A pair of Ling-Temco-Vought A-7D Corsair IIs of the New Mexico and Colorado Air National Guard, respectively, flying over the Rocky Mountains. The “Sprit of 76” is 70-1048 of the 188th TFS, 150th TFG, NMANG out of Kirtland AFB. It was one of two Air National Guard A-7s that wore a special bicentennial scheme.
70-1048 served in the New Mexico Air Guard, first in the 188th and then in the 146th TFS under a more traditional scheme until it was transferred to AMARC in 1991 when the unit switched roles to become a refueling squadron. It was scrapped in 1997.
The second “Independence Day” bird was 72-0223 of the Louisiana ANG from the 75th TFS, 23rd TFW, at England AFB.
72-0223 went on to serve in the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia ANG and was sent to the boneyard at AMARC in 1991. It was scrapped in 1998.
And another 1976 holdover, since you came this far:
Nanban School, Tsuba with Dragons, Waves, and Tendrils. Japanese, 1700s. Iron with gold inlay. 2014.108
Tsuba of Sukashi-bori (openwork silhouette) type. Japanese, the mid-1500s–early 1600s. Iron. 2014.103
Yoshū Matsuyama Jū Shoami Molikuni, Tsuba (sword guard) with bridge scene. Japanese, the late 1700s–early 1800s. Iron and copper. 2014.405 9 Tsuba with Design of Sho Ki Chasing a Demon. Japanese 1700s. Iron and shakudo (?) with gilding. 2014.110.
If you have never been to the WAM and seen the 2,500-piece Higgins Collection, you are missing out. If nothing else, check out the website, where they have many more striking items in photos.
To many followers of the page, including destroyermen, cruiser sailors, battleship sailors, and members of the Gator Navy– who have at one time or another passed through Pascagoula in the past 40~ years, assigned to PCUs in Spruance, Kidd, Burke, Tico, Iowa Tarawa, Wasp, San Antonio or America-class ships being built or modernized at Ingalls– the name Thunder’s rings a bell.
John “Thunder” Thornton, a Pascagoula High and Ole Miss football standout, returned home and opened his Tavern on South Market Street, just below Ingalls Avenue and only a few blocks up from the beach, in 1977.
Offering a military discount, Whisky Wednesdays, Drinking with Lincoln, a volleyball court, and, later, a pool, music venue (Johnny Joe’s), and a liquor store, it was always a popular and, sometimes, controversial hang out that hovered over the SUPSHIP “off-limits” list from time to time. Hell, when I was in high school in Goula, my friends and I would score a gallon of PBR draft at the drive-through window on Friday night, along with two styrofoam cups, for $5.
The next generation of bluejackets will not know of Thunders, as Thorton himself passed in 2019 and, this week, the recently-closed establishment was razed.
Still, you can bet old-school former red stripers everywhere will get a little misty-eyed through the halo smoke of their Camels once they hear the news, that last call at Thunder’s has come and went.
Over 625 F-35s of all variants have been produced so far. (Lockheed Martin Photo by Angel DelCueto Job Reference Number: FP20-08147 Salvo WMJ Reference Number: 20-08147 Customer: F-35 Communications; Tony Salvo Event: First Denmark F-35 (AP-1) Move from EMAS 1 to Soft Station Location: Fort Worth, Texas Date: 09-15-2020 Time: 1700 Public Release: Approved per JPO Document JSF20-906)
Lockheed-Martin announced this week that the global F-35 fleet has achieved 400,000 flight hours– including developmental test aircraft, training, operational, U.S., and international airframes.
“This milestone is a testament to the dedicated work of the joint government, military, and industry teams sustaining, maintaining, operating, and flying F-35s around the globe,” said Bridget Lauderdale, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program. “With every delivery and every flight hour, the enterprise gets more mature and effective and we are laser-focused on continuing to deliver the most capable, available, and affordable 5th Generation fighter aircraft.”
The announcement came at the same time the Swiss gave the F-35 a greenlight against stiff competition that included the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, and Eurofighter Typhoon for its $6.5 billion fighter program. The country, which currently flies 30 F-18C/D models, wants 36 F-35As before 2030 when the older Hornets are set to retire.
Get this, the reason the Lightning got the win in Bern was that the F-35A also has the lowest operating costs, over 30 years, of all of the candidates evaluated.
I hope, for the Swiss and everyone else that is using the F-35, those estimates hold up.
This is a really great shot of what looks like an M119A2/A3 (L118) 105mm howitzer slung under a UH-60 Blackhawk, one of the few modern guns light enough– just 5,100 lbs– for such lifts.
Soldiers move a howitzer during a joint field training exercise with Marines at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on May 4, 2021. The exercise enhanced partnership, interoperability, and readiness. Photo By: Army Spc. Jessica Scott VIRIN: 210504-A-PO701-870M
SPC Scott, on the same day, took this image, which gives a pointer as to the unit– the historic 3d Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment. Formed in 1916 as the 7th’s old Battery C, they have been part of the 25th (Tropic Lightning) Infantry Division (Light) since 1986.
Schofield Barracks, HI — Soldiers from Alpha Battery, 3-7 Field Artillery, 25th Infantry Division Artillery conducted their M119 Howitzer night live-fire Table VI certification to set conditions for future artillery operations at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, May 19, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jessica Scott)
The Bundeswehr has reported that the last of its troops have left Afghanistan after almost 20 years of service. Three A400Ms carried the final 264-member contingent, made up of Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK) commandos and their support echelon, from Kabul to Wunstorf air force base, not far from Hanover, arriving at 13:52 (CEST) today.
(Foto: Bundeswehr / Torsten Kraatz)
They then cased their field flag until needed later.
Die Truppenfahne wird in das Einsatzführungskommando nach Schwielowsee überführt und dort aufbewahrt. (Foto: Bundeswehr / Torsten Kraatz)
The Bundestag passed the initial Afghanistan mandate on 22 December 2001 and, just three weeks later, German soldiers took part in a patrol in Kabul for the first time. Since then, around 150,000 German troops have cycled through the country, like Americans often serving multiple deployments.
Spähzug mit ihren Fenneks während eines Trainings auf der Ausbildungsanlage “IED-Lane” im Camp Marmal, Mazar-e Sharif am 18.05.2016. (Foto: Bundeswehr)
No less than 59 German soldiers were killed there, 35 of them in combat. These included the first German reservists and the first German policemen to die in deployments abroad since 1945.
Importantly, the Teutonic troops sent back 65,000 cans of beer from Afghanistan as part of their evac from the country.
Leave no bier behind.
Berlin is not out of the country building just yet. Earlier this week 12 German troops were wounded by a suicide bomber while serving with the MINUSMA mission in Mali.
For better or worse, I have practiced pocket carry off and on for almost 30 years. Sure, while in uniform I had a duty holster and a BUG on my ankle because my pockets were tough to get into due to my duty belt, and today I most often carry IWB concealed at about the 3 o’clock position, but I have always thought that pocket carry has its place at times and have defended the practice.
Speaking of this, one of my all-time faves for pocket carry was the S&W Centennial series (Model 642, specifically) but the Ruger LCP got my attention when it came out in 2008. I mean come on, a 9.4-ounce 6+1 .380 that disappeared in your pocket, who wouldn’t like it?
I liked the original LCP so much for pocket carry that I bought one of the early ones in 2009, had it Cerekoted FDE before it was a factory option, and installed Mag-guts spring kits to gain a 7+1 capacity in a flush-fitting mag.
Then came the LCP II a few years ago that changed the profile to make it easier to handle, and added an ounce to the frame and slide, but didn’t change the footprint.
However, the introduction of the current crop of “Micro 9” pistols, double-stack subcompacts– like the Sig P365 or Springfield Hellcat– that carried over 10 rounds in a flush-fitting mag, has swept the carry market.
To that, Ruger has replied with a Micro 380, the new LCP MAX, which is the same rough size as the LCP II, but carries 10+1 rounds in a flush fit or 12+1 rounds in an extended mag, and still fits in a pocket holster.
Warship Wednesday, June 30, 2021: Cleaning Up After the Queen
Here, in this grainy still from a 16mm camera, we see one of the last organized surrenders of Japanese forces, some 70 years ago today– 30 June 1951– on the island of Anatahan to a whaleboat sent ashore by the Abnaki class fleet tug USS Cocopa, whose hull number (ATF-101) can be seen on the boat. The group of Japanese had previously refused to believe World War II ended in 1945, but surrendered to LCDR James B. Johnson, after losing their queen.
But we will get to that.
The 27 hulls of the Abnaki-class were intended for far-reaching ocean operations with the follow-on tail of the fleet. Constructed during the war, they were large for tugs, stretching out 205-feet in length and weighing almost 1,600 tons when fully loaded. Capable of 16.5 knots, they could steam a whopping 15,000 miles at half that clip on a quartet of economical GM diesels. Fairly well-armed for tugs, they carried a 3″/50 DP main gun, two twin 40mm/60 Bofors, and two Oerlikons.
USS Abnaki (ATF-96) underway at Pearl Harbor, February 1952, showing the simple and effective layout of the class, which kept their WWII-era armament well into the 1950s. Cocopa surely emulated the above impression at Anatahan.
Named for Native American tribes, Cocopa carried the name of an Arizona tribe and was constructed by Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Charleston, S.C., commissioned 25 March 1944.
Cocopas by Balduin Mollhausen, circa 1860. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
Her war history was largely skipped over by DANFS, with just 88 words dedicated it the period, but it was interesting if not the stuff of military legend, taking the tug from the Palmetto State to Shanghai with stops in the English Channel and brushes with German U-Boats while in two cross-Atlantic convoys.
Amazingly, she did not earn a single battle star for her WWII service.
Following a postwar overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, she was assigned to Alaskan waters, which at the time were still strewn in wartime wreckage and threats of mines. While operating out of Guam in 1951, she was dispatched to a far-off island to respond to the strange story of a group of Japanese holdouts that the war had forgotten.
Anatahan
Located in the Northern Marianas, the natives there were removed by the Spanish in the 17th Century to turn the 8,300-acre volcanic island into a large coconut/copra plantation. This continued under the Germans, who picked up Spain’s remaining Pacific territories in 1899, and by the 1920s or so, the plantations had fallen into disrepair and, with the Japanese in charge, they stayed that way.
Fast forward to June 1944 and U.S. air assets from the 15 carriers of VADM Marc A. Mitscher’s TF 58 found a Japanese convoy in the area, sailing from Tanapag to Japan.
Over the next three days, as a sideshow to the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” they had easy pickings, splashing the torpedo boat Otori, net layer Kokku Maru, transports Batavia Maru, Hinko Maru, Kamishima Maru, Imizu Maru,Nitcho Maru, Reikai Maru, and Tenryugawa Maru: the freighter Bokuyo Maru, Japanese Army cargo ships Fukoku Maru and Moji Maru, and the coaster Tsushima Maru.
Marianas Operation, 1944. Caption: Burning Japanese cargo ship that was attacked by USS LEXINGTON (CV-16) planes off Saipan, 14 June 1944. Description: Catalog #: 80-G-236902
In the aftermath, a group of some 31 Japanese soldiers and mariners including navy seamen, army privates, and four merchant ship captains, the survivors of several of the ships that were sunk, made it to the lush shores of Anatahan where they lived with a handful of locals who were leftovers from the old plantation days alongside Mr. Kikuichiro Higa, the Okinawan plantation manager, and one Japanese woman, Kazuko Higa, his common-law wife. The senior-most Japanese military member was Sgt. Junji Inoue.
War came to the island when a Saipan-based B-29 Superfortress, T Square 42 (42-74248), from the 498th Bomb Group, 875th Squadron, 73rd Wing, crashed on 3 January 1945 on Anatahan, with no survivors. Meanwhile, the Japanese hid.
On 10 May 1945, elements of the U.S. Army’s 24th Infantry Regiment, carried by the USS Marsh (DE-669), LCI(L)-1054 and LCI(L)-1082, landed on Anatahan and scouted around a bit, staying for a week. The Japanese continued to hide.
In July 1945, the 6th Marine MP Battalion landed on the island and again the Japanese hid inland. They removed the 45 native Carolinians who remained in the village. Other Navy ships visited the island and, hailing the emperor’s remaining subjects there, urged them to surrender.
After the war, in February 1946, a U.S. Army AGRS search party visited the island, located the crash site near the top of its 2,500 ft volcano, and recovered the remains of the crew. Still, the Japanese remained in hiding, despite messages to them that the war was over, including Japanese newspapers and magazines chronicling the peace, which were dismissed as a trick.
As noted by the National Park Service, the Japanese eventually found the B-29, and their fortunes changed.
Early in September 1946, Kazuko and Kikuichiro Higa were crossing the steaming 2,500-foot volcanic crater atop the island when they stumbled upon the wreckage of an American B-29. Parachutes found in the aircraft yielded nylon for clothing and cord that was carefully unraveled, then rewoven into fishing lines. Using stone hammers, the men chopped away the duralumin plates and beneath them found aluminum, which was eventually formed into cooking utensils, razors, harpoons, fishhooks, spears, and knives. Wire from the springs in the machine guns was twisted into shark hooks. Oxygen tanks were modified for use as water catchments. Engine bolts were fashioned into chisels and other cutting and drilling tools. Plexiglass and strips of rubber were made into pairs of underwater goggles. Everything that could be carried away from this great prize was taken and zealously guarded. When one man discovered a method for making a new implement, the less inventive of the group made copies. One man designed a model sailing vessel from duralumin and copper wire from the aircraft. Another produced several banjo-like samisens, traditional Japanese three-stringed instruments.
It also provided instruments of death: A pair of 45 caliber automatic pistols. The weapons were seized by two of Kazuko’s suitors. For the remaining months of their lives, the two reigned as kings of the island.
Soon, Kikuichiro was killed, as were no less than three other survivors, in a series of feuds over crab fishing and Kazuko, who became something of the Queen of Anatahan.
In June 1950, LCDR James Johnson, Deputy Civil Administrator on Saipan, began to wage a hearts and minds campaign to get the Japanese on Anatahan to lay down their arms and go home. This included regular delivery of care packages under a white flag, amounting to letters from the soldiers’ relatives and Japanese authorities, Tokyo newspapers, magazines, food supplies, Japanese beer, and cigarettes.”
This brought about the “surrender” of Queen of Anatahan, who was eager to leave her subjects behind.
Johnson kept up his efforts to get the last of the marooned Japanese off the island for eight months. After dropping leaflets promising the 18 men who were left would be returned to their families, a white flag appeared and our tug sailed from Guam, complete with a platoon of armed Marines and a LIFE journalist, Michael Rougier.
By Rougier, via the LIFE Archives:
I found these two videos in the National Archives of the event and uploaded them to YT. They are silent but moving.
Junji Inoue, the day of his surrender at Anatahan, June 1951. (N-1993.05). Inoue reads a document urging his compatriots to surrender. Scene aboard M.V. Cocopa, Anatahan, June 1951. Inoue’s personal implements. Note fiber zoris, coconut husk hat, knives fashioned from B-29 wreckage. (N-1993.07)
Once the men arrived in Guam, they were hospitalized for a week then flown to Japan.
From the Aug. 1951 All Hands
The Lord of the Flies tale of shipwrecked soldiers and sailors fighting over a single queen while surviving on coconut wine and crabs was turned into several books and at least one internationally popular film, Josef von Sternberg’s Anatahan (1953).
Meanwhile, back to our ship!
With the war in Korea increasingly drawing in naval assets after the entrance of Chinese volunteers by the hundreds of thousands, USS Cocopa (ATF-101) was soon off to combat. Deployed to the region in the summer and fall of 1953, she was key in saving the Canadian Tribal-class destroyer HMCS Huron (G24), which had grounded while in range of Nork shore batteries. The mighty tug took the damaged Canuck, stern-first, to Sasebo.
Cocopa did receive a battle star for Korea.
USS Cocopa (ATF-101) moored pier side, date, and location unknown. Note The tug’s engineers have managed to paint their battle efficiency “E” on their ship’s tiny smokestack. NHHC
By 1954, she was supporting Operation Castle, a series of atomic tests at Bikini Atoll.
Then came numerous trips to Vietnam, deploying there five times between 1963 and 1972, earning five stars for her service in Southeast Asia. One of the most interesting taskings during her time there was as a “Yankee Station Special Surveillance Unit” to deceive and jam Soviet Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and Electrical Intelligence (ELINT) trawlers that were monitoring American operations in the Gulf of Tonkin.
USS Cocopa (ATF-101) underway,1969, still with her 3-inch gun but with her Bofors and Oerlikons removed. L45-54.04.01
Decommissioned, 30 September 1978, she would go on to continue her service in more North American waters.
Viva Armada!
Sold under the Security Assistance Program to Mexico, 30 September 1978, Cocopa was commissioned into the Republic of Mexico Navy as ARM Jose Maria Mata (ARE-03) until 1993, then as ARM Seri with the same hull number.
She is still on active duty, based in Tampico.
ARM Seri ARE03 Tampico Mexico 2016 via ShipSpotter IMO 7342691
Check out this video of her underway in 2017, looking good for her age.
Epilogue
Of Cocopa’s 26 Abenaki-class sisters, they have been very lucky with two exceptions– USS Wateree (ATF-117) was sunk during a typhoon, 9 October 1945 with a loss of eight crew members; and USS Sarsi (ATF-111) met her fate during Typhoon Karen in 1952 at the hands of a drifting naval mine off the coast of Korea. The rest lived to a ripe old age with the U.S. Navy, eventually being retired by Uncle Sam in the 1960s and 70s. While the last of her class in U.S. service, USS Papago (ATF-160), was disposed of in 1997, many were transferred overseas– such as Cocopa, who continues to serve alongside classmates ARM Yaqui (ex-Abnaki) and ARM Otomi (ex-USS Molala ATF-106).
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.
STRAIT OF MALACCA (June 18, 2021) The Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) transits the South China Sea with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey (DDG 97) and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67). Reagan is part of Task Force 70/Carrier Strike Group 5, conducting underway operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rawad Madanat) 210618-N-JW440-2053
The Reagan CSG, made up of Destroyer Squadron 15, Carrier Air Wing 5, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), and Commander, Task Force 70, has lately been spinning up in the Indian Ocean, covering the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
While the Navy’s long term cultivation of oak groves and other vital woods were a strategic no-brainer in the 18th and 19th century (and they still have Navy foresters today!) it may be a little surprising to think that the Army also had an important interest in keeping stockpiles of fine lumber on hand during much of the same period.
Via the Springfield Armory National Historic Site:
The Black Walnut Tree, many of which can presently be found on the grounds, were used to make gun stocks. So why was Black Walnut used instead of other wood? Black Walnut is a hard, dense wood that is resilient. This wood, when seasoned (slowly dried), doesn’t shrink much and it isn’t prone to splitting which is key when making a gunstock.
Once a tree had been felled, the wood needed to be properly seasoned which took anywhere from 2-8 years depending on the moisture content of the wood. Because of this length of time, thousands of blanks needed to be properly stored for drying.
Under Major James Ripley, Building 19 was constructed to store these blanks for drying.
Black walnut drying for gun stocks, Springfield Armory NHS Archives
During the Civil War, to quicken the process, a steam heated dry kiln was installed.
The Armory bought blanks from Upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Massachusetts among others. They specifically requested wood that was fine, not knotted, or sappy to ensure the best quality for the U.S. Military Arms. While other trees were used to make gunstocks through private arms makers, Black Walnut was the primary wood used at the Armory, for small arms production, during its operating years.
By the 1820s, the armory used a Blanchard Lathe, which could carve out a rough gun stock from a blank in about nine minutes.
The last U.S. martial rifle to use a wood stock was the M14, which ceased production in 1964. Springfield Armory closed in 1968.
