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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
How about this amazing original Kodachrome, snapped 80 years ago today, showing the Iowa-class fast battleship, USS Missouri (BB-63) commissioning ceremonies, at the New York Navy Yard, on 11 June 1944. Photographed looking aft from atop her Number Three triple 16-inch/50 Mark 7 gun turret.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph 80-G-K-3858, now in the collections of the National Archives.
And the view from the stern with 16-inch gun turret Number Three in the foreground shows crewmen and other attendees saluting the colors, as the ship is placed in commission.
Note the SG surface-search radar antenna atop both mainmasts and the circular antenna for the SK-2 air-search radar on the foremast. Also visible are two Mk 37 gun directors with Mk 12 fire control radar for the 12.7 cm artillery and the Mk 38 gun director with Mk 8 fire control radar (“hedgehog”) for the 40.6 cm artillery.USN photo # 80-G-345692
The last of her class completed (Wisconsin, BB-64, had already commissioned two months prior on 16 April 1944), Missouri would spend the rest of the year in shakedown and spent Christmas Eve ’44 on Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row on her way to the West Pac to get in the show. Just over eight months past that holiday, Missouri would host the formal Japanese surrender to the Allied Powers in Tokyo Bay, ending the conflict.
Some eight battle stars (three for WWII, five for Korea) later, she was decommissioned for the final time on 31 March 1992.
Opening to the public in 1999, she has been standing guard over the USS Arizona on Battleship Row for the past 25 years.
The Mighty Missouri Painting, Acrylic on Illustration Board; by Robert Adam Malin; 1998; Framed Dimensions 22H X 32W NHHC
Thought some of you guys who are scale modelers or just general naval history buffs, would find it of interest and should generally cover not only USS Alabama (BB-60), but also her sisters USS South Dakota, Indiana, and Massachusetts.
Apollo 8 was the first manned Saturn V mission, and the first to orbit the moon
(27 Dec. 1968) — “The Apollo 8 crew stands in the doorway of a recovery helicopter after arriving aboard the carrier USS Yorktown, the prime recovery ship for the historic Apollo 8 lunar orbit mission. Left to right, are astronauts Frank Borman, commander; James A. Lovell Jr., command module pilot; and William A. Anders, lunar module pilot. Apollo 8 splashed down at 10:51 a.m. (EST), Dec. 27, 1968, in the central Pacific approximately 1,000 miles south-southwest of Hawaii.” (NASA Photo S69-15737 )
Of the Apollo 8 Astronauts, only Jim Lovell now remains.
Born in 1933, Bill began his career as an Air Force pilot and, earning a master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1962, Major Anders was selected two years later to join NASA’s astronaut corps, serving as backup pilot for the Gemini XI and Apollo 11 flights, and lunar module pilot for Apollo 8– among the first man to orbit the moon, which he accomplished as a “space rookie” at age 35.
He later served as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ambassador to Norway, and served on the board of General Dynamics.
Of the Apollo Astronauts who only flew to the moon, Biloxi’s Fred Haise, and Lovell are the last two among us. Only four moonwalkers are left, David Scott, Charles Duke, Harrison Schmitt, and Buzz Aldrin.
