The Purge

                                             28 DECEMBER 2020                                                     THE PURGE In the first decades of the 21st century, a series of untoward events involving minority citizens led to the assertion that racism is systemic in American society.  With the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Read More

Blockade Running

                                             21 DECEMBER 1863                                            BLOCKADE RUNNING The effect of Lincoln’s naval blockade of the Confederacy was starting to tell by the end of 1861, as cotton and tobacco began piling up on southern wharves.  Unable to move their major exports, the agrarian Read More

John Walker Spy Ring (cont.)

                                       DECEMBER 1967-MAY 1985                                    JOHN WALKER SPY RING (cont.) The Soviets were indeed interested in what RMC John Walker had brought!  After waiting in a Soviet embassy anteroom while the authenticity of his KL-47 keylist was verified, an official returned to Walker Read More

John Walker Spy Ring

                                       DECEMBER 1967-MAY 1985                                         JOHN WALKER SPY RING By the late 1960s, US Navy top-secret operations were routinely shadowed by Russian “trawlers” bristling with antennae.  B-52 airstrikes against North Vietnam seemed to be anticipated by the enemy, even when diverted to secondary Read More

The Battle of Great Bridge

                                              9 DECEMBER 1775                                   THE BATTLE OF GREAT BRIDGE Modern sailors stationed in the Norfolk area may be familiar with Battlefield Boulevard and Great Bridge, whose story follows. GEN George Washington worried that the British might become lodged in Norfolk, Virginia.  Then Read More

ISABEL’s Secret Sortie

                                              3 DECEMBER 1941                                         ISABEL’S SECRET SORTIE The 245-foot USS ISABEL (PY-10) was left over from WWI, built in 1917 to be the personal yacht of millionaire John North Willys (of Willys jeep fame).  She had been requisitioned on the ways by Read More

USS WOODBURY and the Pastry War

                                             29 NOVEMBER 1838                            USS WOODBURY AND THE PASTRY WAR The Mexican Federalist War of 1835-41 pitted the aristocratic Centralist Mexican rulers against the federalist peasantry of the provinces.  Foreign businessmen in Mexico who suffered collateral damages from Centralist Mexican Army operations Read More

Action at the Pearl River Forts

                                           15-22 NOVEMBER 1856                              ACTION AT THE PEARL RIVER FORTS By the mid-19th century, most western nations had established commercial enterprises in China.  China was, at the time, internally fractionated and militarily weak, and England, in particular, exploited this situation to compel Read More

The French Problem and Operation “Torch” (cont.)

                                            8-16 NOVEMBER 1942             THE FRENCH PROBLEM AND OPERATION “TORCH” (cont.) The landing of 84,000 American troops in French North Africa brought the full rage of Vichy President Marshal Philippe Pétain against President Franklin Roosevelt.  “It is with stupor and sadness that Read More

The French Problem and Operation “Torch”

                                              8 NOVEMBER 1942                   THE FRENCH PROBLEM AND OPERATION “TORCH” After the fall of France to the wehrmacht in June of 1940, der Fuhrer was content to allow France to be divided.  A German puppet government centered in the city of Vichy Read More