Official wartime caption: “Lining up for their first target practice. Revolver practice. 1940, naval ratings receiving revolver instruction. They are under the guidance of commissioned gunner, F.E. Bisson, RN, who has been a gunner for over 30 years.”
All photos by the prolific shutterbug, LT Sidney James Beadell, Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve (Sp), one of the official naval photographers.
“This Leading Seaman was a builder before the war and is receiving his first lesson in the handling of a revolver.” Observe the notebook and pencil in Gunner Bisson’s jacket pocket. IWM (A 1196)
IWM (A 1197)
The positions are textbook– right out of the Royal Navy Field Training Handbook, H.M.S.O., 1926:
Plate 43, for reference. Note the Tar in the manual has a larger MK VI Webley and canvas holster.
IWM (A 1198)
The wheelguns are early (likely Mk Vs) bird’s head gripped 3-inch Webley .455s, weapons Gunner Bisson was no doubt well acquainted with as they were first adopted in 1913 and used in the Great War. The leather holsters, for the most part, seem to be for the bigger MK VI.
As most revolver training seems to have been done aboard a ship, the fact that Gunner Bisson is conducting the evolution at a shore establishment may point to the trainees being selected for dockside or armory security duty.
Capping a selection process that had been started in 1974 for a new Short-Range Recovery (SRR) Aircraft to replace the aging HH-52 Sea Guard, the Coast Guard accepted the first of 96 HH-65 Dolpins for service on 14 November 1984.
They entered service in the branch’s then-standard red-white and blue full-color livery, complete with racing stripe.
Official caption: November 1984. HH-65 “successor” replacing the venerable HH-52A, a USCG workhorse for decades. USCG Historian’s Office Photo.
The first Dolphin det was CGAS New Orleans, which stood up in 1985. USCG Historian’s Office Photo.
In this work from the U.S. Coast Guard Art Program 2014 Collection, “Search Light” ID# 201414, An Air Station Miami MH-65 Dolphin flies low over a small boat station crew in turbulent waters of Biscayne Bay to conduct search and rescue training exercises. In order to be prepared for emergencies occurring at any time, crew members routinely complicate training exercises by performing them at night. (U.S. Coast Guard Art Program work by Karen Loew)
In those past 40 years, the Dolphin has flown 1,828,835 hours combined in USCG service, saving 13,828 lives, assisting another 13,974 in danger, and conducted 445,304 hoists.
Not too shabby.
Still “flying yesterday’s helicopter tomorrow,” the Reagan-era HH-65s were given a service life extension and became the Multi-Mission Cutter Helicopter (MCH), now in its MH-65E Echo upgrade variant which is anticipated to be in operation well through 2027.
Although they have been in hundreds of engagements and campaigns since 1775, only a handful of fights are noteworthy enough to have shaped the Marine Corps for generations and echo throughout history, becoming as much bywords among those who have earned the Eagle Globe & Anchor as “Valhalla” was to Norse warriors.
The storming of Chapultepec Castle in 1847 (“From the Halls of Montezuma”), Presley O’Bannon’s Marines at Derne in 1805 (“To the Shores of Tripoli”), Belleau Wood in 1918 (“Teufel Hunden“), Guadalcanal in 1942 (The Southern Cross constellation), Iwo Jima in 1945 (raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi), the “Frozen Chosin” in 1950, Hue City in 1968 (the Dong Ba Tower and the later personification of “Animal Mother” and the gang) will endure with the Marines much as the Royal Scots will always mark Waterloo, the Rifles (Gloucestershires) will remember the Imjin River, the Legion will celebrate Camerone Day, and the 101st/82nd Airborne will “own” Overlord.
Operation Phantom Fury, the six-week so-called Second Battle of Fallujah fell broadly on the shoulders of four Marine rifle battalions (3rd Bn/1st Marines, 3rd Bn/5th Marines, 1st Bn/8th Marines, and 1st Bn/3rd Marines) and a LAV company (Charlie Company “Warpigs,” 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion) in November-December 2004, will surely join that pantheon.
With that in mind, check out the most current 88-page USMCU history on the subject, and these deep dive videos (some over an hour in length and very well done) that were recently dropped in the past week.
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Warship Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024: One Busy Bug
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-684905
Above we see the Balao-class fleet submarine USS Bugara (SS-331), in her gun-less Fleet Snorkel configuration, off Oahu on the 14th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Commissioned some 80 years ago this week on 15 November 1944, you wouldn’t think she’d even have a chance to get in the Big Show before the war ended.
You’d be very wrong about that.
The Balaos
A member of the 180+-ship Balao class, she was one of the most mature U.S. Navy diesel designs of the World War Two era, constructed with knowledge gained from the earlier Gato class. U.S. subs, unlike those of many navies of the day, were “fleet” boats, capable of unsupported operations in deep water far from home. The Balao class was deeper diving (400 ft. test depth) than the Gato class (300 feet) due to the use of high-yield strength steel in the pressure hull.
Able to range 11,000 nautical miles on their reliable diesel engines, they could undertake 75-day patrols that could span the immensity of the Pacific. Carrying 24 (often unreliable) Mk14 Torpedoes, these subs often sank anything short of a 5,000-ton Maru or warship by surfacing and using their deck guns. They also served as the firetrucks of the fleet, rescuing downed naval aviators from right under the noses of Japanese warships.
Some 311 feet long overall, they were all-welded construction to facilitate rapid building. Best yet, they could be made for the bargain price of about $7 million in 1944 dollars (just $100 million when adjusted for today’s inflation) and completed from keel laying to commissioning in about nine months.
An amazing 121 Balaos were completed through five yards at the same time, with the following pennant numbers completed by each:
Cramp: SS-292, 293, 295-303, 425, 426 (12 boats)
Electric Boat: 308-313, 315, 317-331, 332-352 (42)
Manitowoc on the Great Lakes: 362-368, 370, 372-378 (15)
Mare Island on the West Coast: 304, 305, 307, 411-416 (9)
Portsmouth Navy Yard: 285-288, 291, 381-410, 417-424 (43)
Our subject was the first (and only) U.S. warship named for the common label for the Rainbow surfperch (Hypsurus caryi), a multicolored little guy found along the coast of California. Laid down on 21 October 1943 at Groton, Connecticut by the Electric Boat Co, she was launched on 2 July 1944, and sponsored by Mrs. Anna A. Perry, the wife of Annapolis All-American football legend Capt. Lyman Spencer “Pop” Perry (USNA ’19), who at the time was serving as a Commodore of training operations on the West Coast.
80-G-448203
Commissioned at the U.S. Submarine Base, New London, on 15 November 1944, Bugara’s plankowner skipper was T/CDR Arnold Frederic Schade (USNA ’33). He was the youngest submarine commander in the Navy for a time and started the war on the training boat USS R-12 (SS 89), then was XO on the famed USS Growler (SS 215) when his commander in February 1943, CDR Howard Walter Gilmore, earned the MOH the hardest way.
In all, the 32-year-old Schade was the veteran of eight previous war patrols, including the last two as Growler’s skipper. He already had a Navy Cross and Silver Star on his jacket for sinking a trio of Japanese destroyer leaders on the 4th of July 1942 and for five other ships on the second patrol.
Bugara’s crew was one of veterans, no surprise as the Navy had been at war for three hard years when it was formed. Of the sub’s nine officers that made up her wardroom and seven chiefs in her goat locker, they counted no less than 73 war patrols among them, including one LT (j.g) with the unintentionally ironic last name of “Sinks” who had nine patrols on his own.
After abbreviated shakedowns and post-delivery maintenance, Bugara left New London for the Pacific via Panama on Christmas Day 1944. After all, there was a war on.
First Patrol
This overhead view of the Bugara (SS-331) was taken during torpedo practice firings off Panama Bay in January 1945 while heading to the Pacific. The torpedo retrieving davits are rigged, which are used for hauling the practice torpedo out of the water. Note at this point she only has one 5″/25, forward, as well as a twin 40mm Bofors aft. USN Archive photo # 19-N-76588.
Bugara cleared Pearl Harbor on 21 February 1945 on her 1st War Patrol and steamed directly to recently secured Saipan, ordered to patrol north of Luzon, Philippines in support of the Iwo Jima campaign.
A snooze fest with Japanese shipping already largely sanitized from the area, she fought off a typhoon and had to crash dive for several enemy aircraft while on the surface. In fact, she encountered far more fellow Allied submarines on patrol– American (USS Perch, Besugo, Blueback, Tuna, Tigrone, Puffer, Spot, Sea Fox, Hake, and Pargo), British (HMS P-248) and Dutch (Hr.Ms. K-14)– than she did anything else.
Disappointingly, the only Japanese vessels she spotted that were large enough to warrant a torpedo were marked as hospital ships. The only “action” her crew saw was in destroying a floating mine via gunfire.
It was essentially a qualifying cruise, with 29 of the 36 crewmembers who lacked their “Dolphins” earning them while underway.
On 21 April 1945, Bugara ended her inaugural patrol at the big Allied sub base at Fremantle, Australia after steaming 13,724 miles in 59 days.
Award of a Combat Insignia was not authorized for the patrol by COMSUBPAC.
Schade noted, “Morale of all hands is high despite the lack of combat opportunity.”
Second Patrol
After a three-week turnaround that included installing a second 5″/25 on her aft deck– the so-called gunboat submarine configuration— and director antennae for her APR, on 16 May 1945 Bugara sailed out of Fremantle for her 2nd War Patrol, ordered to hunt in the South China Sea off Hainan and serve as a floating “Log Joint” lifeguard station for aircrews downed at sea during the Okinawa campaign.
As on her first patrol, Bugara met or operated with other Allied subs on just about every day she was underway, and only a few local native craft– Chinese junks from which she would barter cigarettes for fresh fish– were spotted. Likewise, while on her first patrol, she often had to cope with Japanese aircraft, they too were scarce and instead, she typically logged voice contacts with passing four-engine Navy PB4Y Privateers.
On 20 June 1945, Bugara ended her monotonous 36-day patrol at recently liberated Subic Bay, where, in a twist of fate, she tied up next to the new Fulton-class sub tender USS Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16), named after Schade’s old boss on Growler.
Bugara logged zero enemy contacts despite the fact she steamed 10,118 miles across the Western Pacific, waters that the Empire had owned just a year prior.
Award of a Combat Insignia was not authorized for the patrol by COMSUBPAC.
Such boring late-war patrols often drove eager submarine skippers to think out of the box to find a fight.
For instance, in April 1945, USS Bluegill under LCDR Eric Barr landed some Australian Commandos followed by a short party of his own on the deserted low-lying reef of Pratas, some 160 miles southeast of Hong Kong, and “captured it.”
57 Sunk!
Shifting operations further south where the Japanese may still have some naval and merchant assets and with the new Loran navigation system installed, on 14 July 1945 Bugara departed Subic Bay to begin her 3rd War Patrol, ordered to the relative backwater of the Gulf of Siam where the Japanese had been unabated since early 1942.
The 29-day patrol report makes absolutely great reading and I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
On the night of 23 July, she put a “Commando Party ashore north of Lem Chong Pra– armed to the teeth with demolition equipment,” but had to take them back off the next morning just before dawn “highly embarrassed as the jungle had been so thick they couldn’t get off the beach.”
While a six torpedo spread against a small Japanese convoy on the early morning of 20 July yielded no hits– all of the fish running deeper than their settings– she had much better luck with her guns. In fact, while a normal load of “fish” was 24 torpedoes, Bugara had instead left Subic with just 12 (apparently worthless) torpedoes but with a full 240 rounds for her 5-inchers including 60 rounds of VT, stowing four racks full of ammo in her torpedo room instead.
In all, she made contact with 62 small surface vessels and, after finding them to be under Japanese control, sent at least 57 to the bottom in a series of one-sided gun actions over the fortnight between 24 July and 7 August, many in the dark.
From her War Patrol report:
She even ran into a batch of canoe-borne Malay pirates while in mid-attack on a Chinese schooner and performed actions worthy of the days of Stephen Decatur and Edward Preble.
In all, she fired 201 rounds of 5-inch, 291 of 40mm, and 400 of 20mm, finding in fact that the VT fuzed shells were not ideal as they were fired typically too close (within 600 yards on average) to arm.
Realizing that many of the crews on these wooden coasters and schooners were natives working under threat of death, Bugara’s crew went to great lengths to save them, even though on one occasion she had to submerge when a strange aircraft approached and left her rescues bobbing in the Gulf of Siam for a few minutes until she surfaced again after it had passed. Keep in mind that during this period she was working in typically just 10 fathoms (60 feet) of water, almost bottoming when completely submerged.
This also allowed her to glean some good old-fashioned HUMINT, with one particularly friendly Chinese who spoke pidgin English kept aboard for a couple of weeks as a translator. Schade included it with a wish list of items should he be sent back to the area:
On 17 August 1945, Bugara ended her final patrol of WWII at Fremantle, two days after Japan announced its unconditional surrender. Bugara and her crew were finally awarded the Submarine Combat Insignia for a patrol.
Few late-war subs could beat her record of “bunny bashing” in gun actions. The only one I can think of was Bill Hazzard in USS Blenny (SS-324) which bagged 62 mischievous Japanese vessels.
Bugara’s 3rd Patrol was the subject of at least one patch by her crew, emblazoned with a “57” on a hapless skull.
Bugara’s WWII patches. NHHC 2017.001.020 and NHHC 2017.001.021.
Sent with SubRon 5 to Subic Bay in September, she patrolled local waters there into mid-November when her squadron was ordered to clear Japanese-held islands in the South China Sea. This included Bugara sending large and heavily armed landing forces ashore at Tizard Bank and Itu Aba, where all they found were destroyed weather and radio stations.
Arriving back at San Diego in February 1946, three months later, she was back in Pearl Harbor, SubRon 5’s next home port.
There, as part of Operation Road’s End, on 28 May 1946, Bugara successfully sank her only Japanese ship via torpedo– the captured Type AM (I-13-class) submarine I-14in a test of the new Mark 10-3 exploder– which worked.
A huge aircraft-carrying submarine (the largest submarines ever built until U.S. Poseidon SSBNs of the 1960s), I-14 was sent to the bottom in deep water off Barber’s Point at deliberately unrecorded locations along with four other captured enemy boats (I-400, I-401, I-201, and I-203) to keep their technology out of Soviet hands.
I-14 and I-400 alongside USS Proteus (AS-19), in Japanese home waters, after WWII. Note: the crew of deck and another sub (unidentified) along in the background. NH 50387
These boats, had the war gone on long enough, were part of a Japanese plan to wage biological warfare against cities in Southern California, in retaliation for the U.S. firebombing of Japanese cities, or alternatively an attack on the Panama Canal– keep that in mind the next time someone says the A-Bombs didn’t have to be dropped.
To prove to Stalin that these went to Davy Jones, the Navy filmed the sinking of all these big I boats– in beautiful color.
Bugara received three battle stars for her service in World War II, one for taking part in the Iwo Jima campaign (12-16 March 1945), one for Okinawa (17 March to 4 April 1945, and one for her third patrol (14 July 45 – 17 Aug 45) as well as an Occupation Service clasp for July- August 1948 when she returned to the area on a West Pac patrol.
Korea
Stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Norks crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea in June 1950, she was soon sent forward on a series of war patrols off the embattled peninsula that was broken up by a five-month Fleet Snorkel conversion at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in late 1951 that saw her guns landed, a snorkel fitted along with better sensors, and a new, streamlined fairwater that covered her scopes installed.
Compare these two silhouttes.
Bugara received two Korean War battle stars during the conflict, logging four periods in theatre (5 Oct-28 Nov 50, 20 Jan-18 Jun 51, 20 Apr-4 Jun 54, and 14-27 Jul 54).
She also survived a crack-up during the conflict with the escort USS Whitehurst (DE-634) that left both vessels damaged but gratefully without any casualties, and each soon returned to work.
That’s not going to buff out
By August 1955, she was transferred to San Diego as part of SubRon 3.
USS Bugara (SS-331), May 1956. Shown while operating off San Diego. 80-G-696504
Same as above. 80-G-696503
USS Bugara (SS-331) off Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, December 7, 1955. 80-G-684904
She would fall into a decade of drills training evolutions, shipyard availabilities, and regular WestPac deployments and SEATO exercises where she would typically interact with the growing Japanese, Filipino, Australian, and Taiwanese fleets.
USS Bugara with an S-2 Tracker overhead, likely in an ASW exercise. Submarine Forces Museum
She also got a bit of payback against tin cans for her Whitehurst damage.
In April 1958 while using a practice torpedo against USS Yarnall (DD-541), which was set to run at 30 or 40 feet, it actually ran at 10 and smacked the Fletcher class destroyer on the port bow.
Yarnall’s skipper radioed, “We’ve been hit and are taking on water.”
Bugara’s skipper offered assistance.
Yarnall’s captain replied, “You can go to hell!”
Then came…
Vietnam
During the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, no less than 60 different submarines were operational off Vietnam at some time between 1964 and 1975, many staying long enough to earn campaign stars. Most, 42, were old “smoke boats,” such as Bugara, including many of her sisters. Eighteen others were modern SSNs which were utilized more sparingly.
Vietnam War. June 1969. Sailors aboard the guided missile frigate USS Brooke (DEG 1) watch as the Gato-class submarine USS Bluegill (AGSS 242) travels on the surface. Official U.S. Navy photo (K-74080)
In 1968, at the request of COMNAVFORV RADM Kenneth L. Veth, the Seventh Fleet deployed a submarine just off the coast of Sihanoukville (Kampong Saom) Cambodia to monitor shipping traffic. COMNAVFORV and 7th Fleet later pioneered tracking inbound gun-carrying trawlers passing through the strait between the Chinese mainland and Hainan with submarines working with over-the-horizon P-3s. The result was the ability to track a trawler’s passage, sight unseen, with the final act being an interception by surface assets and destruction. Sculpin in one known 1972 incident, tracked a Chinese trawler from its homeport across some 2,500 miles to the Southern coasts of South Vietnam, where it was sent to the bottom by the RVN Navy.
Communications intelligence personnel on board the submarine intercepted a message from the trawler that made clear the enemy was unaware of the submarine trailing her until the last hours of the mission. During the passage from Hainan, the submarine’s sonarmen became intimately familiar with the trawler’s distinctive shaft and propeller sounds. Periscope photographs of the white-colored trawler confirmed their analysis.
They also performed submerged lifeguard duty for downed aviators between Hanoi and Haiphong and the carriers on Yankee Station.
A U.S. Navy Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 2 (HS-2) “Golden Falcons” sits on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CVS-12) for a deployment to the Western Pacific and Vietnam from 12 August 1965 to 23 March 1966. In the background is the Fleet Snorkel Balao-class submarine USS Segundo (SS-398).
Others, such as Perch and Tunny, would carry out commando raids near shore. Submarines carried UDT 11 and UDT 12 frogmen to their dangerous missions in Operations Starlite, Jackstay, Dagger Thrust, Blue Marlin, and scores of other amphibious operations during the war.
Some, such as USS Salmon (SSR-573), would lay mines off North Vietnamese harbors.
They also served as an OPFOR “tame wolf” for the carriers’ escorts, embarked SH-2/3s, and land-based P-3 Orions to keep their ASW skills sharp should a Russki boat come poking too close.
A U.S. Navy Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 8 (HS-8) “Eightballers” from USS Bennington (CVS-20) is seen flying over an unidentified Fleet Snorkel conversion submarine during the carrier’s deployment to the Western Pacific and Vietnam from 30 April to 9 November 1968.
Many of these submarines still have the exact details of their Vietnam service classified. They don’t call it the “Silent Service” for nothing.
Those who tallied up multiple Vietnam campaign stars included USS Grayback (8 stars), Razorback (5), Tunny (5), Barbel (4), Bluegill (4), Bonefish (4), Sea Fox (4), Swordfish (4), Tang (4), Salmon (3), Scamp (3), Tiru (3), Wahoo (3), Barb (2), Blueback (2), Bonefish (2), Carbonero (2), Pomfret (2), and Rasher (2).
Our girl Bugara beat out all but Grayback and received an Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and seven campaign stars for her service during the Vietnam War.
Bugara was, by most accounts, the first submarine ordered into Vietnamese waters with a war face on since WWII, assigned to Task Force 77 for operations in the South China Sea as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August 1964.
In 1965, Bugara passed her 6,000th dive on her 21st birthday.
Steaming cross-Pacific in 1966 allowed her the rare treat of “Tying the Knot” by doing surfaced and submerged 360-degree turns at both the Equator and the 180th meridian.
She appeared in several films and broadcasts highlighting the American Navy in Vietnam as she was one of the few subs to make port calls in Thailand (Bangkok, Ko Sumui, and Satahib) and Vietnam (DaNang) in addition to her regular WestPac calls at Subic Bay, Australia (Perth and Geraldton), Yokosuka, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (Kaohsiung and Keelung).
On 7 July 1967, she loaded and fired four exercise torpedoes. She also carried one war shot torpedo, serial #63813 which she would use on the 11th to send the stricken Buckley-class destroyer escort ex-USS Currier (DE-700) to the bottom in deep water off California.
ex-USS Currier (DE-700) SINKEX by USS Bugara, 1967. (Photo: Bugara Veterans’ Group)
Close up. (Photo: Bugara Veterans’ Group)
Currier, who had received two battle stars for WWII service and one for Korea, had been with the Fleet Sonar School since 1954 and was sent to mothballs for seven years before her SINKEX.
Part of Bugara’s 1968 enlisted crew with non-reg black berets of the type commonly available in Vietnamese markets, complete with embroidered Dolphin insignias. (Photo: Bugara Veteran’s Site)
With the ASW vendetta between The Bug and the 7th Fleet’s escorts continuing, in 1969 she was hit by a practice MK 44 torpedo shot by an American destroyer. The torpedo failed to shut down as it was expected to, causing a big hole in Bugara’s aft superstructure. While the exercise torp was never recovered, months later its transducer and nose of the torpedo were found in a space outside of the pressure hull below the aft torpedo tubes.
Her 12th and final post-Korea WestPac cruise was capped in August 1969 when she arrived home in San Diego. She logged her 7,000th dive later that year.
Despite a year-end yard period and battery renewal that would have bought Bugara another half-decade of service, the first week of January 1970 instead brought a flash from the CNO that the five remaining Fleet Snorkel boats (our girl plus USS Medregal, Segundo, Carbonero, and Sabalo), considered too obsolete to transfer overseas much less to keep in service, were to be prepped for use as mobile targets for Mk. 48 torpedo service weapon tests.
Bugara (SS-331) possibly off San Diego, 11 June 1970. Note the four-man MK 7 Mod 6 swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) on her pressure hull. Photo courtesy of Cole Smith and atlanticfleetsales.smugmug.com. Via Navsource
Bugara in the end cheated to torpedo its meal and made her final dive on her own terms.
Decommissioned and Stuck from the Naval Register on 1 October 1970, ex-Bugara was slated to be expended in a SINKEX off the Washington coast.
However, in the tow from Mare Island to her death ground, our girl sank in a towing accident in the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 4 miles NW of Cape Flattery on 1 June 1971, with no injuries or lives lost. The next day, the Navy sent an NRF reserve ship out from Tacoma, USS Uhlmann (DD-687), to find the sunken hulk with sonar, and later DevGroupOne sent out an early deep-diving robot to film Bugara upright on the ocean floor.
In all, she stacked up a full dozen battle/campaign stars– three for WWII, two for Korea, and seven in Vietnam. In addition to the 57 “little boys” she sent to the bottom in 1945 in gun actions, she also deep-sixed a big Japanese I boat postwar and a tin can that was past its prime. All in all, not a bad run in 26 years.
Epilogue
Little remains of Bugara on dry land. Her WWII Jolly Roger-style battle flag has faded into history and I believe her bell was still aboard when she sank.
She rests 800 feet below the surface of what is now the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
In September 2008 ex-USS Bugara was surveyed by NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer as part of that oceanographic vessel’s shakedown cruise in a test of her state-of-the-art multibeam sonar system (Survey ID EX0801).
In 2017, she was surveyed as part of a larger expedition by NautilusLive.
She had a fairly active veteran’s group that, from what I can tell, had their last reunion in 2017 and has been offline for the past several years (archived here). They still maintain a group of images on Flickr, heavy on those released by NautilusLive.
She had 16 skippers between 1944 and 1970, the most noteworthy of which was Arnold Schade. Once he left Bugara in February 1946 he went on to other submarine commands, including SUBCOMLANT, a role in which he advised President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As Commander Middle East Force in 1963-64, he earned the Legion of Merit and later pinned a Gold Star to his Distinguished Service Medal. VADM Schade retired in 1971 after 38 years of service– ironically the same year as Bugara.
Schade passed at the age of 91 in San Diego and is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Section CBEE, Row 2, Site 121.
She also had the deepest-dived Navy man in history as part of her wardroom during the Cold War. Bugara’s XO in 1962-63 was LCDR Don Walsh. Two years before being piped aboard the sub, he and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard, while aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste (DSV-1), made the record maximum descent in the Challenger Deep, dropping into the darkness to 35,813 feet.
The world’s record descent, man’s deepest dive, had taken nine hours.
Krupp Sphere to Bathyscaph Trieste, 1960. Jacques Piccard center left and Lieutenant Don Walsh stand next to the sphere alongside an unidentified naval officer and civilian. National Museum of the U.S. Navy Photograph. NMUSN-4764
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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80 years ago this week. Original wartime caption passed as censored: “Moostdijk, Netherlands, 11 November 1944. Sgt. Laughlin, of Motherwell, is the section leader of the advance section of the Royal Scots and is a dead shot with the German revolver he has “collected” for self-defense since his arrival in Holland.”
Photo by Sgt. Laing, No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM B 11761
Of course, the “revolver” is a latter production FN (Browning) Hi-Power with a more basic rear sight rather than the adjustable tangent sight. As the typical sidearm for most of the Commonwealth’s foot soldiers was the S&W Victory model, Enfield No. 2, or Webley Mk IV, all of which offered just six rounds of anemic .38/200 lead heads, the 13+1 shot 9mm Hi-Power was an upgrade for sure, especially if it had a couple of extra magazines on hand.
Gratefully for all involved due to the good sergeant’s trigger discipline, the hammer is down so NDs aren’t on the immediate menu.
Two ship commissionings in the news show some decent salutes to those who have sailed into history in days prior.
In New York on Saturday– one day shy of the USMC’s 249th birthday– the Navy commissioned the second destroyer to carry the name of GySgt John Basilone,DDG-122.
Why New York? Basilone was born in Buffalo and grew up in Raritan, New Jersey, just 45 minutes away from the Big Apple.
During Basilone’s service on Guadalcanal, he led two machine gun sections of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, where he used his detachment’s M1917 water-cooled Browning machine guns and an M1911 .45 Government Issue pistol to great effect to break up a Japanese charge of some 3,000 Japanese against his emplacement. The feat earned him the nation’s highest military decoration and was depicted in 2010’s “The Pacific.”
His Medal of Honor citation, from his public file in the National Archives:
Basilone. He was posthumously honored with a Navy Cross for his actions on Iwo Jima, making him the only enlisted Marine in WWII to earn both of the service’s two highest honors.
In 1945, the Navy named a destroyer after Basilone, and in 1948, a life-sized statue of him was installed in his enlistment hometown of Raritan, New Jersey.
The new USS John Basilone’s battle flag includes a pair of crossed M1917s inside the Blue Diamond shoulder patch of the 1st Marine Division.
The Battle Flag is on the portside yardarm. (Photo: General Dynamics)
As detailed by the Navy, “These words characterize the life and service of Gunnery Sergeant Basilone, honor his legacy, and charge future generations of Selfless Warriors to sharpen their spears, take a stand, and move forward.” (Photo: General Dynamics)
Once commissioned, the USS Basilone will be part of the Atlantic Fleet. If she has anything like the service life shown in the rest of her class, she will only retire around 2064.
‘Old Ironsides’ Assist
Meanwhile, up the coast from NYC in Boston, the 27th Littoral Combat Ship, the future USS Nantucket (LCS-27) is set to commission on 16 November at the historic Charlestown Navy Yard. The 14th Freedom-variant is the fifth navy warship to honor “the rich heritage of the people of Nantucket and the maritime legacy that the island represents.”
The monitor USS Nantucket, seen in her post-war configuration. Loaned to the North Carolina Naval Militia in 1895, she was somewhat fancifully recommissioned for Spanish-American War service and only sold for scrapping in 1900. NH 66760-A.
The fourth, a 177-foot steel-hulled Alert-class gunboat (PG-23) commissioned in 1876, carried the name Nantucket as a training ship for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy from 1918 through 1942.
USS Nantucket (PG-23), formerly USS Ranger and USS Rockport, was then loaned to the State of Massachusetts for use at Massachusetts Nautical School. Courtesy of Mr. Gershone Bradford. NH 500
Fittingly, PCU Nantucket (LCS-27) is tied up near the USS Constitution this week as she awaits entrance to the fleet.
Walther has reached into the vault to bring back one of its most classic designs, now refined and ready for a new century. Like a spy in from the Cold, the PPK in .32 ACP has returned unexpectedly, and we have the debrief.
The background of the gun is well established. In a nutshell, Fritz Walter, the heir to the famed Carl Walther rifle works, moved in the early 1900s to expand the company into handguns with a line of simple blowback pocket pistols to compete with models like the Colt Vest Pocket and Pieper Bayard. Moving to more advanced designs using a workable single-action/double-action trigger system by the 1920s, the Polizei Pistole, or PP series, soon became a smash hit, despite it being twice as much as the company’s earlier models.
While not the first DA/SA handgun on the market, the PP was much more successful, and soon an abbreviated version pitched as a detective’s gun, the Polizei Pistole Kriminal, hit the catalog in 1930. With a 3.25-inch barrel and offerings in not only .32 ACP (the original PP’s bread and butter) but also spicier .380 ACP, which was then and still is seen as big medicine for European LE types, the sleek, almost Art Deco, PPK soon filled holsters and desk drawers.
The Walther PP/PPK has some serious history to it. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
A huge driver for the gun came from pop culture. While the Walther PP series appeared on screen in films as early as 1938, it was the James Bond film franchise that kicked the pistol into the stratosphere. Sean Connery’s Agent 007 was first issued a Walther in 1962’s “Dr. No” to replace his favored .25 ACP Beretta.
It would continue as his standard through his six-film run and go on to be picked up off and on by successive generations of Bonds.
The pistol is iconic, and in many cases can be a work of art, as shown here at the Walther factory in Ulm, Germany.
By 2013, with the market demand for the .32 waning in favor of the .380, Walther put the models chambered in the smaller caliber to bed.
Now, with improvements in bullet and propellant design leading to the resurgence of 9mm over .40 caliber, and .380 seen as the new 9mm, and .32 seen as the new .380, the stubby little round is much more popular these days.
So, it should be no surprise that Walther is bringing the “old” caliber back for both the PPK and the PPK/S, in stainless and black variants. We have been testing one for the past couple of months.
Official wartime caption: “Pvt. James L. Poust, Hughesville, Pa., displays a mud-covered face after having carried wounded men over mired and muddy roads of eastern France, 13 November 1944.”
80 years ago this week. 9 November 1944. Official wartime caption: “Jet-Propelled Take-off for Mariner, South Pacific – As the massive, bi-motored Martin mariner rises into the air, streams of smoke are ejected from the rockets situated under the wings. Jet propulsion is being more and more widely used to assist in speedy take-offs for more cumbersome planes. This picture was taken at a Pacific base by the new power-driven, portable K-25 camera.”
Official US Navy photo via the James Allison Collection, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
Keep in mind just the immense size of the PBM Mariner: 118-foot wingspan, 79 feet in length, 27 feet in height, and 25 tons in weight. Only one is left in the U.S., BuNo. 122071, located at the Pima Air & Space Museum.
I was able to take a peek at her last year and she is just… gigantic.
About the closest thing I can equivalate the above JATO shot to is seeing “Fat Albert,” the USMC KC-130 support Hercules attached to the Blue Angles, doing its dramatic JATO-STO maneuver, in which the 70-ton aircraft hops 500 feet up in about three seconds.
The inshore construction tender USCGC Smilax (WLIC 315) celebrated her 80th anniversary during a ceremony attended by current and former crewmembers in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina this week.
USCGC Smilax (WLIC 315), 2023. (USCG photo)
Commissioned 1 November 1944 during World War II, the 100-foot Smilax is the oldest active Coast Guard cutter, recognized as the “Queen of the Fleet,” a title she has held since 2011 when the fellow WWII vet, USCGC Acushnet (WMEC-167)/ex-USS Shackle, was decommissioned after 67 years of service.
The crewmembers of the USCGC Smilax (WLIC 315), Coast Guard Queen of the Fleet, take a moment for a group photo, Nov. 7, 2024, during the 80th Anniversary celebration of the cutter held in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. The celebration hosted multiple former crewmembers of the Smilax and current crewmembers provided tours of the cutter as well. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jonathan Lally)
The Smilax was built in 1943 by Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works in Dubuque, Iowa. When most other ships were being built in 40 days, Smilax was built over the course of a year and cost approximately $194,238, making her the most expensive ship in its class.
She was originally homeported in Fort Pierce, Florida but moved to a new homeport in New Smyrna Beach, Florida from June 1, 1954, to Nov. 9, 1965.
After being fitted with new engines and receiving a 70-foot barge, the Smilax was re-classified as a WLI-315, making her an inland buoy tender responsible for short-range ATON along the coastal and inland waterways, particularly in shallow waters or areas where larger tenders cannot reach.
She moved to a new homeport in Brunswick, Georgia on Nov. 9, 1965, before being re-classified again as a WLIC on Oct. 1, 1979. As a WLIC, or inland construction tender, the Smilax became responsible for constructing, repairing, and maintaining fixed ATON within inland waterways. It remained there until July 1999, when she moved to her current homeport in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
“One ship, one crew, everything says Smilax and they all work together,” said retired Chief Warrant Officer Scott McAloon, former commanding officer of the Smilax, from 2010 to 2014. “Everybody’s dirty in a set of coveralls, and it’s just such a fun ship to be part of. These construction tenders, they will humble you. From ship driving to getting out on the deck and working, it’s a real special thing.”
Smilax plays a crucial role in maintaining navigation aids in Oregon Inlet, Hatteras Inlet, Ocracoke Inlet, and Beaufort Inlet. She oversees 1,226 fixed aids and 26 buoys across the Outer Banks to ensure safe passage for various types of vessels. She also operates a 70-foot barge equipped with a crane capable of lifting heavy aids, making her well-suited for the shallow and shifting waters of the region.
By comparison, the oldest active-duty ship in the Navy (besides the floating museum ship USS Constitution) is the 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19).
Blue Ridge’s keel was laid on 27 February 1967, and she was commissioned on 14 November 1970. Her rich history includes commanding Operations Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind during the Vietnam War, receiving the Humanitarian Service Medal in 1984 for rescuing Vietnamese refugees during Operation Boat People, performing a nine-and-a-half month deployment as flagship for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command during the Persian Gulf War, and rushing supplies and relief to Japan during Operation Tomodachi.
She became the oldest in the fleet in 2014 when the USS Denver (LPD-9) was decommissioned after 46 years of service.
Like Smilax, Blue Ridge is also still hard at work, having recently wrapped up her longest summer patrol in five years, a 77-day, 10,000-nautical-mile West Pac cruise with stops in Malaysia, Palau, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
And she carries golden anchors, albeit to denote her regular retention awards. After all, duty in Yokosuka is pretty sweet.
240820-N-CV021-1063 YOKOSUKA, Japan (Aug. 20, 2024) The U.S. 7th Fleet flagship, USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19), returns to Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Aug. 20, after completing a two-and-a-half month scheduled patrol around the Indo-Pacific region. The Blue Ridge is the oldest operational ship in the Navy and routinely operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alexandria Esteban)
