19 JUNE 1968 CELEBRATED SAR MISSION Any search and rescue team member will tell you that no SAR mission is routine. Such was the case shortly after midnight on this date, as LTJG Clyde E. Lassen and the crew of Read More
14 JUNE 1898 BATTLE OF CUZCO WELL On this morning, LCOL Robert W. Huntington dispatched CPT George Fielding Elliott with two rifle companies and 50 Cuban scouts on a 6-mile circuitous march along the shore to the Cuzco Well. They were Read More
10 JUNE 1898 CAPTURE OF GUANTANAMO BAY Much of the Spanish-American War was fought in Cuba, where American intervention hoped to end oppression of local Cubans by their Spanish overlords. Spain answered with a squadron of four cruisers and three destroyers Read More
5 JUNE 1942 CAPT FLEMING vs. MIKUMA Under ADM Isoroku Yamamoto’s complex plan to capture Midway the four cruisers of RADM Takeo Kurita’s Cruiser Division 7 were tasked with a pre-invasion bombardment of the island. On June 4th these warships closed Read More
31 MAY 2002 FIRST NAVY JACK In the days of sail, ships at sea identified themselves by flying their national flag, called an “ensign,” a term carried over from European heraldry. To be most visible, it was flown from the tallest Read More
27 MAY 2015 LAST NAVY EA-6B “PROWLER” On this day the last of the Navy’s premier electronics countermeasures (ECM) aircraft, the Northrop-Grumman EA-6B “Prowler,” was retired after a short flight from Squadron VAQ-134 at Whidbey Island to the Seattle Museum of Read More
20 MAY 1967 CAPT HOMER L. SMITH, USN The weather could have been better! The A4D Skyhawks of the VA-212 “Rampant Raiders” launched from USS BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA-31) early this morning. CDR Homer Leroy Smith, the squadron CO, led from Read More
15 MAY 1812 PRELUDE TO THE WAR OF 1812 At the turn of the 19th century the territory that is now Florida was Spanish. This fact was of no reassurance to the administration of President James Madison in 1811. Spain was Read More
10 MAY 1972 CUNNINGHAM vs. “COL TOMB” The title of “ace” has never been officially recognized by the US military. It originated in the French air force of WWI for whom it was a formal honor conferred on pilots downing five Read More
5 MAY 1942 NAVAJO CODE TALKERS On the night of 26 October 1918 two WWI companies of the Army’s 142nd Infantry became trapped near Chufilly, France. To affect their withdrawal in the face of German radio code breaking prowess, the Army Read More