For those with a little chill in the air, how about this breathtaking photo from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater of an MH-60 Jayhawk somewhere in their AOR, likely in the Keys but could be in points further South or West.
Photo by LT Scott Kellerman, USCG
Formed in 1934, CGAS Clearwater currently counts 700 personnel and has 10 MH-60T Jayhawks and four HC-130H Hercules (upgrading to HC-130Js) assigned as well as Port Security Unit 307.
We are the largest and busiest Air Station in the Coast Guard. In addition to the local area, our Area of Operations includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean basin, and the Bahamas. We constantly maintain deployed H-60s for Operations Bahamas, Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), a joint DEA, Coast Guard, Bahamian Turks and Caicos anti-drug and migrant smuggling operation in the Bahamas. We also have C-130s deployed in support of Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) operations in the Caribbean. This is done while simultaneously maintaining a constant Bravo Zero Search and Rescue response at home in Florida.
Aviation Ordnancemen, assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8, perform routine maintenance on an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) in the Mediterranean Sea, Oct. 16, 2023. VFA-37 is deployed aboard Gerald R. Ford as part of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8. Gerald R. Ford is the U.S. Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, representing a generational leap in the U.S. Navy’s capacity to project power on a global scale. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Mediterranean Sea, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense. The U.S. maintains forward-deployed, ready, and postured forces to deter aggression and support security and stability around the world. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Tajh Payne)
With the current “where’s the carriers” moment in history– including having the Ford Carrier Strike Group (CVN-78/CAW-8) in the Eastern Mediterranean along with U.S. 6th Fleet command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) and USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19) with half of the 26th MEU aboard while the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CVN-69/CAW-3) is operating in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz with the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the rest of the 26th MEU in the Red Sea– a look back at the old “million sortie” war waged from Yankee and Delta Station days is relevant, in which sortie rates would average upwards of 4,000 a month when three carriers were on station.
Vietnam
The NHHC recognizes at least 103 deployments of 21 assorted fleet carriers (CV, CVA, CVAN, CVS) to support operations in/off Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin between USS Oriskany (CVA-34)’s first cruise that began 1 Aug 1963 and her last that ended, post-Operation Frequent Wind, on 3 March 1976– putting “Big O” as the bookends for the conflict in terms of flattop operations.
The following ships are visible (bottom to top): USS Wiltsie (DD-716), USS Tappahannock (AO-43), USS Oriskany (CVA-34), USS Mars (AFS-1), and USS Perkins (DD-877). The Oriskany, with assigned Carrier Air Wing 19 (CVW-19), was deployed to Vietnam from 16 April to 17 November 1969.
A-7B of VA-215 standing by on the catapult of USS_Oriskany (CV-34) in 1976.
Only one of these carriers (USS Shangri-la) actually touched port in the Republic of South Viet Nam and only for one day (21 June 1970) when she stood into Danang for vitally needed parts for the down Number 3 elevator– received via helo. The ship returned to Yankee Station the same day.
The carriers
The run down by carrier and number of deployments, highest to lowest:
USS Oriskany (10) USS Hancock (9) USS Kitty Hawk (9) USS Constellation (8) USS Coral Sea (8) USS Ranger (8) USS Enterprise (7) USS Ticonderoga (7) USS Bon Homme Richard (6) USS Midway (6) USS Bennington (4) USS Kearsarge (4) USS America (3) USS Hornet (3) USS Intrepid (3) USS Yorktown (3) USS Forrestal (1) USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (1) USS Independence (1) USS Saratoga (1) USS Shangri-la (1)
It was an air war that started with a generation of aircraft left over from WWII and ended with the final generations of the Cold War.
A well-worn A-1A Skyraider of VA-215, “The Barn Owls,” is brought up to the Hancock’s catapult, while operating off the coast of Vietnam, 6 May 1966. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate Third Class Worthington, USN 1120337
An F-14A Tomcat of Fighter Squadron (VF) 2 pictured just after launching from the carrier Enterprise (CVAN 65). F-14s flew combat air patrols during Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of South Vietnam in 1975. (1st PHX launch from CV: Bean Barrett/Wizard McCabe) Robert L. Lawson Photograph Collection NNAM.1996.253.7419.029
Deployments by class:
Midway: 15 by 3 carriers Essex: 50 by 10 carriers Forrestal: 11 by 4 carriers Kitty Hawk: 20 by 3 carriers Enterprise: 7 by 1 carrier
Those who didn’t have a turn in the barrel
Just about every combat carrier in the U.S. arsenal during Vietnam made a deployment there with only a few exceptions.
USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67), commissioned in 1968, spent Vietnam on Mediterranean Sea deployments. Meanwhile, the brand new USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was commissioned on 3 May 1975 and didn’t embark on her first deployment until the following summer, likewise to the Med.
Of the 19 Essex class flattops that were in commission in the era (1963-76), 10 clocked in on Vietnam’s Yankee/Delta Stations including four that were anti-sub boats. Of the others, four (Essex, Randolph, Wasp, and Lake Champlain) were East Coast anti-submarine (CVS) ships needed in the Atlantic to keep tabs on the Soviet Bear and provide recovery ships for NASA missions, Lexington was in a training role at Pensacola from 1962 onward, Antietam mothballed early in 1963, and the three unmodified “straight deck” carriers (Boxer, Princeton, and Valley Forge) rerated during the era as amphibious helicopter platforms (LPH) and served extensively in both shuttling Marines around during assorted Vietnam operations and carrying Army helicopters to the theater.
Boxer (LPH-4) loaded with 200 helicopters of the 1st Cavalry Division bound for the Vietnam War, 1965
To keep three to four carriers on the line, at least seven had to be deployed. In addition to the four, one of the other three would be at Cubi Point, one at Hong Kong and one at Yokosuka, Japan. The latter had the only real ship repair facility in the western Pacific, with an aircraft repair facility close by, although lighter maintenance and less extensive alternations could be effected in Cubi as well. As for crew liberty, no one seemed to complain about any of the three ports.
Not too many years or even months ago, it was a popular pastime for amateur military strategists to speak and write words that questioned the U. S. investment in aircraft carriers in the U. S. Navy. These capital ships, termed “super-carriers” in the press, were considered to be great white elephants, vulnerable to whatever force an enemy chose to throw at them; costly dinosaurs that plodded the seas at 30 knots in an era when air speeds above a thousand knots were commonplace.
Today, as the continuous pounding from the three attack carriers at “Yankee Station” grinds on, this criticism is seldom heard. Instead, there are repeated requests for more carriers on the line, and expressions of approbation from quarters once opposed to the carrier weapons system. Thus, it appears appropriate after three years of conflict in Southeast Asia to examine the aircraft carrier and its aircraft and to forecast its future in this war and others the nation may encounter.
The cost was heavy
Over 700 men from air wings and ships companies were lost in action or taken prisoner. A whole generation of squadron and wing commanders was erased from the pipeline as more than 100 Navy commanders (O-5s) were killed or captured within nine years. No less than 532 Navy fixed-wing carrier aircraft were lost in combat and another 329 to operational causes with the F-4 Phantom leading the pack with 138 lost.
Those figures don’t include another 32 Sea Kings and Sea Sprites lost in operations in the Gulf of Tonkin or of Marines who flew from Navy carriers.
Warship Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023: From Midway to Trafalgar
Above we see a great bow-on shot of the FRAM’d Gearing class destroyer USS Eugene A. Greene (DD/DDR-711)with a bone in her teeth in her second life as the Spanish Navy’s Churruca (D61) in the 1980s, the country’s traditional crimson and gold Rojigualda ensign on her mast, a twin 5″/38 hood ornament and two forward-facing Mk.32 triple torpedo tubes under the bridge wings. Her original moniker comes from naval aviator Eugene Allen Green, born 98 years ago this week.
The Gearings
In July 1942 the U.S. Navy, fighting a U-boat horde in the Atlantic and the Combined Fleet in the Pacific was losing ships faster than any admiral ever feared in his worst nightmare. With that in mind, the Navy needed a lot of destroyers. While the Fletcher and Allen M. Sumner classes were being built en mass, the go-ahead for some 156 new and improved Sumners— stretched some 14 feet to allow for more fuel and thus longer legs to get to those far-off battlegrounds– was given. This simple mod led to these ships originally being considered “long hull Sumners.”
These hardy 3,500-ton/390-foot-long tin cans, the Gearing class, were soon being laid down in nine different yards across the country.
Designed to carry three twin 5-inch/38 cal DP mounts, two dozen 40mm and 20mm AAA guns, depth charge racks and projectors for submarine work, and an impressive battery of 10 21-inch torpedo tubes (downgraded to just 5 tubes) capable of blowing the bottom out of a battleship provided they could get close enough, they were well-armed. Fast at over 36 knots, they could race into and away from danger when needed.
Meet Eugene A. Greene
Our subject is the first Navy ship to be named in honor of Eugene Allen Green, born in Smithtown, New York on 21 November 1921. A 1940 graduate of Rhode Island State College, he attended ROTC while in school and promptly enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve’s air cadet program, earning his ensign bar along with his wings of gold by August 1941.
Assigned to Bombing (VB) Six aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6) in March 1942, he gave his last full measure behind the controls of his SBD (6-B-9) at the ripe old age of 21 during the Battle of Midway when, following the attack by VB-6 against the aircraft carrier Kaga on 4 June, he was one of 14 of the “Big E’s” pilots that had to ditch their planes on the way back home, out of fuel. Greene and his gunner, RM3c SA Mutane, along with the crews of eight other ditched aircraft from Enterprise that day, would never be seen again.
Greene was granted a posthumous Navy Cross in December 1942 and his widow, Mrs. Anita M. Greene, would sponsor the destroyer named in his honor.
The second of 16 Gearings contracted via Federal Shipbuilding, Kearny, New Jersey, the future USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) was laid down on 17 August 1944, launched the following March, and commissioned on 8 June 1945.
War!
While 98 Gearings would eventually be completed, most of these arrived too late to take part in WWII, with Greene joining a club that only included 44 sisters who arrived very late in the war. Although some were present in the final push to Tokyo, none were damaged or lost. Three of the class– USS Frank Knox, Southerland, and Perkins— entered Tokyo Bay in time to be present at the Japanese surrender, on 2 September 1945.
As for Greene, her WWII service, as detailed by her War History, consisted primarily of a shakedown cruise ranging from Penobscot Bay, Maine to Guantanamo Bay then, in mid-August following the news of the Japanese surrender, was assigned to the Atlantic fleet to serve as a school ship in Norfolk and Casco Bay, then to Pensacola to assist as a plane guard for aviation cadets– a task she would be well-versed in over her career.
USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) off New York City on 29 May 1946. She is still painted in wartime Camouflage Measure 22. NH 66345
A Chilly Peace
As the Navy’s newest destroyers, none of the new Gearings were mothballed after the war.
On 13 February 1947, Greene sailed south in a task group bound for Montevideo, Uruguay, to participate in the festivities accompanying the inauguration of the country’s new president, Tomás Berreta. The group also paid a goodwill visit to Rio de Janeiro before returning to Norfolk on 31 March.
Light cruiser USS Fresno (CL-121) on port call at Rio De Janeiro, March 1947, alongside her Gearing class consorts, USS Gearing, USS Gyatt, and USS Eugene A. Greene. Note the stern depth charge racks. The quartet was returning from Uruguay where they represented the U.S. at the inauguration of the new Uruguayan president. The Fresno was launched in 1946, too late to serve in WWII, so she took part in good-will diplomatic missions like this. She was sold for scrap in 1966. Photo attributed to Robert Norville, from NavSource.
As detailed by DANFS, the Norfolk-based Greene then became a staple of the 6th Fleet until 1960:
On 10 November 1947, Eugene A. Greene sailed on the first of 9 Mediterranean cruises made over the next 13 years. During those years, she and her sisters of the U.S. 6th Fleet have guarded the interests of peace and order in that sea which was the cradle of democratic government. Voyages to northern Europe and the Arctic varied the routine of overseas deployment for Eugene A. Greene.
What was skipped by DANFS was the fact that Greene was on hand in the region for five months through the 1956 Suez Crisis just in case she was needed.
It should be noted that, by this stage, she was significantly modernized, picking up a new tripod mast with AN/SPS-6 L-band radar (later augmented by an SPS-8A S-band capable of spotting aircraft 60nm away) and lightened her topside by landing most of her WWII AAA suite, torpedoes, and depth charges. This resulted in a change to a destroyer radar picket (DDR-711) that she held from July 1952 until she reverted to the simpler DD-711 in March 1963.
USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) underway at sea on 19 September 1950. Note that she has received a new tripod mast with AN/SPS-6 radar and has landed much of her WWII AAA suite, torpedoes, and depth charges. National Archives Identifier 24743125
At sea, October 1951. 80-G-442191
USS Eugene A. Greene (DDR-711) off the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 18 December 1952. National Archives Identifier 24743145
Same as the above, bow on 24743147
Same as the above, stb profile. Note the newly installed AN/SPS-8 air search radar aft for her role as a DDR picket. 24743143
The Frostiest Part of the Cold War
Greene experienced the life that came with all the classic 1960s naval adventures in the Atlantic.
Greene is on the list of U.S. Navy ships that received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for participating in the Cuban quarantine, from 24 October through 20 November 1962.
Roger Powell missed ship’s movement of the destroyer USS Rush (DD-714) — along with 44 other shipmates as she sortied out over the weekend on little notice– and was tacked on to help fill out Greene’s crew, similarly, headed for Cuba to be a plane guard alongside the USS Enterprise.
Greene would undergo a nearly year-long FRAM I reconstruction at Boston NSY, completed in October 1963. Meant to add 8 years to the ship’s life via a complete rehabilitation of all shipboard components, it also fundamentally changed the destroyer to a modern sub-buster. The 5″/38 Mount 52 forward was removed during the rebuild while a hangar and platform for the QH-50C DASH ASW drone was added in place of the SPS-8A radar house.
Also new was an 8-cell ASROC matchbox launcher amidships, SQS-23 SONAR, VDS, and a six-pack of Mark 32 torpedo tubes. She added Mk 44 ASW torps to her magazine, for use by her own Mk32s as well as DASH, which theoretically could drop them some 20 miles away from the destroyer.
When she left Boston, she became first the flag of Destroyer Squadron 28, then DESRON 32.
Like most East Coast-based Navy ships in the era, Greene participated in several NASA recovery missions between other assignments, logging two (Mercury-Atlas 2 and 3) in early 1961 and Gemini-Titan 2 (GT-2) in 1965, supporting the primary recovery ship, USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39).
A great view of the post-FRAM’d USS Eugene A. Greene (DD-711) steaming past USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39) during operations on 23 September 1964. Note her ASROC amidships and her big DASH hangar aft in place of the deleted Mount 52. She still carries her aft mount (Mount 53) and forward (51). One of the carrier’s big Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King ASW helicopters is flying by in the right foreground, and another destroyer is in the left distance. Photographer: AN Thomas J. Parrett. NH 107007
Speaking of the Med, Greene would make another four deployments there between 1968 and 1972– and on two of them job into the Persian Gulf/Indian Ocean to show the flag in the increasingly important region. This included a seven-month goodwill cruise with the U.S. Middle East Force in 1968 during which she was the first U.S. ship to enter the new Iranian port of Bander Abbas, doing the Shah’s Navy the courtesy of charting the harbor from end to end with her advanced sonar.
Earning “blue noses” for her crew, she also took part in Operation Deep Freeze ’69 in the Antarctic and two North Atlantic cruises that crossed the Arctic Circle. Warming up, she went to Latin America once again in UNITAS ’68.
War! (This time for real)
Greene, being a top-of-the-line ASW boat post FRAM mods, also sailed to the Pacific to take part in a West Pac deployment (June-December 1966) to Vietnamese waters, shipping via the Panama Canal, Pearl Harbor, Guam, Subic Bay, and Hong Kong to take up station as a plane guard alongside the carrier USS Constellation (CVA-64) on 28 July.
There she remained for a month at sea, every day closing to within 4,000 yards with a rescue detail at the ready in case one of Conny’s birds went into the drink, all the while her sonar techs kept an ear out for anything funny in the depths.
USS Constellation (CVA-64), the third ship named for the configuration of 15 stars on the original United States Flag shows an A-4 Skyhawk given landing instructions by a technical crewman using the Landing Signal Officer’s (LSO) console as the LSO watches, October 1966. Greene was her primary plane guard during a good part of Conny’s 1966 Far East Cruise (12 May–3 December) with CVW-15 on board during which 16 aircrewmen and 15 aircraft were lost in operations. K-33638
This lifeguard work paused on 21 August when Greene was dispatched to close to the South Vietnam littoral under control of Task Unit 70.8.9 where she stood by in the Republic of Vietnam’s I Corps area on call for naval gunfire support missions. Over the next five days, her gunners got in lots of work as she steamed as close as 2,000 yards from shore answering NGFS calls with 311 rounds of HE and WP and providing 90 nighttime star shell illumination for friendly outposts. She was credited with annihilating an enemy base camp, wiping out a platoon-sized element of infiltrators in the open, and destroying several enemy supply buildings.
A sampling from her deck log:
Headed back to Yankee Station after rearming while underway, she worked alongside the carrier USS Coral Sea for the rest of her deployment until she slipped her port shaft in October and had to limp into Tse Ying, Taiwan, for a quick fix that would get her to Subic Bay. Returning to Norfolk in December via the Suez and the Med, Greene ended up circumnavigating the globe in a 205-day around-the-world deployment.
In short, her 27-year career with the U.S. Navy was diverse and, well, just remarkably busy. It was little surprise one of her lasting nicknames was “The Steamin’ Greene.”
But all good things must come to an end and on 31 August 1971, with Greene almost eight promised years to the dot past her FRAM I service life extension, she was decommissioned.
A second life
With the general post-WWII rapprochement between a still very fascist Franco and the Western allies, the 1953 Madrid agreements thawed the chill between the U.S. and the country, opening it to military aid in return for basing.
In many ways, the Spanish fleet by the late 1960s, was very American.
These were soon joined by five FRAM I Gearing class destroyers, starting with USS Eugene A. Greene (DD/DDR-711) in 1972. By this time, the Spanish were also slated to get five new-made Baleares-class frigates, variants of the Knox class destroyer escort/fast frigates updated with Standard SAM suites.
Greene, still on the Navy List, was loaned to Spain the same day she was decommissioned. Renamed Churruca (D61) she honored RADM Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza, who was lost on his ship-of-the-line San Juan Nepomuceno at Trafalgar in 1805.
Muerte de Cosme Damián Churruca (detalle), Eugenio Álvarez Dumont
Stricken from the U.S. Navy List on 2 June 1975 three years after she joined the Spanish Navy, Greene was sold to Spain for a token fee and remained in service with the force through the 1980s, class leader of her 11th Destroyer Division sisters. To be fair, although they were 30 years old, these FRAM I Gearings in the 1970s and 80s were still capable against Russki Whiskey, Romeo and Foxtrot-type smoke boats and their guns still worked enough for old-school NGFS should the large Spanish naval infantry need fire missions.
Period photos of Churruca show her still very much in her prime.
With the Cold War ending, so did the Gearings worldwide. Churruca was stricken by Spain on 15 September 1989, and disposed of in a SINKEX in 1991.
Sent to the bottom by a mixture of ordnance from Spanish Air Force F-18s and Spanish Navy AV-8 Matadors as well as some Standard missiles and Harpoons, her death was captured on grainy video, much like a snuff film.
Her four sisters in Spanish service (Gravina, ex-USS Furse; Méndez Núñez, ex-USS O’Hare; Lángara, ex-USS Leary; and Blas de Lezo, ex-USS Noa) were all disposed of within another year.
Of her massive armada of 98 Gearing-class sisterships that were completed, 10 survive above water in one form or another including three largely inactive hulls in the navies of Mexico and Taiwan. The others are museum ships overseas except for USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850) in Fall River, Massachusetts; and the USS Orleck (DD-886) in Jacksonville. Please visit these vital floating maritime relics.
Orleck, fresh out of dry dock, being towed to her new home in Jacksonville
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 new Boeing–Saab T-7 Red Hawk, which has admittedly had some serious teething problems (what weapon doesn’t?), is described by the company as “a low-risk, leading-edge, live, virtual and constructive fifth-generation aircrew training system that delivers a multi-generational leap in capability to revolutionize and reinvigorate fighter pilot training.”
First delivered T-7, Boeing image 230914-F-F3456-1001
There is a long history of simple yet very aerobatic trainers turned into fine combat aircraft and low-cost exports for cash-poor allies. For instance, the two-seat Northrop T-38 Talon — which the Red Hawk is replacing after a storied 60-year run– was developed into the single-seat F-5A the year after the first T-38 was delivered and began shipping to overseas allies two years after that. The Soviets inherited a few post the fall of Saigon and in tests found that it beat the MiG-21 and 23 almost every single time.
But it doesn’t always work out like that.
Take the case of the CW-21.
Curtiss Wright developed the single-seat CW-21 Interceptor (often mistakenly called the CW-21 Demon) in the late 1930s from Carl W. Scott’s two-seater CW-19 utility/advanced trainer aircraft which had some limited export success to Caribbean and Latin American countries.
Keeping almost the exact same length, wing area, and span as the CW-19, the CW-21 was given better aerodynamics and a huge boost in power (from 350 hp to 850 hp) that, combined with its low weight, meant it was optimized for climb and speed, capable of 314 mph (roughly the same as the Morane-Saulnier MS.410 and the Hawker Hurricane and superior to both the Oscar and Zero).
The armament was nose-heavy with a pair of Colt .50 caliber machine guns above the massive engine inside the cowling and another pair of Colt .30 caliber machine guns below it, synchronized to fire through the propeller disc, keeping the thin swept wings light.
It looked great and got some good press as being able to climb a “mile in a minute and one half.”
The thing is, it was criticized by pilots as being difficult to handle, with one U.S. Army Air Corps officer famously saying that it “took a genius to land it.”
Nevertheless, the KMT Chinese and the Free Dutch East Indies governments, to whom it was pitched as just the thing to zap roaming Japanese bombers, were hungry for just about anything they could get and Curtiss was already selling them lots of other types as well.
In “Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947″ by Peter M. Bowers, he details just four CW-21s were built by the company (NX19431, 19941-19943. C/ns: 21-1/21-4) and a further 51 sold as kits in two types to be assembled by the host country.
The completed aircraft and 27 kits were sold to China to be built by CAMCO at Loiwing, near the Burma border for use by the Flying Tigers. This ended in failure with the original demonstrator crashing in China, and the three production aircraft crashing into a mountain while being ferried from Rangoon to Kunming two weeks after Pearl Harbor. None of the kits made it out of Loiwing, being abandoned and destroyed in place when the Japanese rushed in the spring of 1942.
It seems some of the kit remnants were still there when the Allies came back to Loiwing in 1945.
The rest of the kits (24 Type B aircraft with a billed top speed of 333 mph) made it to Andir airfield in Java and to the hands of the military aviation branch of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army (ML-KNIL) where they were assembled locally starting in February 1941 and equipped the Vliegtuiggroep IV, Afdeling 2 (“Air Group IV, No. 2 Squadron”; 2-VLG IV). under 1/Lt. R.A.D. Anemaet. However, the combination of a big engine on a light aircraft at the hands of green pilots led to almost immediate structural problems and only nine were still in service by that December.
Still, they certainly looked fast and capable on the ground in 1941 in Java, with several images surviving today of 2-VLG IV and their newly assembled and camouflaged CW-21Bs in the NIMH archives, captured at the time by one Jan B. van der Kolk.
Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor van ML-KNIL. AKL023173
Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor van ML-KNIL AKL082371a
Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor van ML-KNIL 2039-001-087-009
Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor van ML-KNIL AKL082365
Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor van ML-KNIL AKL082371b
Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor van ML-KNIL AKL082370
They reportedly had a few limited victories against the Japanese but by 3 March 1942, the final CW-21 combat sortie had been flown.
ML-KNIL Curtiss Wright CW-21 Interceptor #CW-357 piloted by Sgt. Hermann depicted shooting down a Japanese Mitsubishi F1M2 (Pete) as seen on MPM models box art by painter Stan Hayek
80 years ago today: The heavy cruiserUSS Minneapolis (CA-36) is seen bombarding Butaritari Island, Makin Atoll, on 20 November 1943, shortly before U.S. Army forces landed there as part of Operation Galvanic. Guns firing are from the cruiser’s starboard side 5″/25-caliber Mk 19 secondary battery. The simultaneous discharge of these guns indicates that they are firing under remote control.
(NHHC: 80-G-202518)
Her guns, as well as the rest of the bombardment force and the planes screening them, did fine work, apparently.
Wrecked facilities on Butaritari Island, Makin Atoll, on 20 November 1943, following the pre-invasion bombardment. Seen from a USS MINNEAPOLIS (CA-36) plane, on Chong’s wharf is in the center background, with bomb craters and wrecked buildings nearby. Note trucks by their garage in the lower center. 80-G-216785
U.S. Army casualties to seize the island were relatively light, with 64 killed and 150 wounded and the fighting soon over on Makin.
A New Orleans-class cruiser, Minneapolis was designed as a light cruiser but was redesignated as a heavy before she was commissioned in 1934. “Minnie” earned an impressive 16 battle stars in WWII across 25 combat engagements, but that didn’t save her from the breakers. She was sold for scrap, on 14 August 1959, after spending 12 years in mothballs.
Well, I can finally talk about a project that started almost a year ago at SHOT Show when I and my Guns.com buddy Alex Revelle were talking over beers about guns and a couple other GDC folks who were along for the event said, “we should turn this into a podcast.”
And, with that, the “Two Guys, One Gun” podcast is born.
Don’t get too excited, it is just a bitter Gen Xer and a sweaty Millennial (who is a Navy guy) talking about gun stuff for 30-45 minutes at a time.
We plan to have it in video format on YouTube with the first two episodes below.
US Coast Guard-manned LCVP landing craft carried invasion troops toward Luzon in Lingayen Gulf, 9 Jan 1945
PA31-17, a humble 36-foot long LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, and Personnel), or “Higgins boat” after the New Orleans manufacturer that churned them out by the thousands (23,000 to be exact) in WWII, was found derelict on the shores of Shasta Lake in fall 2021.
The thing is, although it was old and damaged, it was still in more or less original condition, still with lots of her Higgins-installed mahogany including the original paint on the ramp.
Further, it turned out that PA31-17, assigned throughout the war to the Crescent City class attack transport USS Monrovia (AP-64), landed troops on the beach in seven different campaigns– Sicily, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan (the last three with Devil Dogs of the 2nd Marine Division), Guam (77th Infantry Division), Luzon (96th Infantry then 1st Cavalry Division) and Okinawa (6th Marine Division).
Acquired by the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Columbus, Nebraska—the birthplace of Andrew Higgins, the organization made the move to protect it, not restore it.
So who do you get to stabilize an 80-year-old combat veteran wooden landing craft? A 75-year-old combat veteran woodworker, that’s who. Eric Hollenbeck with Blue Ox Millworks in Eureka, California took on the two-month task and it is documented in The Craftsman – Preserving the Last Higgins Boat, which I just saw online on Max but it is out there on other platforms as well.
From yesterday’s DOD contracts, a future 5th America-class amphibious assault ship, LHA-10:
Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $130,000,000 not-to-exceed undefinitized contract action for advance procurement of long lead time material and associated engineering and design activities in support of one Amphibious Assault Ship (General Purpose) Replacement (LHA(R)) Flight 1 Ship (LHA 10). Work will be performed in Beloit, Wisconsin (36%); Pascagoula, Mississippi (32%); Brunswick, Georgia (26%); and Walpole, Massachusetts (6%). Work is expected to be completed by July 2028. Fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $130,000,000 will be obligated at award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. This contract is awarded based on 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1) only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-24-C-2467).
The reason for the big outlay is that these are essentially aircraft carriers– they would be in any other navy in history– and they cost upwards of $1 billion to construct in a period spanning a half-decade (provided there are no pandemics, hiring issues, or supply chain issues) to build.
Via Ingalls:
The 844-foot LHA 6 America class amphibious assault ship takes approximately five years to build. Its construction consists of 216 structural units, requiring 170 erection lifts, including grand blocks, plus two lifts to set the deckhouse on board (the main house, followed by smaller forward section). These blocks are built on land, starting with the ship’s midsection, and later moved to drydock for launch by translation cars.
Two main turbines provide 70,000 shaft horsepower. Additionally, LHA 6 has a separate source of propulsion, a unique electrical auxiliary propulsion system (APS) that was designed for fuel efficiency. The APS uses two induction-type auxiliary propulsion motors powered from the ship’s electrical grid. America-class ships include 1,000 miles of electrical cable, 431,000 feet of pipe and enough hull insulation to cover 40 acres.
Since the class leader was laid down in 2009, the Navy has taken possession of just two of these vessels (USS America LHA 6 and USS Tripoli LHA 7) — both Flight 0 ships without well decks.
The first Flight I ship, (PCU Bougainville LHA 8) with the standard LHA/LHD style well deck to support LCACs and LCUs as well as a host of smaller boats just transitioned to the water of the Pascagoula River and is set to christen on 2 December and commission sometime next year.
Meanwhile, PCU Fallujah (LHA 9) was only just laid down in September, meaning there will be a gap from 2024-2028 where no LHAs are delivered.
The “Replacement” designation for (LHA(R)) Flight 1 Ship (LHA 10) comes as it is planned to fill the gap left by the scrapped and very similar Pascagoula-built Wasp-class LHD USS Bonhomme Richard which, instead of rejoining the fleet after a mid-life refit in 2020, was decommissioned due to a very preventable fire that hopefully a lot of folks learned some stuff from.
200712-N-BL599-1044 SAN DIEGO (July 12, 2020) Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department boats combat a fire onboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) at Naval Base San Diego, July 12. On the morning of July 12, a fire was called away aboard the ship while it was moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego. Local, base and shipboard firefighters responded to the fire. USS Bonhomme Richard is going through a maintenance availability, which began in 2018. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christina Ross)
The seven remaining Wasps, which the Americas were supposed to eventually replace, are getting older by the day, with USS Wasp herself currently 34 years old and even the newest member, USS Makin Island (LHD-8) just marking her 14th year in the fleet.
The Navy has a love/hate relationship with these big ‘phib hulls, but even new math saw they are running low, with only 9 semi-available now, and pulling the punch when it comes to buying more.
Meanwhile, the forward-based 12th Marines just became the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment and will be packing up everything that isn’t anti-ship truck-related with beachfront delivery to be made by a force of 35 (!) yet-to-be-built Landing Ship–Mediums (LSMs), which are basically just an updated 1940s LCI/LST, although not as heavily armed.
Passing this on to those of you who may be itching to buy a big piece of vintage military gear in superb condition (or know someone who would like one in a stocking next month).
Bowman (I’ve bought lots of old training and dewatted ordnance from them) has German WWII portable artillery rangefinders from Finland, where they were sent during the conflict as aid, and later refurbed by SA into “pristine” condition during the Cold War then put into storage.
Compare to these:
Gotta admit they look pretty sweet, are only $499, and if I had room for one I’d buy two, especially considering my Finnish-used/German-made helmet collection.
