So long, Armidales

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Australia this week said goodbye to the last of 14 aluminum-hulled Armidale-class patrol boats, with the last three active members (HMAS Bathurst, Albany, and Childers) sailing into Darwin’s HMAS Coonawarra for the last time.

HMA Ships Bathurst, Albany, and Childers sail into Darwin harbour for the final time.

HMA Ships Bathurst, Albany, and Childers sail into Darwin harbour for the final time.

They began entering service in 2005, but due to almost constant deployments via 21 rotating crews, and taskings that took them as far as Timor, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island, as well as on joint counter-terrorism patrols in the Sulu Sea with the Philippine Navy, they are ready for retirement.

Decent ships at some 186 feet in length, they had a 300-ton displacement and a reliable MTU diesel powerplant, which gave them long legs and a 42-day endurance. Armed with a 25mm Mk38 in a Typhoon remote mount and two .50 cals, they carried a 21-member crew– small for a 186-foot PC– as well as two 24-foot RIBs.

However, aluminum is not known for extended durability in high sea states often encountered in the region, and besides hull cracking, they are just worn out.

HMAS Childers prepares to come alongside HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin. Photo: Petty Officer Leo Baumgartner

HMAS Coonawarra has joined former Armidale Class Patrol Boats crew members to welcome the last of the ACPBs, HMA Ships Albany, Bathurst, and Childers, as the ships conducted a final group entry into HMAS Coonawarra

They were also the stars (and set) of Seasons 2-5 of the excellent Ozzie maritime LE drama, Sea Patrol, which aired from 2008 to 2011 and is widely available to watch for free online.

They are being replaced by a half-dozen larger (262 foot/1,600-ton) Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels, which have the same armament but an aviation deck and better seakeeping abilities.

Navy’s second Offshore Patrol Vessel NUSHIP Eyre arrives at Fleet Base West to begin her transition to the operational release phase. *** Local Caption *** NUSHIP Eyre berthed alongside Fleet Base West for the first time on Friday, 3 October 2025. Her arrival marks the beginning of the transitions to Operational release – a proud moment for the crew, who have proven themselves responsive and adaptive throughout the dynamic lead-up to this milestone.

These are augmented by a dozen 189-foot/400-ton Cape and Evolved Cape class PBs, built by Austal.

Registration Open for the 2026 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships!

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Via the USAMU, Fort Benning- December 2025- Attention all U.S. Army Soldiers! Registration is now open for the 2026 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships at Fort Benning, Georgia, March 8-14.

The US Army Small Arms Championship (All Army) is an advanced combat live-fire training event. Training and skill exercises apply to all military small arms firing disciplines.

This event is only open to Active Army, Army Reserves, U.S. Army or Air National Guard, Military Academy, College ROTC Cadets, and OCS Candidates.  Civilians and military personnel from other services are prohibited from participating in any event.

All competitors must register as individuals for this event.  Please ensure that you fill out all of the information on the registration form.

USAMU will not be providing weapons or equipment to competitors.  This is the responsibility of the unit sending the Soldier to the event. The Match Program can be found in the upper-right corner.  We have made changes to the match program.  Please ensure that you download the match program.

Registration and the Program can be found here.

Registration closes February 27, 2026.

Gurkhas taking care of their own

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A burial service was held in late November in Italy for an unknown WWII soldier. A bearer party from the Gurkha ARRC Support Battalion carried him, in the rain, to his final resting place at CWGC Cemetery Arezzo.

The casualty was found in a shallow trench within a forest in Alpe di Catenaia near the town of Subbiano, Italy. Research undertaken by JCCC with help from The National Army Museum established that the soldier was most probably involved in action taking place at the beginning of August 1944 and serving with 20th Brigade of the 10th Indian Infantry Division, which included Gurkha units, notably the 2nd Bn/3rd (Queen Alexandria’s Own) Gurkha Rifles. 

According to the NAM, during WWII, more than 110,000 men served in 40 Gurkha battalions in the Western Desert, Italy, Greece, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma. Nearly 30,000 of them were killed or wounded.

Following the capture of Sicily in late summer 1943, the Allies slowly moved up the leg of Italy to penetrate the Gothic line – the Germans’ last line of defense. The Gurkhas and Indian soldiers who served in the 10th Indian Division were involved in every major offensive and played a significant role in Italy. Their stamina, strength, and ability to fight in difficult terrains made them ideal for this offensive.

This soldier can only have served with a handful of units, but the sheer number of casualties testifies to the ferocity of the fighting, making identification impossible. It is believed this casualty was most probably an Indian or Gurkha soldier.

The service was conducted by Reverend Timothy Watts CF, the bearer party was led by Warrant Officer Class One Yogendra Pratap Singh Thakuri, and the musician was Lance Corporal Amar Magar, The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Readings were delivered by Colonel Erica Bridge, Captain Tej Bahadur Gurung, Rifleman Deepen Gurung, and Sapr Munfin Eakten.

Photos courtesy of Sgt S Terry, HQ Public Affairs Office, Crown Copyright

While the old 3rd Gurkha Rifles have been part of the Indian Army since 1947, the current Brigade of Gurkhas in the British Army boasts a strength of some 4,000 soldiers.

The forgotten Hagaru-ri airlift

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Official period caption: “Astonished Marines of the 5th and 7th Regiments, who hurled back a surprise onslaught by three Chinese communist divisions, hear that they are to withdraw! Ca. December 1950.”

Photo by Sgt. Frank C. Kerr. (Marine Corps). NARA FILE #: 127-N-A4852

After four days of violent combat in late November 1950 against the PRC’s fresh 59th, 79th, and 89th divisions, the 5th and 7th Marines began a fighting withdrawal to Hagaru-ri, the division’s forward operating base, some 14 miles south, with an ultimate evacuation by sea at Hungnam, another very cold and hard 78 miles away.

Joined in Hagaru-ri by the Army’s badly mauled 31st Regimental Combat Team, one of the first large American aeromedical evacuations then took place with wounded removed by USAF and Marine C-47s and C-54s, as well as by Stinson OY-1 liaison aircraft, and Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopters of Marine Observation Squadron (VMO) 6.

By the end of 5 December, the last full day of the Hagaru-ri airlift before the troops bugged out for Hungnam, an eye-popping 4,369 wounded Marines and Soldiers had been evacuated by the Combat Cargo Command in six days.

Corpsman offering canteen of water to wounded men aboard a Marine air evacuation transport departing an emergency air strip at Hagaru-ri to the rear area evacuation. USMC Photo No. A-130289, 127-GR-51-A130289, National Archives Identifier 74241240

Casualties are being put aboard evacuation planes at Hagaru-ri. From here, and later at Koto-ri, to the South, an estimated 4,800 wounded men were snatched from death and flown back to safety and hospitalization. USMC Photo by T/Sgt, Royce V. Jobe, No. A-130281. 127-GR-51-A130281. National Archives Identifier 74241237

The battered 1st Marine Division reached the port of Hungnam on 11 December, and evacuation by 193 assembled Task Force 90 ships commenced through Christmas Eve, by which time some 100,000 UN troops and another 98,000 Nork refugees had been taken off by sealift.

CVN-68 final call to Battleship Row

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Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) render honors as the ship passes the USS Arizona Memorial while arriving at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, 29 November 2025. The Nimitz made the scheduled port visit while operating in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations during an eight-month deployment as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 11.

Credit: Navy Seaman Matthew C. Wolf. VIRIN: 251129-N-AW546-1141P

U.S. Navy sailors man the rails on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) while pulling into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Nov. 29, 2025. Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations on a scheduled deployment, demonstrating the U.S. Navy’s unwavering commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jaron Wills)

The photo is appropriate as ADM Chester Nimitz, the supercarrier’s namesake, was dispatched to Pearl Harbor to assume command of the Pacific Fleet just nine days after Arizona went down, and would assume command of the seriously damaged and demoralized force in a ceremony aboard the submarine USS Grayling (SS-209) on 31 December 1941, as no battlewagons were availible since all eight dreadnoughts in the Harbor were sunk or severely damaged.

The carrier was christened on 13 May 1972 by Catherine Nimitz Lay, the daughter of the late admiral.

This is likely CVN-68’s final trip past Battleship Row, as she is scheduled to begin deactivation in early 2026, capping a 51-year career.

Her first port call at Pearl was back during RIMPAC 1988– as OPFOR against the USS Missouri Battleship Battle Group, no less– and she has been back at least 11 times since then.

And, of course, she will live on as Pearl Harbor’s strongest yet unsuccessful defender, ala 1980s The Final Countdown.

The Navy granted access to Nimtz during production of the movie, so when you see those stunning shots of the “Big 6-8 haze gray and underway,” it is not stock footage.

Shootin’s Good in the Schoutens!

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On the road today to Georgia at a firearms industry event to see some new guns from a company whose name rhymes with “Wok.”

Thus, I offer you the reader this abridged Warship Wednesday, with a promise to “return to regular scheduled programming next week.

Original caption: Like Johnny in the song, these G.I. Joes ‘got a Zero today’ — in fact, they shot down three zeros in one day with their anti-aircraft gun on the beach of Biak in the Schouten Islands. Ashore from a Coast Guard-manned assault transport, the gunners jubilantly posted the score-three down and more to go.”

US National Archives Identifier 205584181, Local ID 26-G-2487, US Coast Guard photo # 2487.

Closer inspection of the board claims, “Mitsubishi downed May 31st, 1944.” The LST doors in the background read “26.”

Note the caption on the scoreboard says it is “subject to changes daily,” for the USCG 40mm Bofors crew in the Pacific in WWII. They aren’t bluffing, as the board seems crafted from a riveted section of a downed aircraft.

One of 76 sea-going LSTs manned by Coast Guard crews during WWII, USS LST-26’s first skipper was LT. Eugene Kiernan, USCGR.

Her DANFS listing reads:

LST-26 was laid down on 16 November 1942 at Pittsburgh, Pa., by the Dravo Corp.; launched on 31 March 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Mathilda B. Coulter; and commissioned on 7 June 1943.

During World War II, LST-26 served in the Asiatic-Pacific theater and took part in the following operations:

Bismarck Archipelago operation:

(a) Cape Gloucester, New Britain-December 1943 and January 1944

Hollandia operation-April and May 1944, Western New Guinea operations:

(a) Toem-Wakde-Sarmi area operation-May 1944

(b) Biak Island operation-May and June 1944

(c) Noemfoor Island operation-July 1944

(d) Cape Sansapor operation-July and August 1944

(e) Morotai landings-September 1944

Leyte landings-October and November 1944

Consolidation of the southern Philippines:

(a) Mindanao Island landings-March 1945

She saw service in China from 3 to 10 October 1945.

Following the war, LST-26 performed occupation duty in the Far East until early November 1945. She returned to the United States and was decommissioned on 1 April 1946. She was struck from the Navy list on 8 May 1946 and was sold to Arctic Circle Exploration, Seattle, Wash., on 17 June 1946 to be converted for merchant service.

LST-26 earned five battle stars for World War II service.

You can almost see Santa’s house from here

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How about these images of a Royal Danish Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules of Flyvestation Aalborg-based Eskadrille 721 (“Zap”) conducting a resupply mission at the Joint Artisk Kommando Station Nord outpost in Greenland, home to the famed Sirius Dog Sled Patrol (Slædepatruljen Sirius). It is dark there from 15 October to 28 February, and in November the mean daily high temperature is -20°F.

The 6,200-foot landing strip at Station Nord was built in the 1950s in a joint Danish-U.S. effort, and the base has been wholly Danish since 1975. It is kept open for approximately 300 days a year and is maintained with two large snow blowers and two snow plows.

Station Nord is approximately 2,360 air miles from Copenhagen but only 574 miles from the geographic North Pole.

Station Nord when the sun is up. 

By comparison, the furthest northern U.S. airstrip, Arctic Village Airport, Alaska, is about 1,200 miles from the Pole, and the “most northern airport in the world,” Longyearbyen in the Norwegian Svalbard chain, is 800 miles. The U.S. maintains Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base), Greenland, which is located approximately 950 miles from the North Pole. Only Canadian Forces Station Alert on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, which is about 490 miles south of the Pole, is closer to the roof of the world.

Denmark has been a C-130 user since 1973 and has used them operationally in Bosnia and Afghanistan, replacing its trio of older C-130H birds with four long-fuselage C-130Js by 2007, the first Scandinavian country to bring the Super Hercules into service.

The PCC in your Waistband

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The new Flux Defense P365 Ultra-Light Chassis System is engineered to be a standalone component, utilizing existing P365 firearms, slides, barrels, and magazines.

It uses a longer-barreled P365 (P365XL, TACOPS, and P365 FUSE) and 17- or 21-round magazines to give the user a holsterable and arguably concealable option that is 3 inches shorter and significantly lighter than an MP5K.

Plus, it only costs $499, a price that, when coupled with extra mags and a compatible longslide P365, puts you in the game for about $1,200.

Key Performance Features and Specifications Include:

  • Patented Speedload System: Facilitates faster reloads than traditional pistols or other PDWs, ensuring operators maintain an advantage.
  • Enhanced Capacity: Supports up to 50 rounds on the gun with optional magazine extensions, providing extended engagement capability.
  • Superior Control: A built-in shroud ensures a secure C-clamp grip and promotes flatter shooting, significantly improving accuracy and follow-up shots.
  • Lightweight, Durable Construction: Crafted from military-grade glass-filled nylon and S7 steel, featuring a Type 3 hard anodized shroud for exceptional resilience without added bulk.
  • Optimal Velocity Option: Features an optional 6-inch barrel to increase velocity, surpassing the performance of an MP5K.
  • Included 2.0 Adjustable Holster: Ships with the new 2.0 holster, designed for ultimate flexibility. It can be hard-mounted in the vehicle for quick access or carried with you, supporting both inside (IWB) and outside the waistband (OWB) configurations.
  • Compact & Extendable Design:
    • Collapsed: 9.75″ L x 4″ W x 1.375″ H
    • Extended: 18.5″ L x 4″ W x 1.25″ H
  • Ergonomic Length of Pull: 13.5″ for comfortable and stable handling.

I could see these being useful for personal protection details, high-value couriers, long-distance truckers, individuals who spend a lot of time in their vehicles in remote areas, and, well, anyone who wants to be the most well-armed person in the produce section.

From small beginnings…

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Some 250 years ago this week, on 3 December 1775, the 30-gunned three-masted Continental ship Alfred was commissioned in Philadelphia, marking the first time the Grand Union Flag–  a combination of the British Flag and 13 stripes representing the thirteen Colonies– was raised over an American naval vessel.

Continental Ship Alfred (1775-1778) Painting in oils by W. Nowland Van Powell, depicting Lieutenant John Paul Jones raising the Grand Union flag as Alfred was placed in commission at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 December 1775. Commanded by Captain Dudley Saltonstall, Alfred was the flagship of Commodore Esek Hopkins’ Continental Navy flotilla during the remainder of 1775 and the first four months of 1776. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. Donation of the Memphis Council, U.S. Navy League, 1776. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 85212-KN

The ship, originally named Black Prince, was built at Philadelphia in 1774 and acquired by the Continental Congress in November 1775. Renamed Alfred, she had the newly minted Continental Navy LT John Paul Jones, a Scot, hoist the Grand Union Flag during the commissioning ceremony.

A Grand Union Flag, circa 1775-1776, displayed in 1926. USN 900248

The ship was outfitted with numerous small guns: 20 9-pounder smooth-bore cannon and 10 6-pounder smooth-bore cannon, and served admirably and against all odds until 9 March 1778, when, under the command of Elisha Hinsman near Barbados, she encountered the faster British warships Ariadne and Ceres and was captured, then ignobly pressed into service with the Crown.

By that time, John Paul Jones had moved on to his own command and was noted as writing, “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”

The Cold Desperate Fire of the Sapper Steel Battalion

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It is unusual for American units to burn their colors every year, but there is one, the 2nd Engineer Battalion.

During the Battle of Kunu-ri in the Korean War, in late November 1950, with an tsunami of Chinese “volunteers” close to overrunning the 8th Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, the division’s attached 2nd Engineer Battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. Alarich “Al” Zacherle, elected to set his unit’s own colors ablaze rather than let them be captured by the enemy and used as a trophy.

It was clear to Zacherle that his unit, left to perform a rear guard action as the division left the mountain pass, would likely be mauled if not eliminated in toto.

Founded in 1861 and first seeing combat at Antietam, then fighting in the Great War and WWII with the 2nd Division, the unit had 25 hard-earned battle streamers, at least three French Croix de Guerre, and a Presidential Unit Citation by 1950.

“The colors, box and all, were drenched with gasoline,” Zacherle wrote in a 1996 letter to the battalion’s association. “A last look at the colors with the unbelievable number of battle streamers were imprinted on our minds. Setting the fire produced a bright blaze that denied the enemy of a trophy they surely would have greatly prized.”

When the 2nd Battalion regrouped after the withdrawal, just 266 of its 787 Soldiers were present for roll call. While 331 of those “missing” had been captured, only 117 of those men survived the conflict.

Zacherle was a prisoner of war from 30 November 1950 to September 1953 at Pyeongtaek, but, repatriated post-ceasefire, lived to a ripe old age of 94, passing in Florida in 2005. He reportedly weighed but 80 pounds when released.

For at least the past 30 years, the unit, now as the Fort Bliss-based 1st Armored Division’s 2d Brigade Engineer Battalion (2BEB), has held a burning ceremony with each Soldier present reading off the name of a fallen/missing circa 1950 member of the battalion as the roll is called.

It concludes with Taps and a night shoot.

 

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