface vessel (USV) in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

Shipping and mariner advocacy groups are calling for more action. Expect an increase in diversions around the Cape of Good Hope.

Just Good Times on the Smoking Deck

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How about this great circa 1988 shot of an unidentified sailor in UDT shorts and a chocolate chip boonie firing from the hip at a target floating behind the wooden-decked Aggressive/Agile-class ocean minesweeper USS Esteem (MSO 438), “somewhere in the Persian Gulf.” The rifle seems to be an XM177.

USN Photo 330-CFD-DN-ST-89-02593 by PH2 Alexander C. Hicks, Jr., USN, via NARA 6443568

The 172-foot Esteem, one of 93 members of her class, was built by the Martinolich Shipbuilding Co. of San Diego in the days after the U.S. Navy had an abrupt experience with sea mines off Korea in 1950 and she joined the fleet in 1955.

After lots of service in the Far East through the Vietnam era (earning six Vietnam Service Medals as well as the Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation), by 1987 she was sent to the Persian Gulf, based in Bahrain with a lot of her sisters to combat a rash of mines left bobbing around in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War, a page in the largely forgotten story of Navy MCM during that period.

Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register on 30 September 1991 after 36 years of service, she was laid up at Bremerton until disposed of for sale in 2000 and scrapped soon after.

Fantastic Livery

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I’m a sucker for eye-catching fighter planes and two have recently popped up.

From Denmark, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Fighting Falcon in Danish service, the Kongelige Danske Flyvevåben have applied a Dannebrogsflyet pattern to F-16AM No. E-006, designed by aviation artist Mads Bangsø.

The Danes bought 77 F-16A/B aircraft through the 1970s and 80s, upgrading almost 50 to F-16AM/BM Block 15 MLU standard, and has been steadily shedding the type, replacing them with F-35s. At least 19 have gone to Ukraine while another 24 have been bought by Argentina, no doubt to the joy of the British.

Sharkmouthed Sunliner

Meanwhile, the NAS Oceana-based Sunliners of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 81 have an F-18E CAW 1 CAG bird (300) in a full-color livery, complete with a snaggle puss set of jaws. She will no doubt be striking on Truman’s cat when the carrier deploys this summer.

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