30 JULY 1942 LAST CALL FROM GRUNION On 30 June 1942, LCDR Mannert L. Abele conned the new Gato-class submarine USS GRUNION (SS-216) out of Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol. WWII was seven months old, and the first glimmers Read More
25 JULY 1956 LIONS, CUBS, AND NAS CUBI POINT WWII’s clouds were gathering in the late 1930s, and it was increasingly recognized that existing naval bases along our Atlantic and Pacific seaboards would be inadequate to fully support operations thousands of Read More
19 JULY 1918 SAN DIEGO LOST Almost as our ten Pennsylvania and Tennessee-class armored cruisers entered service at the turn of the 20th century they were rendered obsolete by advances in technology and dreadnaught design. By the entry of the US Read More
14 JULY 1813 USS ASP vs. OVERWHELMING ODDS In February of 1813 our nation was struggling once again against the naval superpower of the day, Britain, and fears of a British incursion into the Chesapeake were real. Our Navy was no Read More
10 JULY 1975 “THIS CAN’T BE GOOD” “This can’t be good,” Chief Paul DeLange thought to himself as he stood on the deck of the attack submarine USS FINBACK (SSN-670) early this morning overseeing the aft line handlers. Disco music blared Read More
3 JULY 1951 KOELSCH AND NEAL John K. Koelsch was English, born in London and educated at the Choate School. In 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force and fought in the Blitz. He came to the United States in 1942 Read More
27 JUNE 1775 THOSE SNEAKY PATRIOTS! “Our Liberty Folks are really very active in Fomenting a Flame throughout the Province… but [with] 200 Soldiers & a Sloop of War I think that I should be able to keep every thing quiet Read More
6 MAY-22 JUNE 1966 DODSON/ECKES ESCAPE On the 6th of May 1966, USMC SGT James Dodson was surveying for a road construction team in friendly territory just south of Da Nang, South Vietnam. While investigating a peasant hut about 200 yards Read More
16 JUNE 1944 “NERO” OF GUAM On 21 July 1944 the USMC landed on the Marianas island of Guam–the second island in that archipelago to be retaken from the enemy. Guam was defended by 19,000 Japanese under LGEN Takeshi Takashima, but Read More
12 JUNE 1775 250th ANNIVERSARY UNITY vs. HMS MARGARETTA In June 1775 civilian Ichabod Jones, captain of the schooner Unity, requested clearance from British ADM Samuel Graves to carry a load of provisions from Boston to the far-flung town of Machias Read More