5th SFG(A) was activated on 21 September 1961 and traced its roots to the old “Black Devils” of the U.S./Canadian 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 1st Special Service Force in WWII, hence the black in its unit patch.
The all-black U-shaped shield it has worn on its Green Berets since the mid-1980s is now being retired in favor of the Vietnam-era flash that was both a nod toward the Republic of Vietnam as well as the two Special Forces groups that preceded the 5th into the war.
“We are going to be reverting back to what we wore during the Vietnam conflict,” Sgt. Jacob Mahaffey, a spokesman for the group, told Military.com. “It may be in the April or May time frame.”
An announcement posted Nov. 18 on Facebook noted the change would occur during a March 23, 2016 ceremony at Gabriel Field on Fort Campbell.
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, Dec.2, 2015: The Brass Tiger Fish of the Lifeguard Service
Photo via Navsource. Courtesy of John Hummel.
Here we see the Tench-class diesel-electric submarine USS Tigrone (SS-419/SSR-419/AGSS-419), at the Philadelphia Navy Yard sometime circa 1964 as she is preparing for her next role in the fleet after her first two had proved remarkably different.
With the brilliant success of the Gato-class fleet boats in the first part of the war in the Pacific, the Navy soon ordered 84 follow-on Tench-class boats to an improved design starting in 1944. The same 311-feet long overall as the Gatos, the Tenches were slightly heavier and had longer legs, being able to cover 16,000 nautical miles over their predecessor’s paltry 11,000. This meant they could roam further and stay away longer if needed.
While the Gatos were finished in time to bloody the Japanese fleet, few craft worthy of a torpedo were still around when the Tench class began to reach the Pacific. In fact, just 10 of the class were completed during the war and a further 55 were canceled just after.
Of the 10 that made it to the fight, one is the hero of our little tale.
Named after a species of the tiger shark, USS Tigrone (SS-419) was laid down at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine just a month before D-Day. Her crew nicknamed her the Tiger Fish and she is the only ship on the Naval List to have carried the moniker.
Commissioned on 25 October 1944, she got her first combat patrol underway from Guam on March 21, 1945, with three other U.S. fleet boats in a Yankee wolf pack. Although they spent the better part of two months in Japanese waters, they found few targets and her only brush with combat was to bombard a reef with her rear 5″/25 deck gun (she had a 40mm Bofors single forward).
Her second patrol was more exciting.
On May 25, she took up a lifeguard station off the coast of Honshu, Japan, and by end of the week had a full house, picking up the crews of two B-29s that had ditched as well as three fighter pilots. U.S. submarines rescued 504 downed airmen– to include future President George Bush– during WWII lifeguard duty.
“TIGRONE has saved the Air Force and is now returning to Iwo Jima with 28 rescued zoomies,” radioed her skipper, CDR. Hiram Cassedy, USN.
Back on station by June 26 and then soon had to set course for Guam, arriving on 3 July to disembark another 23 waterlogged aircrews plucked from the water. These 52 airmen Tigrone returned to land throughout the patrol constituted a new submarine-force record.
The Commander Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet extended his congratulations to, “the commanding officer, officers, and crew for this outstanding patrol” and commended them for “the excellent judgment, splendid navigation, and determination displayed by the TIGRONE in effecting these rescues….”
The Tigrone‘s lifeguard service patrol was so inspiring that she received her own episode of the 1950’s documentary series The Silent Service (season 1, episode 8) “Tigrone Sets a Record” which aired on 06 May 1957 and is below in its entirety.
On her third patrol, she came within sight of the Japanese home islands on lifeguard duty and saved an aviator as well as breaking out her big gun again on Aug. 13 when she bombarded Mikomoto Island (Pearl Island), scoring 11 hits on a radio station and lighthouse tower in one of the last exchanges of hate in the war as the Empire sued for peace on the 15th.
When peace came, she was part of the massive armada in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, and received two battle stars for her service.
There she is, all the way to the end…
Soon after, she found herself in red lead row in Philadelphia.
Dusted off in 1948, Tigrone was designated SSR-419 (radar picket submarine) and given the MIGRAINE I conversion that included AN/BPS-2 search radar sprouting from the after portion of the sail, and the height finder mounted on a freestanding tower just abaft it.
Tigrone, left, after refitting as SSR. Her sister ship USS Thornback has been GUPPY’d. Thornback would later serve 28 years in the Turkish Navy and is preserved there as a museum ship today.
This put the 15-foot search antenna some 40 feet above the water, with the height finder only a little below. Also came a below deck CIC for the radar, an extra generator to help push the volts needed to run it all, and guidance equipment for mid-course control of Regulus cruise missiles. In exchange, the boat sacrificed her stern tubes and surface armament.
Tigrone (SSR-419), underway in Grand Harbour, Valetta, Malta, c1952.
Between 1948-56 no less than 13 SSRs– including several Tench-class boats– were put into service, roughly split between Atlantic and Pacific with Tigrone spending her time as a picket boat with the Second Fleet in the Caribbean and North Atlantic, with regular participation in NATO exercises and periodic deployments to the Mediterranean as part of the Sixth Fleet.
By 1 November 1957, a decade as a radar boat had ended, replaced by more modern vessels, and Tigrone again found herself a member of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Philadelphia.
However, the Navy wasn’t through with her by a long shot.
The Tigrone (AGSS-419) is underway in a channel, between conversions
Recommissioned 10 March 1962 and reclassified Auxiliary Research Submarine (AGSS-419), for the next decade Tigrone operated in conjunction with the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory (part of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center at Newport), conducting underwater systems tests, and evaluating new equipment. The information provided by these tests, utilizing experimental transducers, would prove invaluable in sonar development.
In late 1963, the Bottom Reflected Active Sonar System (BRASS) II Transducer and system were installed on Tigrone, and, after 1965, the much-upgraded BRASS III system was installed.
Note the unique side-facing rear sonar rack near the sail that came with the BRASS III conversion
While conducting her tests, she was often trailed by Soviet intelligence collection ships, which on at least one occasion felt the full force of the BRASS rig.
I cannot tell you how many watts the BRASS was capable of transmitting into the water, but suffice it to say it far exceeded anything else in anybody’s Navy at that time and maybe even today’s Navies for all I know. To give you an idea of the sound level it produced, all hands forward of the engine rooms were required to wear enginemen’s hearing protection when it was operating!
The overhead of that boat was festooned with enginemen’s earmuffs, hanging from every possible location to be readily available when the word was passed: “Now rig for BRASS Ops!” There were no torpedo tubes on the Tigrone at that time.
The after room had been turned into a bunkroom and held tier after tier of racks for the crew. The forward room was dedicated to the sonar system including its very own MG set to power that monster. The sonar men stood their watches on standard AN/BQR-2B passive sonar set which was in a little corner up forward where the tubes used to be. The Port half of the forward room was all the equipment the civilian USN/USL personnel used to operate the BRASS. It was a very sophisticated system, capable of varying both the amplitude and duration of the pulses it generated and if I can attach the picture, you will note a huge “shit can” mounted where the bow should be. Inside that huge and cumbersome protrusion was a transducer which looked like a huge log lying on it’s side atop a round table. The round table could be rotated, thereby presenting the horizontal length of the “log” in whatever direction was desired. In addition to the horizontal training, this transducer “log” was constructed in staves (like a barrel) and the operators could select which staves were to be used, giving them the ability to direct the transmitted beam in whatever direction they would like it to go.
We would go to test depth off the Azores and transmit a pulse in a South Westerly direction so that it could be received by the USS Baya [SS/AGSS-318, a Balao-class submarine modified in 1958 to accomidate LORAD, an experimental long-range sonar and 12 scientists] who would be operating off the Tongue of the Ocean in the Bahamas!!!!
Like I said, BRASS put a LOT of power into the water. Needless to say our activities drew the attention of the Russians and one of those ‘fishing boats’ brisling with antenna, would follow us around, undoubtedly listening to and recording every transmission we made. Well one day we were pounding away with the BRASS when one of the civilians asked me where the Russian fishing boat was. I was standing a regular passive sonar watch and I need to explain that whenever the BRASS transmitted a relay in my sonar set would cut out my audio for the duration of the pulse and then cut back in. When the audio returned, I could hear the reverberations from the transmission bouncing off the bottom, off waves, off thermoclines and maybe off the Azores themselves for several minutes, it was deafening!
I reported that the ‘fishing boat’ was dead astern making 80 RPM’s, just enough to keep up with our three knot submerged speed. “Keep us posted if anything changes.” I was told and I sat up to pay closer attention. Pretty soon I noticed a decrease in the amplitude (power) of the transmitted pulses from the BRASS. The same was true of the pulses following that and so on, until the BRASS was barely making a ‘b-e-e-p’ for each transmission. “He’s picking up speed and closing,” I announced to the civilians who were twisting the dials on the BRASS equipment and watching me to see if their efforts were producing the desired results. “Tell us when he’s directly overhead,” was the request as the pulses became weaker still. Evidently, the Russian figured that we had sped up and were leaving him behind; as the very loud transmissions we had been making were now so weak, he could hardly hear them. “He’s making 220 turns and coming right up our stern,” I reported. The USN/USL boys made some more adjustments to their equipment, “Is he overhead yet?” they asked, “Almost”, I said, wondering what in hell they were going to do. Just then, he came out of our baffles and I could hear his diesel engine roaring above the sound of his cavitating propeller blades, as he picked up speed.
“HE’S OVERHEAD NOW NOW NOW!!” I shouted and just then, the relay in my audio circuit cut my sound. It didn’t matter, I could hear the prolonged blast of a BRASS transmission coming right through our hull, it seemed that it would never end. I didn’t realize they could extend the pulse length so long! The operators had turned the transducer table until the ‘log’ was crosswise to the length of our hull, then they had selected just the top staves so that all that transmitted energy went straight up to the Russian Trawler who listening equipment was undoubtedly turned up has far as it would go in an effort to hear our previously weaken signals over their own ships noise. You guys know what test depth was in those old boats, so you know just how far away his receiver was from probably a million or more watts being aimed directly at him. We fried his sonar system . . . cooked it . .. blew every transistor . . . toasted every tube . . . Probably rendered the operator deaf for life. You’ve heard the old saying, “That noise was ten dB above the threshold of pain” well can you imagine what sound level BRASS could produce at that short a distance? It was a wonder we didn’t blow a hole in his hull and sink him.
For the next week, the only time that ‘Fishing Trawler’ caught up with us was when we surfaced after a day’s work. He could still pick us up when we were on the surface with his radar, but he couldn’t find us when we were submerged and BRASS was transmitting. After about six or seven days, a second trawler showed up and relieved him. They would follow us, but never got real close to us. Once burned, twice shy….
USS Tigrone (AGSS-419) with experimental bow sonar, off Ponta Delgada, Azores, 1967
April 1970 USS Tigrone (419) leaving Halifax after Exercise Steel Ring
Tigrone continued her quiet Cold War service until 27 June 1975 when she was decommissioned after more than 30 years with the fleet– all but about six of those in active service.
She was the last active submarine in the Navy that had served in WWII, which is something of a record in and of its own right.
USS Tigrone by William H. RaVell III
While she was expended as a torpedo test target on 25 October 1976 in deep water off the North Carolina coast at 36deg. 05.2′ N x 71deg. 15.3′ w, she is remembered at Submarine Force Museum and the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum as well as by an active veterans group.
Of her sisters, 14 were transferred to 9 foreign navies and one, ex-USS Cutlass (SS-478) remains semi-active in Taiwan’s Republic of China Navy as Hai Shih (meaning “sea lion”) at age 70.
Three are maintained as museum ships:
USS Requin as a museum ship is about as close as you can get to Tigrone. Image via Wiki.
-USS Requin (SS-481) at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA. This ship was also converted to an SSR in the late 1940s and served with Tigrone in the Second and Sixth fleets during the 1950s.
-USS Torsk (SS-423), moored at Pier Three, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, (alongside the National Aquarium in Baltimore) in Maryland.
-TCG Uluçalireis (S 338) (ex-USS Thornback (SS-418)), on display at Rahmi M. Koç Museum, Golden Horn in Istanbul. She is shown above in the comparison shot next to sister Tigrone.
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.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command is celebrating the 60th Anniversary of tracking Santa’s yuletide journey.
New York Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Jesse Bucenec, standing, and Sr. Airman Marie Coar, rehearse their Santa-tracking tasks on Wednesday, Dec. 19, at the Eastern Air Defense Sector here. Part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, EADS supports NORAD’s Christmas Eve NORAD Tracks Santa operations.
The NORAD Tracks Santa website, http://www.noradsanta.org, launching Dec 1, features Santa’s North Pole Village, which includes a holiday countdown, games, activities, and more. The website is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Official NORAD Tracks Santa apps are also available in the Windows, Apple and Google Play stores, so parents and children can countdown the days until Santa’s launch on their smart phones and tablets! Tracking opportunities are also offered on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Santa followers just need to type “@noradsanta” into each search engine to get started.
Also new this year, the website features the NORAD Headquarters in the North Pole Village, and highlights of the program over the past 60 years.
Starting at 12:01 a.m. MST (2:01 a.m. EST) on Dec. 24, website visitors can watch Santa make preparations for his flight. NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will stream videos on the website as Santa makes his way over various locations. Then, at 4 a.m. MST (6 a.m. EST), trackers worldwide can speak with a live phone operator to inquire as to Santa’s whereabouts by dialing the toll-free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or by sending an email to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com . Any time on Dec. 24, Windows Phone users can ask Cortana for Santa’s location, and OnStar subscribers can press the OnStar button in their vehicles to locate Santa.
NORAD Tracks Santa is truly a global experience, delighting generations of families everywhere. This is due, in large part, to the efforts and services of numerous program contributors.
It all started in 1955 when a local media advertisement directed children to call Santa direct – only the number was misprinted. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the Crew Commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center. Thus began the tradition, which NORAD carried on since it was created in 1958.
The Santa Tracker tradition started with this Sears ad, which instructed children to call Santa on what turned out to be a secret military hotline.
Josh, a 4Chan user, finally got his ATF Form 1 approved and commenced to building a single shot 20mm cannon project that just screams recoil pad.
As the builder has a stockpile of 90 rounds of M55A2 TP, the same stuff used in the electrically fired Vulcan 20mm cannon, the NFA defined destructive device uses an electrical system constructed of two CR123V batteries and a boost converter that pumps juice into a 320uf flash photo capacitor to trigger the primers.
I just wanted to share my abomination that I will attempt to test-fire tomorrow. This firearm is a rudimentary single-shot 20x102mm (20mm Vulcan) Destructive Device I built myself on an ATF Form 1. Every single part on here (minus the barrel (but including rear threading & muzzle brake), tripod, pintle, and traverse/elevation mechanism) I built myself, by hand. No CNC parts, nothing off-she-shelf except for a few bolts from the hardware store. The gun is not yet finished, but far enough along for it’s first prototype test-fire. I plan to do this tomorrow, at a family gathering out on the girlfriend’s property.
The final project is estimated to be about 45 pounds in weight and run just over 5 feet long. But hey, its a single shot Vulcan 20mm. Plus, keep in mind that the ammo is only required to be registered if it has 1/4oz or more explosive in the projectile – these rounds are inert solids, so no paperwork necessary other than on the cannon itself.
Check out the remote test fire below against a poor defenseless Kyocera EcoSys FS-4020 laser printer.
Canadian sniper from 3rd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment (3 R22eR) provides fire support to the paratrooper company during an exercise held on August 1st, 2015, in Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, in Poland. Image by Canadian Forces.
B-52 aircrews perform a minimum interval takeoff (MITO) at Barksdale Air Force Base. A MITO is designed by the United States Air Force to get its bomber fleet in the air within fifteen minutes of an alert of incoming missiles, that being the time in which the bases would be obliterated.
A restored AJS 37 Viggen flies at the 2014 NATO days. This Viggen was built in 1977. In 2012 after restoration, the aircraft was certified to fly as a civilian jet and visits airshows around Europe. Hattip The Strategy Page
The Viggen, whose name means Thunderbolt, was only operated by Sweden and 329 air frames came off Saab’s line from 1970-90. The final Vig flew with the Swedish military in 2007 and only 13 remain on either static display, or like the rare bird above, in private hands.
With last month’s terror attacks in Paris, in which a handful of determined extremists brought an iconic European capital to its knees, coupled with 2008’s similar attack in India, do we need to worry about a similar model being reproduced here? If so, what can we do as citizens and gun owners to be prepared?
French Foreign Legion soldiers with FAMAS rifles patrol the Eiffle Tower following November’s terror attacks. (AFP: Joel Saget )
Mumbai
On November 21, 2008, 10 terrorists left territory friendly to their cause and started out to strike their target. Each of the 10 men is given one AK-47 style rifle, 6 to 7 magazines of 30 rounds each plus 400 rounds not loaded in magazines, 8 hand grenades, a pistol, prepaid credit cards and a supply of dried fruit. Two days later, they hijacked a trawler on the open ocean and transferred to that boat. Once they came to within four miles of their target, they killed the captain and crew of the trawler and proceeded to shore in three small boats at dusk (further reason why you never trust terrorist). Over the next four days, they conducted 11 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India’s largest city.
At no point during the attack did the terrorists attempt to overcome armed guards or police. The terrorists attacked largely unguarded “soft” targets, which had been scouted in advance. These included two large hotels, a hospital, and a railway station. Working in small 2-5 man teams they killed 164 people and wounded at least 308 before being taken down themselves. The resulting panic sent tremors throughout the country. The New York Times, in July 2009, described the event as, “what may be the most well-documented terrorist attack anywhere.”
Paris
Over the evening of November 13, 2015, almost 7 years to the day of the Mumbai attacks, 9 terrorists whose actions were attributed to ISIS attacked no less than six different locations spread around the French capital. Armed with suicide vests, hand grenades and AK-47s acquired through Eastern European sources, they took the lives of 130 victims and wounded more than 400. As with the Mumbai attack, the action sent shock waves throughout Europe and the U.S. and prompted a large scale military mobilization in the EU, even more gun control proposals through the European Commission (although the weapons used were by and large illegally acquired), and reactionary police responses in large U.S. cities just in case.
Can it happen here?
For an investment of three small boats, ten rifles, ten pistols, a half dozen cases of ammunition, 80 hand grenades, and a some spending money, the terrorist organization behind the attacks in Mumbai reaped a terrible blood soaked return. All told, the operation could be replicated for under $75,000 and ten volunteers. When you take into account that the entire 9/11 operation is estimated from start to finish, costing al Qaeda only $500,000, you can see that the figure could be covered.
India has one of the largest and most modern coast guard and navies in the world. In size, they rank third or fourth depending on how you calculate them. They also have one of the largest and most dedicated counter-terrorism forces ever fielded, coupled with extensive domestic and overseas intelligence gathering agencies. Yet they were not able to prevent the attack or respond to it until it was underway.
While information is still being acquired on the Paris attacks, it seems they went off on an even smaller budget than the Mumbai model as many of the known terrorists were EU citizens and allowed easy travel through Western Europe.
As Paris is concerned, the French have a huge internal security apparatus put into affect by the De Gaulle government in the 1960s to counter an open revolt from the OAS (Organisation de l’armée secrète) terror group similar to our own Department of Homeland Security only argueably much more thorough and, when needed, ruthless. This allowed the government to respond very fast to the events as they unfolded– with the elite police BRI and RAID commando teams arriving at the Bataclan theatre where three terrorists held hundreds as hostages just 35 minutes into the siege.
Still, as with Mumbai, the terrorists were able to act before they were stopped despite the long standing French experience with both threat mitigation and counterintelligence.
Even though we have a large and well trained Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, nothing is terrorist proof.
What to do if it happens here?
Since 2008, many large and medium sized U.S. police departments have studied the “Mumbai Model.” This has led to more tactical training, active shooter courses, and issuing of patrol rifles (read= 5.56mm carbines) to officers. You only have to walk around LE expos and conferences such as IACP and see all the black rifle wares customized to carry in trunks and cruiser mounts to know this is the new normal.
Further, through the Pentagon’s 1033 Program, as many as 80,000 surplus M16A1s (some with the fun buttons, others modded to semi-auto only) have being issued out at large rates especially to huge metro agencies. For example, the Philadelphia Police Department employs more than 6,646 officers and had 1,356 Vietnam-era M16A1 rifles donated in August of 2009 to the agency by the US military– less than a year after Mumbai.
The thin blue line is being amped up for these threats and you can be sure that grant writers for any of the departments large and small that are applying for more gear and guns will be mentioning the Paris attack– with reason– as justification.
As a citizen, your best bet in a situation where multiple attackers are present with long-arms in an active shooter scenario is to take cover and shelter in place if you cannot immediately leave the area. Provide a description and location of the attackers from cover. One of the worst things to do is to flee on foot if you are being advised to shelter in place, this leads to more chaos for first responders.
If you are a CCW holder, carry your firearm with you at all times whenever legally possible. It is not advisable to get involved in a firefight with a group of terrorists equipped with longarms. Odds are, this will shorten your life expectancy greatly and further confuse the situation for responding LEOs.
However, if and only if, there is no cover or concealment, nowhere to displace to, nowhere to evaporate into, and you are confronted with a threat then make the choice that is best for you.
This is where choices made today about carrying a second magazine, spending time at the range practicing, or choosing a caliber can come into play. Now of course let us be sensible about this and refrain from bringing your favorite 556/223 to the mall food court strapped across your shoulder with 12 spare PMAGS while muttering something about Mumbai or Paris…that is just bad for everyone. Make sensible and most importantly, defensible choices.
I hope that this will never happen. I hope that the United States has seen the last of international or domestic terrorism. I hope so, but I think not.
Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Walter L. Greene
Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1870, Walter L. Greene studied drawing and illustration at Massachusetts State Normal School Academy of Art in Boston (now called Massachusetts College of Art and Design). After continuing his education in Europe, he returned to the states and in his 30s became the board artist first for General Electric and then for the New York Central Railroad.
Over the next several decades, he specialized in railway and maritime art for publication by his companies, producing posters, calendars, post cards, magazine ads and the like that had an eye for blending the most modern machines of the day with the mysteries of old to give the impression that industry was magical.
Eastward, Westward
One of several original oil paintings by Schnectady artist Walter L. Greene commissioned by the New York Central Railroad to be reproduced as a travel poster advertising passenger service to the Adirondacks and Lake Placid, New York.
S.S. President Hoover on the Yangtze River,Shanghai
Although his military work was limited, he did create an amazing set of paintings of the most modern warships of their day, to include the turbine-electric USS Saratoga (CV-3) and the USS New Mexico (BB-40)
Saratoga by Walter green 1927
The Electric Ship, New Mexico (BB-40), painting by Walter L. Greene.
GE ad from the Electric Ship painting, published 1920
Greene passed in 1956, long after Saratoga was obliterated and sunk in the A-bomb tests at Bikini Atoll and New Mexico broken up for scrap in Newark.
Today his industrial work is celebrated by train enthusiasts while a number of his paintings are in the Navy Art Collection and on display at the Albany Institute of History and Art, New York, Arkell Museum at Canajoharie, New York, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum National Art Inventories.
To patrol Haiti’s 1,535 kilometers of coastline, the job falls to 150 Commissariat des Gardes-Côtes d’Haïti (G-Cd’H) Coast Guard sailors and 10 boats. And that’s an improvement. Four years ago, the G-Cd’H only had 99 sailors.
It does look like the USCG is giving them some surplus equipment and a fair bit of training and assistance though.
The sad thing is the country once had an official (if somewhat minor) navy.
The Haitian Navy was founded in 1809 with the surplus 32-gun French frigate Félicité, which had been captured by the Royal Navy frigates HMS Latona and HMS Cherub then sold to Henri Christophe’s State of Haiti who promptly renamed her Améthyste. The British of course took most of the 24-year old Félicité‘s guns but by 1812 the ship had been captured by a French privateer named Gaspard who up-armed her with 44 cannon– and was soon captured again by the British who gave her back to the Haitians.
Haitian gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot
The Haitians continued to arm small local vessels throughout the 19th and 20th century, only ordering their first purpose-built vessel, the 950-ton Crête-à-Pierrot from England in 1895. Armed with six decent-sized (all over 100mm) guns, she was considered a well-armed gunboat for her time but was scuttled after a bruising by the larger German SMS Panther in 1902. (For more on the weirdness of this, click here and go to 1902.)
Anyway, disbanding their Navy in 1930 after a coup, Haiti reclassified the service as the G-Cd’H for the next 40 years. This was not the first time this would occur…
During and just after WWII, the USCG transferred a half-dozen 83-foot splinter boats to the service while the U.S. Navy sent three subchasers (including an experimental one-off model), all of which were out of service in a decade or so.
The Haitian Coast Guard vessel 16 Aout 1946 (GC 2), ex USCGC Air Avocet (WAVR 411), ex-USS SC-453, ex-PC-453
In 1960, the G-Cd’H received the 775-ton/168-foot USS Tonawanda (YN-115/AN-89), a Cohoes-class net laying ship with a single 3″/50 gun as the Jean-Jacques Dessalines (MH-101).
USS Samoset (ATA-190), pride and joy of the Haitian Navy from 1978-95.
After a coup led to most of the Haitian Coast Guard defecting in 1970, strongman Papa Doc Duvalier disbanded the service and renamed it the new and improved Haitian Navy. Besides ordering some small coastal patrol craft (think 65-foot PCFs), in 1978 the 835-ton/143-foot Sotomomo-class tug USS Samoset (ATA-190) with a single 3″/50, was transferred as Henri Christophe (MM20).
Christophe and some armed trawlers and speedboats lingered through the 1980s and 90s and, when Haiti disbanded its military in 1995, the G-Cd’H was reformed from the Navy’s ashes, again.
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