CMP on CMP’s new in-person Milsurp M1911 sales events

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Curious about how it’s going for CMP on their new stab at selling GI surplus M1911s to the public?

Via CMP:

On Friday, June 6, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) hosted its first of three in-person sales events for its M1911 Pistol Program.

The event featured over 400 pistols in Service and Rack grades, along with other special categories to include consecutive serial number pairs, matching pistol and rifle serial number pairs, early production, and more. These rare sales opportunities were created to allow enthusiasts to not only purchase these timeless vintage pistols but to personally hold them and view their unique characteristics up close.

“The first in-person sales event at our M1911 armory in Anniston on 6 June was very successful, based on the overall organization of the event, the curated experience, and, of course, feedback from many satisfied customers,” said Jerry O’Keefe, CMP CEO and Board Chair.

Those who attended described their experiences on the CMP Forum, with comments such as:

  • “I was in the first group this morning at 8:00 and wasn’t sure how the sale would be handled. I have to give the CMP staff a double thumbs up. From the drive-in parking, the checking in process, the briefing on rules before entering, and the display of pistols was EXCELLENT. Armorers from the M1911 shop were available to answer any questions. It was smooth, and professionalism was shown by all employees. JOB WELL DONE!!! I would attend again if I weren’t maxed out on my limit. Good luck to everyone.” – PH68
  • “The experience was fantastic . . . I was in the second group, and the tables were full . . . There was plenty of inventory for whatever you were looking for . . . “ – mvigil2391

Two dates remain for in-person M1911 Sales, set at the annual National Matches at Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Ohio! Limited tickets are still available for purchase on a first-come, first-served basis through CMP’s Competition Tracker system. (Free account required for ticket purchase: https://ct.thecmp.org/CampPerryM1911Sales.)

M1911 CP TIMES 2025 – 1

REMINDER: The lifetime purchase limit for M1911 pistols has been increased from 2 to 4. Don’t miss out on the chance to add to your vintage collection!

“We are very much looking forward to the next two M1911 in-person events upcoming at Camp Perry,” O’Keefe added. “While the experience will be different in terms of the venue, we are fully expecting to provide the same level of customer service and the same quantity, quality, and variety of M1911s to include all the special categories. I look forward to seeing you all there!”

If you have specific questions about the in-person M1911 events, contact cmp1911sales@thecmp.org. Learn more about the CMP’s M1911 Program at https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/1911-information/!

Climb to Glory!

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Got some time to spare? If you are interested in Army history and the 10th Mountain, now some 80 years young, you are going to want to watch this.

Filmed in frigid upstate New York at Fort Drum and the majestic Colorado Rockies near Camp Hale, The High Ground follows soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division (LI) as they attempt to reconnect with their alpine roots by completing a mountain marathon eighty years in the making.

The film features footage of Army soldiers skiing, snowshoeing, climbing, rappelling, and glissading during 10th Mountain Division events, including the D-Series, the Hale to Vail Traverse, and Legacy Days.

Army University Films and the 10th MD partnered with the Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives, History Colorado, the National Ski Patrol (NSP), Vail Resorts, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and the Colorado Army National Guard to create this documentary.

Welcome, Denton

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The future USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), the third Flight III advanced Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be built at Ingalls, was christened in Pascagoula on Saturday.

The ship’s name honors RADM Jeremiah Denton Jr., (USNA 1947), a Vietnam War veteran who earned the Navy Cross for his heroism as a prisoner of war. Denton spent 34 years as a naval aviator, including eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his Intruder was shot down while flying from USS Independence (CV-62).

He is known for his act of genius during a televised broadcast in captivity, when Denton spelled out the word “torture” through Morse code using his eyes to blink the code signal lamp-style.

Daughters of the RADM Denton, Madeleine Denton Doak and Mary Denton Lewis, performed the traditional bottle-breaking ceremony against the bow to formally christen the ship.

Ingalls has delivered 35 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to the U.S. Navy, including the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), in June 2023. In addition, Ingalls Shipbuilding has five Flight IIIs currently under construction, including Ted Stevens (DDG 128), Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and Thad Cochran (DDG 135).

Shuri Tiny Tank

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It happened 80 years ago today. A recovered Japanese Type 94 tankette in Okinawa.

Official period caption: “Japanese tankette knocked out in battle for Shuri. The tank is about 10 ft. by four and about five feet in height, and carries two men. Relative size is shown by Lt. M. A. Miller of 94 Parkway Rd., Bronxville, New York. 30 June, 1945.”

Photographer: Henderson, 3240th Signal Photo Det. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo SC 211480.

Based on the British Carden-Loyd tankettes VIb of the early 1930s– with lessons learned from the domestic 3.5-ton Type 92 heavy armored car– the Japanese Army fielded just over 800 Type 94 light armored cars starting in 1935.

Japanese Special Naval Landing Force personnel with a Carden Loyd Tankette right and a Vickers Crossley Armored Car left military exercise in 1932

Some 3.4 tons and clad in just under a half-inch of armor, they were powered by a suitcase-sized 4-cylinder 32-hp Mitsubishi Franklin air-cooled inline gasoline engine capable of hurling the little tankette and its two-man crew at speeds of up to 25 mph over good roads. Armament was just a single 7.7mm Type 92 light machine gun. The follow-on, but less numerous, Type 97 Te-Ke tankette was slightly larger and carried a 37mm tank gun, giving it much more muscle.

The Type 94 was mainly deployed in Tankette Companies attached to infantry divisions for use in the reconnaissance role. They were primarily used in China, but American troops encountered the baby tank across the Pacific as well.

1942 in northern China. A column of Japanese Type 98 tanks followed by Type 94 tankettes

An American M4A2 Sherman carrying a Japanese Type 94 tankette on its back, Namur, 1944.

Fewer than a dozen remain today, with most of those in scrap/relic condition.

Skydio, NGSW spotted in the wilds of D.C. (and pouch deep dive)

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How about this image of the future Soldier, complete with advanced nods, a suppressed M7 Next Generation Automatic Rifle in 6.8×51 with its M1157 FCS optic, and a compact (5-pound) Skydio X10 drone. Of note, the 173rd in Europe is testing using Skydio as a simple grenade dropper.

A Soldier assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) raises a drone during the Army’s 250th birthday parade in Washington, D.C., June 14, 2025. The demonstration showcased emerging capabilities including next-generation squad weapons, uncrewed systems, and mobility platforms. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Rene Rosas)

The above Screaming Eagle is sporting double M7 mag pouches on his plate carrier, allowing for six 20-round mags plus the mag in his rifle for just 140 rounds, mimicking the old M14 loadout from 1964. This is down from the standard 210 rounds of 5.56 in 7 30-round mags, more common to the M4, which is sure to be a whammy downfield in certain situations.

Venture Surplus, which is about the king of the milsurp market right now, has the scoop on the new pouches to support the NGSW. That means some decent 7.62 battle rifle LBE is headed to the surplus market.

The M250 Pouches in 50 and 100-round formats are upgraded SAW pouches made to carry the larger rounds the M250 fires. With adjustable buckles and a little bit more room for gear and ammo, they are a solid pouch for all sorts of uses.

For the M7 Rifle comes two new pouches come. A Single Mag pouch and a Double Mag Pouch. Both are simple and securely carry magazines. The best part about them, though, is that they can hold nearly all flavors of 7.62/.308 20-round rifle mags. This lets you easily get a pouch for your battle rifle or bolt gun and get to feeding it right.

End of the (float) line

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It happened 80 years ago this month. A close look at the Curtiss-Wright SC Seahawk, the last hurrah of cruiser and battleship-carried floatplanes.

Official period caption: “Navy scout seaplane, the SC-1 Seahawk. Note pronounced Dinedral angle of wings for greater stability and skillful design of this new bird as it soars from the water, 16 June 1945.”

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Navy scout seaplane, the SC-1 “Seahawk”. Bow view from ahead, the comparatively narrow space taken up by the folding feature may be readily seen. Another important feature is the four-blade observation plane’s engine, 16 June 1945. 80-G-47758

Navy scout seaplane, the SC-1 “Seahawk”. Folding wings are a new feature shown on its beaching gear; they occupy less space on board a ship, 16 June 1945. 80-G-47757

Under 600 Seahawks were built, all too late to see much combat in WWII. With a first flight in February 1944, they were the American answer to the fast (235-knot/273 mph) Japanese A6M2-N (Rufe) zero floatplane, which had proved a thorn in the side of the Navy from the Aleutians to the Philippines. As such, in addition to the standard scout/recon/artillery spotting/SAR duties tasked to floatplanes, Seahawk was to act as a pocket fighter-bomber when needed.

Heck, it even resembled the Rufe in profile as well as roles.

Japanese Nakajima A6M2-N type 2 Rufe floatplane fighter bomber ONI 1945

Navy scout seaplane, the SC-1 “Seahawk”. Pilot sits in a nearly designed type of “Green House” or cockpit, more streamlined into the contour of the seaplane. As the mighty engine “revs up,” the plane skims along the water for take-off, 15 June 1945. Of note, the first operational aircraft were assigned to USS Guam (CB 2) in October 1944. 80-G-47759

Armed with two forward-firing .50 cals and the ability to tote 650 pounds of ordnance (four times that of the Rufe), Seahawk could make 272 knots while loaded, climb to 20,000 feet in eight minutes, and had a 625 nm range. This was all because they used a variant of the famed Wright R-1820 Cyclone nine-cylinder single-row supercharged air-cooled radial engine, which was common across the Navy in the FM-2 Wildcat and SBD Dauntless (and later the easy-flying Cold War T-28 Trojan).

It would have been interesting to see how they would have fared against Japanese Kawanishi N1K Kyōfū (Allied code name “Rex”) floatplane fighters adapted from the N1K land-based fighter. They ran a beefy Nakajima Homare radial engine, producing around 1,800 horsepower, and were armed with two 20mm cannons and two 7.7mm machine guns.

Kawanishi N1K Kyōfū floatplane fighters (Rex)

USS Albany CA-123 Curtiss SC Seahawk floatplanes 1947. Note the advanced Curtiss SC Seahawk floatplanes, the last of the Navy’s “slingshot planes.” They retired in 1950. NH 94373

While they replaced the myriad of SOC-1 Seagull, Vought SO2U Kingfisher and the Curtiss SOC3 Seamew floatplanes in the Navy’s inventory, Seahwk would in turn quickly be retired by 1950, replaced by the much uglier but far easier to deploy Sikosrsky HO3S (H-5) helicopter, thus ending the Navy’s 38-year run with ship-launched floatplanes that started with the Curtiss A-1 Triad in 1912.

Heavy cruiser USS Albany with a Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter landing on her turret, Sept 1951

1990s Forgotten Classic: The Walther P88

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A design sandwiched between two of the most iconic pistols in history, the oft-forgotten yet still very collectible Walther P88 gets overlooked.

Developed in the early 1980s as a double-action/single-action 9mm duty pistol with a double-stack magazine to compete against just about every other big handgun maker in the world for the U.S. Air Force (and later Army) pistol trials, the gun that ultimately became the P88 has a distinctive profile.

Walther P-88 9mm pistol
A circa-December 1986 P88 prototype with wood grip panels and an extra safety behind the grip. The P88 entered production in January 1987. Photo taken at the Walther Museum in Ulm, Germany. (All photos unless noted: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
A circa-1988 cutaway Schnittmodell of the production variant of the P88, complete with the now familiar decocker lever. Photo taken at the Walther Museum in Ulm, Germany. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
When introduced, the P88 was billed as a more full-sized companion to the P5 Compact. The banner reads, “Self-loading pistols: over a century of experience in handgun manufacturing.” (Image courtesy of Walther.) 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The most common P88 variant has the fixed front sight milled into the top of the slide and a large frame-mounted decocker lever that doubles as a slide catch. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
Note the ambidextrous controls to include left and right-side push-button magazine release and decocker/slide catch. The pistol borrows the Walther P-5’s double-action trigger and safety system. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
Compare the pistol to the final variant of the P38, the P4. Introduced in 1974, Walther only produced a limited run of 5,200 P4s, with most used primarily by the West German Border Protection (Bundesgrenzschutz) and Customs (Zoll) agencies during the chilliest days of the Cold War. The follow-on P88, which debuted 50 years after the single-stack P38 was adopted, was billed as the metaphorical heir to the throne. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The standard full-sized P88 uses a 4-inch barrel, which gives the pistol a 7.4-inch overall length and a 5.92-inch sight radius. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
With its 15+1 shot double-stack magazine, it stands 5.61 inches high. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The width over the slide is a trim 0.93 inches, akin to the Browning Hi-Power. Note the milled sight trench with the integrated front sight blade and the peaked barrel hood inside a flared ejection port in the slide. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The width at the pistol’s widest point over the He-Man polymer grips and ambi controls is a beefy 1.5 inches. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The unloaded weight is 31.5 ounces, which bounces to 38.3 when loaded. Using a Duralumin alloy frame helps save a few ounces over an all-steel gun. Walther had lots of experience with alloy-framed service pistols, going back to the post-WWII P1 (updated P38) series, which debuted in the 1960s. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
Peeking at the inside of the pistol is easy, as takedown is toolless and familiar to many other common designs. Of note, the P88 was Walther’s first modern locked-breech pistol to abandon its traditional locking wedge design, instead opting for a Browning-style cam system. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
Note that the slide rails are full length. The pistol just glides through its cycle. 

 

Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The textured polymer grip includes a recessed lanyard ring, a must for handguns being shopped around for military and police contracts. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The Walther P88 had the distinction of being the company’s final production hammer-fired DA/SA 9mm with a decocker. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
This specimen shows the Ulm proof house’s antler proof mark and a 1990 date. Like most Walthers from that era, this one was imported and sold through the now-defunct Interarms company. For reference, Interarms folded in 1999. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
An exceedingly accurate design, the P88 shipped from the factory with a 25m proof target serial numbered to the gun, as seen to the left. Right is an example of rapid offhand fire from the 25, with all rounds keeping inside the 5-zone of a B27 silhouette. 

Walther later debuted several additional variants of the P88, including the Compact, Competition, Champion, and Sport.

Walther P-88 9mm pistol
Introduced in January 1991, the P88 A1 Compact uses a 3.83-inch barrel to create a pistol some 7.15 inches in overall length. It has a 14-round magazine due to its shorter 5.29-inch height. Unloaded weight is 29 ounces. This puts it almost the same size as the Walther P5. Note the slide-mounted P38-style decocker rather than the frame-mounted decocker as seen on other P88 models. It was also marketed in a 16-shot 8mm signal pistol format. Image courtesy of Walther. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The full-sized production P88, top, compared to the P88 A1 Compact, bottom. Photo taken at the Walther Museum in Ulm, Germany. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
By 1993, the Compact spun off into the Competition. Photo taken at the Walther Museum in Ulm, Germany.

 

Related: Factory Tour of Walther’s German Plant, Home of the PDP and PPK.

 

Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The P88 also evolved into longer-barreled Champion models such as this 5-inch circa-1993 specimen, complete with adjustable rear target sights and a muzzle brake/compensator. Note that the Champion is based on the Competition series with its shorter grip and slide-mounted safety decocker. Photo taken at the Walther Museum in Ulm, Germany. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
And this Lang Champion. Walther also made a rimfire variant dubbed the P88 Sport. Photo taken at the Walther Museum in Ulm, Germany. 

In all, Walther only made just under 10,000 standard P88s, which ended production in 1992, spanning six short years. The Compact variant remained in production until 2000 before the line shut down. In his book on Walther pistols, Dieter Marschall puts P88 Compact production at 7,344 pistols. The production numbers for Competition and Champion models are not mentioned in the book, but are likely much smaller.

The P88 line pistol was replaced with the smash-hit P99series, which was introduced in 1997 and has enjoyed a more than quarter-century run that is only now ending.

Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The P88 proved to be a bridge design, a link of sorts that took Walther from the legacy P38/P1/P4 series to the P99. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol in movies
The P88 was popular for a minute in the early 1990s and is seen in both an installment of “Beverly Hills Cop” and in Antoine Fuqua’s “The Replacement Killers,” famously appearing in the “empty gun standoff” scene between Kenneth Tsang and Chow Yun-Fat,
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
The build quality of the P88s we have seen come through our warehouse over the years has always been excellent. A pistol that has gravitas to it for sure. 
Walther P-88 9mm pistol
Interestingly, the P88’s nose and frame size are common enough to fit a wide array of holsters that are in circulation. For instance, this Galco Concealable 2.0 OWB holster, designed for a G48, fits it like a glove. 
We’ve even seen the occasional flashier variant pass through our vault. 

Suffice it to say that, should you come across a good P88, a gun that represents Walther’s old-world dedication to quality and craftsmanship, you’d kick yourself for not adding it to the collection.

We’d like to thank Christian Liehner from Carl Walther GmbH for his help with the research for this piece. 

U.S. Navy, Marines Honors 80th Anniversary of Battle of Okinawa, on Okinawa

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U.S. Navy Sailors and family members joined local Okinawan volunteers at Peace Memorial Park on June 22 to prepare nearly 7,000 candles for a vigil on the eve of Okinawa Memorial Day. The event honored the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa — an 82-day conflict in 1945 that claimed more than 200,000 lives and stands as the deadliest battle of the Pacific theater during WWII.

The annual candle lighting was organized by Bankoku-Shinryo-no-Kai, a local non-profit advocating peace to the world.

Candles lit by local volunteers and U.S. Navy Sailors stationed on Okinawa illuminate memorial walls following a volunteer candle lighting event at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa, Japan, June 22, 2025. Held on the eve of Okinawa Memorial Day, the event marked the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, honoring more than 200,000 lives lost and strengthening ties between the U.S. Navy and the local community. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class MacAdam Kane Weissman)

Candles lit by local volunteers and U.S. Navy Sailors stationed on Okinawa spell out the Japanese symbols for “peace” during a volunteer candle lighting event at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa, Japan, June 22, 2025. Held on the eve of Okinawa Memorial Day, the event marked the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, honoring more than 200,000 lives lost and strengthening ties between the U.S. Navy and the local community. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class MacAdam Kane Weissman)

More here.

The lost ‘tail’ of the BEF

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Although around 450,000 British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Czech, and Polish troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, Cherbourg, and Brest by 25 June 1940, the British Expeditionary Force alone suffered 68,000 casualties in the fall of France. The Germans had over 30,000 Brits, including more than 10,000 downcast men of the 51st Highland Division, in “der lager.”

Almost as bad for the British war effort was the loss of 10 full divisions’ worth of material, as most of the troops managed to escape with only the clothes on their backs, many without even a rifle.

Thus:

Not a lot of equipment is getting off the beach, here, as members of the Royal Ulster Rifles are seen here waiting on an improvised pier of lorries to evacuate Dunkirk during low tide. June 1940. 

This was truly a setback for one of the most modern armies in the world at the time. You see, unlike the German Army, which always relied on as many as one million horses during the war, the BEF was fully mechanized in 1940.

German troops relax on the Dunkirk beaches. In the background, the French destroyer L’Adroit is grounded and broken.

German soldiers collect Allied equipment at Dunkirk, 1940 via NAM

Dunkirk, the Germans looking at piles of Vickers Machine Gun Transit Chests. Over 10,000 MGs were left behind

French troops push away an immobilised British Universal Carrier tracked vehicle. 1940 Dunkirk

Dunkirk: German soldiers pose with a British “tin pan” and French helmet, and a damaged French 25mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun

As noted by the France and Flanders Campaign 1940, “from 2 seater cars to 15 cwt trucks to 6×4 tractors to trailers – the BEF lost 28,314 War Department B vehicles and lost 20,588 impressed civilian B vehicles (not including motorcycles).”

The National Army Museum puts the material loss at 64,000 vehicles, 20,000 motorcycles, and 2,500 guns.

Among those were over half of the British Army’s tanks (184 Cruiser tanks, 23 Matilda II’s, 77 Matilda I’s, and 331 Mark VI light tanks) and field artillery (509 2-pdr anti-tank guns, 704 18/25pdrs, 216 18pdrs, 96 4.5” howitzers, 221 6” howitzers, 51 4.5”/60 pdr guns), and a decent array of heavy artillery to include 13 8-inch howitzers, 29 9.2-inch guns, and four 12-inch railway guns.

The Germans, always equipment-hungry, would patch up and repair much of their newly inherited trophies, not for display, but for continued use in Russia, North Africa, and the Balkans. 

Gilligan’s summer cruise

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It happened 75 years ago this month.

Official period caption: “Arrival of Northwest Naval Reserves on board USS Gilligan (DE 508) at Seattle, Washington, for training cruise to Acapulco, Mexico, 17 June 1950.” The men were to reactivate the tin can– laid up since 1946– and take her on a four-week training cruise to Mexico, and return.

80-G-421227

Named after a Marine Raider mortally wounded in action at Tulagi in August 1942, Gilligan was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort built in New Jersey and commissioned less than two years later, sponsored by the namesake’s grieving mother.

By the second anniversary of PFC Gilligan’s passing, the ship named after him was serving in the Pacific, ultimately earning at least one battlestar during antiaircraft and antisubmarine screening efforts around Okinawa and in the Lingayen Gulf, surviving both a dud Japanese torpedo hit and a glancing blow from a kamikaze.

As noted by NHHC:

Gilligan detected an incoming Betty twin-engine bomber at 8 miles and finally sighted it at very low altitude at 1,000 yards, firing its nose gun at the ship. In a rarely recorded case of a sailor losing his nerve, a range finder operator jumped from his station down onto the main battery director, knocking it off target, preventing the 5-inch guns from getting off more than one round before the plane struck. The kamikaze flew directly into the muzzles of the No. 2 40-mm gun, killing 12 men and wounding 13, who stayed at their station firing until the very end. Despite a massive fireball, Gilligan’s crew was able to get the fires under control by 0715. Another kamikaze came in for an attack on Richard W. Suesens, who was searching for Gilligan crewmen who had been blown overboard. Despite her damage, Gilligan’s gunners joined in firing on the kamikaze, which was in a near-vertical dive. The kamikaze pilot was probably killed, but the plane’s momentum carried it down, and it clipped the aft 40-mm gun as it crashed into the sea close aboard, wounding 11.

Decommissioned in 1946 and laid up ultimately in Seattle, Gilligan recommissioned there on 15 June 1950 in response to the new war in Korea.

Northwest Naval Reserve Personnel on board USS Gilligan (DE 508) for a four-week training cruise to Acapulco, Mexico, and return, June-July 1950. Hospitalman James R. Piercey administers an anti-typhoid shot to warrant officer, Chief Electrician James H. Ross. 80-G-421217

Northwest Naval Reserve Personnel on board USS Gilligan (DE 508) for a four-week training cruise to Acapulco, Mexico, and return, June-July 1950. Seaman Richard L. Smith takes his turn at peeling the potatoes. 80-G-421216

Personnel from USS Charles E. Brannon (DE 446) and USS Gilligan (DE 508) on liberty while at Acapulco, Mexico, during a four-week training cruise of Northwest Naval Reserves to Mexico. FN Daniel T. O’Donnell and FN Glenn A. Scatterday consume soft drinks, 6-7 July 1950. 80-G-421219

Gilligan remained on the West Coast for the next nine years, conducting training cruises as the Cold War grew colder. Decommissioned on 31 March 1959, she was kept in mothballs “just in case” through Vietnam, then sold for scrapping in November 1973.

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