Bases, Cold War

NAS Sigonella

                                                   15 JUNE 1959                                                 NAS SIGONELLA After World War II, Americans found it impossible to return to the isolation from European events we had enjoyed since our Revolution.  The vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans no longer presented obstacles to an attacker, and Read More

Auxiliaries, Cold War, Submarines

Lost H-Bomb

                                                   7 APRIL 1966                                                   LOST H-BOMB Considering the pace of Cold War activities in the 1960s, accidents were bound to happen.  Such was the case on 17 January 1966 when an Air Force B-52 collided with a KC-135 tanker during an aerial Read More

Auxiliaries, Cold War

Navy Icebreakers

                                                  7 MARCH 1960                                             NAVY ICEBREAKERS The 1950s was a decade of scientific endeavor in such far reaching environments as outer space, the deep ocean, and Antarctica.  With respect to the latter, the US Navy cooperated with the International Geophysical Year 1955 Read More

Cold War, Cruisers, Recent 40 years, Surface Navy

NECPA

                                               15 JANUARY 1961                                                         NECPA The demands of WWII by August 1942 led Congress to authorize eight heavy cruisers of the Oregon City-class.  But the long construction timetable for heavy warships prevented any from being launched prior to the end of the Read More

Cold War, Espionage

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

Cold War, Espionage

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

Blockade, Cold War, Surface Navy

Quarantine of Cuba

                                 24 OCTOBER-21 NOVEMBER 1962                                          QUARANTINE OF CUBA On the 14th of October, 1962, a high-flying Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane photographed what appeared to be a missile base under construction at San Cristobal, Cuba.  Shortly it was learned that Soviet Il-28 Read More

Cold War, Espionage

Great Seal Bug

                                                   26 MAY 1960                                               GREAT SEAL BUG On 4 August 1945, as WWII ended, a Moscow school children’s group, the Young Pioneers, presented US Ambassador W. Averell Harriman with a gift of friendship–a 2-foot carved wooden likeness of the Great Seal of Read More

Cold War

Key West Conference

                                                 11 MARCH 1948                                         KEY WEST CONFERENCE The years following the end of WWII were tumultuous for the US military.  The atomic bomb that ended that war fundamentally changed strategic thinking.  Why bother with conventional forces when the answer to world conflict Read More