Women’s Armed Services Integration Act

                                                   12 JUNE 1948                     WOMEN’S ARMED SERVICES INTEGRATION ACT The roles open to women in our WWII Navy were limited.  The Navy Nurse Corps had been accepting women exclusively since 1908, and women had also entered service through the Navy and Marine Read More

Attack on Osiraq

                                                    7 JUNE 1981                                             ATTACK ON OSIRAQ Amos Yadlin dropped the nose of his heavily loaded F-16 straight down the “chute” out of the setting sun at 480 knots.  The 30-foot arching dome of Saddam Hussein’s nearly completed nuclear reactor Osiraq (a Read More

The “Plug-Uglies”

                                                    1 JUNE 1857                                             THE “PLUG-UGLIES” Few may remember today that the January 6th, 2021, Capitol riot was not the first violent threat against our election process.  The tempestuous 1857 Presidential campaign pitted the Democratic ticket of James Buchanan and John Breckinridge Read More

SS-192 (cont.)

                                                 23-25 MAY 1939                                                     SS-192 (cont.) It had been 26 hours since SQUALUS (SS-192) slipped below the waves off New Hampshire’s coast, only to be partially flooded and sink 240 feet below.  The McCann Rescue Chamber had arrived lashed to the fantail Read More

SS-192

                                                   23 MAY 1939                                                          SS-192 A commissioning ceremony occupied the docks at New Hampshire’s Portsmouth Navy Yard on 1 March 1939.  Our latest Sargo-class submarine, SQUALUS (SS-192), was entering service.  Her dock trials went well, except for a problem with closure of Read More

Escape of Planter

                                                 12-13 MAY 1862                                             ESCAPE OF PLANTER Robert Smalls was a 23-year-old slave who was contracted by his owner to Charleston, SC, tradesmen in exchange for the pay he earned.  The Spring of 1862 found Smalls in the employ of C.J. Relyea, Read More

Fall of Corregidor

                                                    6 MAY 1942                                           FALL OF CORREGIDOR The Japanese invasion of the Philippines began within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Landing in the Lingayen Gulf, they swept southward across the island of Luzon toward Manila, Subic Bay, and the Bataan Read More

Last Cruise of LPH-11

                                        1 FEBRUARY-2 MAY 1997                                          LAST CRUISE OF LPH-11 On the sunny Friday morning of 2 May 1997 the amphibious assault ship NEW ORLEANS (LPH-11) nudged toward Pier 6 at Naval Station San Diego.  A seasoned 28-year veteran, she was returning from Read More

CSS NEUSE

                                                  27 APRIL 1864                                                      CSS NEUSE Union forces gained control of North Carolina’s shoreline south of the Virginia border during the first year of the Civil War.  By late 1862, Union troops were garrisoned at New Bern on the Neuse River, Washington Read More