Original caption: “Seaman Barrett C. Benson who was a Methodist minister with two churches at Dalton and LaFayette, Georgia, saw the men of his churches going off to war…Deciding to follow them, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard.”
Note his flat cap with Coast Guard band, the distinctive USCG shield on the sleeve of his winter jumper, classic 13-button trousers, 10-pocket M1910 belt with M1905 bayonet hanging from its side, and an M1903 rifle with stripper clip of .30-06 M2 ball at the ready. If you are curious, the photo even caught the rifle’s serial number (587211) which makes it a circa 1914 Springfield Armory-made weapon. (USCG Photo, NARA NAID: 205588663)
The former minister joined the Coast Guard as an apprentice seaman and went through the regular ‘boot’ training with thousands of other young men. He is shown carrying on his duties as an armed guard protecting fighting ships under construction at Manitowac, Wisconsin.
Coast Guardsman Benson said, “When the war is over, I hope to be back in the pulpit a better man for having had the adventure of trying to maintain my duty to both Church and State.”
While there is no date on the photo, the craft behind the good SN (Rev.) Benson is, judging from the number and the shape of the wheelhouse, likely the 38-foot “cabin cruiser” type picket boat CG 38387, or possibly CGR-387, a Coast Guard Reserve “Corsair Fleet” picket boat (formerly the 37-foot pleasure craft Contact, #22H158) taken into service in the 8th Coast Guard District in Feb 1942 and then disposed of in June 1946. As both vessels were active throughout WWII, that doesn’t narrow it down very much, but I’d lay odds on, judging from the uniform and equipment, the image was likely snapped in the winter months of 1942.
Further, it doesn’t seem that Benson remained in the USCG for “the duration,” and he soon shipped off with the Navy as a chap since a 2013 obituary lists him as, “A retired United Methodist Church Minister and United States Navy Chaplain with the rank of Commander, serving on a ship in the Pacific Theatre during WWII, active duty during Korean conflict and the Vietnam era.”
After a decade rocking a bone stock third generation Glock 19– finger grooves and all– I thought it was time to give the gun a little upgrade.
As covered in previous articles the Gen 3 G19 is probably one of the most popular compact(ish) 9mm pistols ever made and I’ve been carrying the same one off and on since at least 2012.
Sure, sure, the pistol had been released as far back as 1998 and I was late to the party, but I still got in the door during the model’s heyday. Although surpassed generationally by the Gen4 and Gen5 variants, the Gen3 remains in production likely due to a combination of the fact that it is still on California’s roster and folks just dig it. After all, it is “old reliable” in the 9 milly game– akin to a Toyota Tundra– with about the worst thing people can say about the Glock compact it is that it is boring or that it carries a lackluster trigger and sights.
About that.
I recently decided the time was right to refresh my old Gen3 G19 as it had passed its (still very young) 15K mark. This meant a teardown and swap out of all the small springs (firing pin spring, extractor depressor spring, mag catch spring, trigger spring, slide lock spring, and slide stop lever spring) just to be sure it would keep going bang for at least another 15K. This was the next level up from my normal post-range cleaning and swapping out a new recoil spring every 3K rounds or so. For the record, I always just went with the same old OEM Glock parts.
Then I thought to myself, how about some new sights, and maybe a barrel, and maybe a trigger…
The differences are subtle to the overall aesthetics, but ring true when you start her up
While I spend a lot of time digging through various archives, a new one is proving interesting. While the Associated Press’s video news archive on YouTube has been around since 2015 and has chalked up over 2 billion views, it is normally ho-hum at best, simply reposting the latest Hollywood gossip or political talking head that aired three days ago.
However, they have been blitzing the channel almost every morning for the past couple of weeks with some great short clips from the 1960s and 70s.
Among the more interesting gems I’ve noticed popping up lately (and getting single-digit views no less!):
An XB-70A Valkyrie prototype (#AV-2) crash out of Edwards AFB in the same month, featuring amazing footage of both AV-1 and AV-2 in flight.
The newly-commissioned (and soon to be tragically lost) Skipjack-class nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) cruising on the surface.
A May 1974 clip of the amphibious assault ships USS Inchon (LPH-12) and Iwo Jima (LPH-2) in the Suez operating RH-53D minesweeper birds of HM-12 in an effort to clear the canal of mines sown in the Yom Kippur War, including a shot of Iwo with no less than seven big Sikorsky’s on her deck. The TF65 (Operation Nimbus Star) mission saw HM-12 sweep some 7,600 linear miles in about 500 hours of on-station time.
B-52 Strat carpet bombings in the jungle outside of Saigon in Nov. 1965, with fighter escort from an F-100 Super Sabre.
Israeli self-propelled artillery guns of the Yom Kippur War era including rare Soltam L-33 Ro’ems which were M4 Sherman tanks modded with a huge hull and a 155mm L/33 howitzer.
April 1978 clip of white-painted UN-marked French Panhard armored cars (including some 90mm gun-armed variants) rolling off an LST into Beirut
And a longer August 1978 piece on the Panavia Tornado– likely early prototype XX946– in tests with the RAF, including some great low-level passes at MOD Boscombe Down. Keep in mind that the RAF only accepted their first two production Tornado in July 1980.
The GUPPY’d fleet boats USS Sirgao (Tench-class Guppy II) (SS-485) and USS Piper (Balao-class Fleet Snorkel) (SS-409) and the Cleveland/Galveston-class cruiser USS Little Rock (CLG-4, former CL 92) of the U.S. Sixth Fleet stand draped with lights while moored during the late evening hours at Palma, Mallorca, Spain.
As noted, “All sailing units deployed with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean displayed such lights while in port.”
DANFS notes that Little Rock visited Palma several times while in the Med: 30 July-3 August 1969, 25-30 May 1970, 28 February-3 March 1974, and 2-24 September 1974. This would seem to dispel the possibility of the above being a Christmastime image, although it does seem very “Feliz Navidad.”
Nonetheless, comparing the records for Sirgao, which was decommissioned on 1 June 1972, and Piper, which transitioned to a pierside training hulk in 1967, would point towards a more likely date of December 1963, when the latter was last in the Med, and Little Rock was just wrapping up a stint as VADM William E. Gentner Jr.’s Sixth Fleet flagship, relieved at Rota by sistership USS Springfield (CLG-7) on 15 December that year. This becomes solidified when you look at Little Rock’smore detailed chronology on her veterans’ association page, which notes she was at Palma 11-14 December, just prior to leaving the Med.
SOCOM plans to designate the new L3 Harris/Air Tractor AT-802U Sky Warden “Armed Overwatch” aircraft as the OA-1K in service, borrowing the old “O” (observation) and “A” (attack) nomenclature but mashing them together with the same “1” as used by the legendary A-1 Skyraider and O-1 Bird Dog of Vietnam fame.
The last operational “OA” type (disregarding the fact that forward air controller-piloted A-10 Warthogs are deemed OA-10s as they are physically unchanged and remain fully combat capable despite the redesignation) was so long ago that it meant something different– the OA-4 Dolphin was a circa 1930s Army flying boat with the designation standing for Observation, Amphibian.
If you ask me, the new aircraft should be the OV-11, following in the path of the OV-10 Bronco and OV- 1 Mohawk, but of course, nobody asks me.
Air Tractor has been pushing this variant as a “strike ISR” platform for the past few years, which made a lot of sense when the U.S. was heavily engaged in COIN warfare for the past 20 years.
SOCOM plans to procure a total of 75 OA-1Ks, organized into four operational 15-aircraft squadrons and the remainder used by a training and conversion unit. Falling under AFSOC, some 200 pilots and another 1,000 ground crew will be learning how to fly and maintain tail dragger combat aircraft— something not fielded by the U.S. since the 1940s– over the next few years.
The overall maximum program cost if everything is fully funded is $3 billion, which is a staggering $40 million per aircraft but includes the training pipeline and support.
The fleet of modern multi-mission aircraft will address SOCOM’s need for a deployable, sustainable single-engine fixed-wing, crewed and affordable aircraft system. It will provide close air support, precision strike, armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), strike coordination and forward air controller requirements for use in austere and permissive environments. The aircraft will be used in irregular warfare operations.
A rare military relic from the pre-Revolutionary War era is up for grabs at this month’s Morphy Auctions’ popular Collectible Firearms & Militaria event, set for December 13-15, 2022 at Morphy’s Pennsylvania gallery.
Among the 1,632 lots are a ton of vintage powder horns, (52) swords, (48) knives, (31) NFA arms, ammunition, and 259 assorted lots of militaria, ranging from uniforms, medals, and flags to a variety of field gear and equipment. Many “book examples” are featured.
This one caught my eye:
A .67-caliber 1760 British light infantry flintlock carbine!
The key traits of the light infantry fusil of the age are a smaller carbine bore (.65-67 rather than .75 in standard muskets), a 42-inch barrel (vs 46+ on the “Brown Bess”), a slimmed stock with a simplified butt plate, trigger guard, and ramrod pipes, wooden ramrod, a muzzle band rather than a cap, a unique thumb plate, and a carbine lock. These were prized by scouts and skirmishers, particularly in British light infantry units. In other words, the first shots at Lexington and Concord were likely from carbines such as these.
These guns weighed 7-8 pounds compared with the standard 11 lbs of the Long Land Musket.
As described by Morphy:
The fight for American independence comes into sharp focus in Lot 1098, a rare-pattern 1760 British light infantry flintlock carbine. Its distinctive furniture is of a type seen on carbines recovered from French and Indian War sites, e.g., Bushy Run Battlefield, Fort Ligonier, etc. It is also the very same type of carbine that was used by British infantry regiments during the American Revolutionary War, as early as 1771. The example offered by Morphy’s is identical to one shown in DeWitt Bailey’s reference Small Arms of the British Forces in America. In that book, Bailey states that before 1760, a total of 6,589 such carbines had been produced and that by 1776, every British infantry regiment had at least two of the guns in its possession.
Note what seems to be a signed personal yosegaki hinomaru “good luck flag” at the top that likely belonged to one of the crew, probably Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki (IJNA 1940), a Japanese rising sun (Kyokujitsu-ki), and a same-sized U.S. ensign, which is curious. National Archives Photo 80-G-13033
The third Japanese Type A boat spotted by American forces in and around Pearl Harbor– after one famously sunk by the old four-piper destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) and another less known sub dispatched by the newer USS Monaghan (DD-354) on the morning of that infamous day– the abandoned HA-19 was dubbed “Midget C” when Army Air Corps pilots spotted her grounded on an offshore reef near Waimanalo on 8 December after the craft’s scuttling charge failed to go off.
Washed ashore near where Sakamaki, the only survivor of the hapless vessel, swam ashore, HA-19 was captured in remarkable condition and towed from the surf zone by an Army tractor.
HA-19. (Japanese “Type A” midget submarine). Beached in eastern Oahu, after it unsuccessfully attempted to enter Pearl Harbor during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack. The photograph was taken on or shortly after 8 December 1941. 80-G-32683
Same, 80-G-32682
Other items besides the flags were recovered, including a map of the harbor with HA-19‘s planned route.
Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. Chart of Pearl Harbor recovered from a Japanese midget submarine captured after the attack. The chart shows various courses around Ford Island and gives ship locations that do not necessarily correspond to actual 7 December ship positions. Since it presumably came from the midget submarine HA-19, which was unsuccessful in its attempts to enter the harbor, these details probably represent expected ship locations and intended maneuvers by the submarine. 80-G-413507
Disassembled in three large pieces and inspected, HA-19 served as a traveling war bonds trophy before being put on outdoor display for 40 years before the boat was semi-restored and moved inside the Nimitz Museum (National Museum of the Pacific War) in Texas a while back, and it is still there.
As for Sakamaki, he was not only the sole survivor of his boat but was also the lone survivor of the crews of the five Japanese midgets that participated in the attack.
Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. Wartime painting in oils on silk, by an unidentified Japanese artist, depicting the four officers and five crewmen who were lost with the five Japanese midget submarines that participated in the attack. The single survivor of that effort is omitted from the painting, which features a view of the attack on Ford Island in its center. NH 86388-KN (Color)
Sakamaki, the first Japanese prisoner of war in U.S. captivity during World War II, had his file and name stricken from the Japanese records once his story was flashed around the world. Repatriated after VJ Day, he ultimately retired from Toyota, visited HA-19 on at least two occasions, and passed in 1999, one of the last Japanese Pearl Harbor vets.
Four of the five Pearl Harbor midget submarines have been found– all lost before they could penetrate the harbor– and, as noted by NHHC, could be the most controversial and a missing piece of naval history:
One of the five Pearl Harbor midgets is still unaccounted for. Recent studies of Pearl Harbor attack photograpy have led some observers to argue that one of the midgets was in place off “Battleship Row” as the Japanese torpedo planes came in, and may have fired its torpedoes at USS Oklahoma (BB-37) or USS West Virginia (BB-48). This contention is still controversial, but, if it is true, the “missing” Type A midget submarine may lie undiscovered inside Pearl Harbor.
The French Interior Ministry, on the basis that the country had as many as six million unregistered firearms in public hands, recently sought to get them surrendered.
This gun “surplus” in the government’s eyes came due to several factors. A crossroads of large-scale military campaigns going back centuries– the first recorded European battle where cannons were used was at Crecy in Northern France in 1346– the country has seen most of the modern armies of the continent fight their way across its soil at one time or another, leaving lots of gear behind. Added to this was an extensive underground Resistance army that swelled to 400,000 freedom fighters equipped by Allied weapon drops during World War II, which saw many guns quietly squirreled away afterward, just in case. Finally, the country saw a vibrant and active shooting sports community that, in more recent years, has declined.
Now, to get those “off-record” inherited or heirloom guns either recorded on the government’s books or destroyed, the French government held a nationwide “amnesty” for “armes héritées et trouvées” or “legacy and found weapons.” The event, held from Nov. 25 through Dec. 2 at more than 300 locations, allowed individuals to bring in undeclared guns and either relinquish them or register them with the government, joining the growing list of 5 million firearms already documented.
In other words, the event wasn’t aimed at getting guns out of the hands of criminals, but out of the average resident’s closet and garage.
In all, only some 150,000 firearms and 4 million rounds of ammunition were abandoned while another 50,000 guns were registered, falling far short of the government’s estimate of six million, meaning that non-compliance among many off-book gun owners remains high.
In probably the best commemoration of the 81st anniversary of the one-sided attack at Pearl Harbor, Electric Boat held a ceremony to lay the keel for the future Virginia-class attack boat USS Arizona (SSN 803), the first ship to carry the name since BB-39 was lost.
As noted by EB:
WWII veterans Bill Stewart, Cliff Sharp, Billy Hall, Wallace Johnson, and Tony Faella were able to be with us in person for this occasion. Ken Potts and Lou Conter, the last two living survivors of the battleship USS Arizona, offered their virtual presence and remarks. On behalf of the men and women of Electric Boat, thank you all for your dedication, bravery, and service to our country.
General Dynamics Electric Boat is proud to build SSN 803 Arizona, a submarine that symbolizes and honors the legacy and courage of all those who died 81 years ago today serving their country.
The ship’s sponsor is Nikki Stratton, following the passing of her grandfather, Donald Stratton, at the age of 97.
The elder Stratton was on the battleship during the Japanese attack and, despite being badly burned and discharged as a result of his injuries in 1942, Donald reenlisted in 1944, then worked throughout his life to help honor the memory of Pearl Harbor and those who gave their lives in service to their country.
Warship Wednesday, Dec.7, 2022: Pearl Harbor D+365
Just one year to the day after the Japanese attack that wiped out the Pacific Fleet’s Battleforce, sending four battleships (five if you count the old USS Utah) to the bottom and severely damaging four more, the Navy was already busy making new ships to fill the gaps.
Commissioned in that 365-day period between December 7th, 1941 and 1942 were all four of the brand new South Dakota-class battleships, with SoDak (BB-57) entering the fleet on 20 March, Indiana (BB-58) on 30 April, Massachusetts (BB-59) on 12 May– then cleaning the Vichy French battleship Jean Bart‘s clock just six months later– and Alabama (BB-60) on 16 August, very much making good on the battlewagon losses from Pearl Harbor.
Embarcadero, 1946, showing battleships Alabama, right, Indiana, left, and Massachusetts, center. All three, along with class leader South Dakota, were commissioned within eight months of Pearl Harbor. Photo via San Francisco Public Library
Moreover, the two larger North Carolina-class battleships that were in the Atlantic at the time of the attack on shakedown, were in the Pac and dealing damage in the waters off Guadalcanal (Washington had sent the Japanese battleship Kirishima to the bottom on 15 November 1942).
Further, the most lightly damaged battleship at the Pearl Harbor attack, USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) had been repaired just a month after the attack and was even at sea during the Battle of Midway as part of VADM Pye’s Task Force 1.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), shown on the warpath against the Empire, firing her guns during the first days of landings at Guam, Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 67584
By 1944, six of the eight battleships that had been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor had been returned to service, better and more modern than ever. Only Oklahoma and Arizona would never sail again.
It was not just ships, by the end of 1942, the U.S. was producing more military material than the entire Axis bloc combined and showed no signs of slowing down.
By 1944, as American foundries were making 150 tons of steel every minute– around the clock– shipyards were easily launching four merchant ships per day on average along with at least one warship every five days and up to seven aircraft carriers per month (February: Casablanca-class escort carriers USS Shamrock Bay, Shipley Bay, Sitkoh Bay, and Steamer Bay along with the Essex-class fleet carriers USS Ticonderoga, Bennington, and Shangri-La). In all, 18 American shipyards built 2,710 “Emergency” Liberty ships alone between 1941 and 1945– each requiring 592,000 man-hours (as much as a third performed by women) and 6,850 tons of steel– followed by another 534 larger and faster Victory ships built between 1944 and 1946. Added to this were vast encompassing fleets of amphibious warfare ships (1,051 LSTs and 923 LCIs were constructed during WWII not to mention the amazing 23,000 smaller LCM, LCVP, and LCPL “Higgins Boats”).
Look at this chart of force levels for 1938-44 and pay close attention to the totals for 1941-42-43-44, where the U.S. fleet roughly doubles every year from 790 to 1,782 to 3,699 to 6,084 before peaking at 7,601 ships of all sorts on VJ Day.
‘Big J’ on the Way!
But we have forgotten about the best news the country got on December 7, 1942.
The lead ship of the largest class of American battleships ever produced, USS Iowa (BB-61) had been launched on 27 August followed by New Jersey (BB-62), on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) Caption: “World’s largest battleship” is christened by Mrs. Charles Edison, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 7 December 1942. Description: Courtesy of Allan J. Drugan, Columbus, Ohio. Catalog #: NH 45485
USS New Jersey BB-62 Waterborne, a few hours after launch, December 7, 1942.
The Iowas were immense ships, with some 175 tons of blueprint paper alone in the class’s 430,000 man-days of design and each vessel’s 3,300,000 man-days of construction time.
Each was crafted with:
4,300,000 feet of welding
90 miles of piping
15,000 valves
300 miles of electric cables (some of them armored)
900 electric motors
312,000 pounds of paint
15 miles of manila and wire rope
1,857 access openings (161 hatches, 844 doors, and 852 manholes)
Even for her size, New Jersey was just a bullet point in the U.S. shipbuilding program 80 years ago. The U.S. Navy and Maritime Commission between them officially launched no less than 25 ships across the nation on 6-8 December 1942. Among the 15 vessels for the Navy that day was the new Independence-class light aircraft carrier USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24)— which would go on to earn the Presidental Unit Citation and a full dozen battle stars in WWII– the future 11-starred Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), the Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Miami (CL-89) which would pick up a half-dozen battle stars of her own, and, as mentioned, New Jersey, the latter a full year ahead of schedule.
New Jersey would end up spending more days in commission than her sisters, some 21.5 years – 2.5 years more than Iowa, 5 years more than Missouri, and 8.5 years more than Wisconsin. For several years (1968-69 and again in 1982-84) she was the world’s only operational battleship.
As noted by the Battleship New Jersey Museum, “across World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf, the New Jersey earned a total of 19 Battle and Campaign stars, making her the most decorated battleship in American history, the most of any surviving U.S. Navy ship, and the second-most decorated ship in American history.”
In a bit of coming full circle, the Virginia-class submarine PCU New Jersey (SSN 796)— only the third U.S. Navy vessel named for the Garden State– last April was rolled out of Newport News Shipbuilding’s Modular Outfitting Facility to the Floating Dry Dock, where she was floated and launched. The submarine is now at a pier undergoing extensive testing in preparation for sea trials. She is expected to be delivered to the Navy late in 2022 and should be commissioned shortly after.
