THEODORE EDSON CHANDLER

Theodore Edson Chandler was born at Annapolis on 26 December 1894 into a distinguished Navy family.  His father, the future RADM Lloyd H. Chandler, attended the Naval Academy at the time.  Young Chandler followed in his father’s footsteps, entering the Naval Academy in 1911.  After a combat tour on the WWI destroyer CONNER (DD-72) he assumed the position of executive officer aboard the newly launched destroyer CHANDLER (DD-206).  That ship had been named in honor of Chandler’s late grandfather, William Eaton Chandler, President Chester Arthur’s Secretary of the Navy.  Theodore served between the Wars aboard several battleships and destroyers, even aspiring to a brief tour with the office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

In the months before the still neutral US entered WWII, (now) CAPT T.E. Chandler commanded OMAHA (CL-4) in the Atlantic Fleet’s Neutrality Patrol.  One task in this employ was to enforce international laws governing ships of combatant nations who might call on American ports.  In the wee hours of 6 November 1941 OMAHA came across a curiously darkened ship out of Philadelphia showing the name Willmoto.  A suspicious Chandler stopped the freighter, who proved in truth to be the German blockade runner Odenwald, illegally running rubber to the Weimar Republic.  “Willmoto” was taken into custody.  Soon-to-be-changed Navy regs required that Chandler supervise her sale at public auction, the last instance in our Navy’s history when a warship’s crew shared “prize money.”  Chandler was promoted to RADM in May of 1943 and transferred to the Pacific in October 1944.  He served under VADM Jesse B. Oldendorf as commander BatDiv 2 during the battle of Leyte Gulf and the liberation of the Philippines.

Then at 1730 on 6 January 1945 a Japanese kamikaze crashed the starboard bridge of USS LOUISVILLE (CA-28), flagship of Commander PacFlt Cruiser Division 4, RADM T.E. Chandler, operating in the Lingayen Gulf in support of the Allied invasion of Luzon.  Chandler was thrown to the deck and doused with flaming gasoline.  Heedless of his severe burns however, he pitched in with his enlisted rates, manhandling fire hoses and supervising damage control.  He patiently waited for medical aid, allowing those more seriously injured to be attended.  Only when he had been satisfied that the needs his sailors had been met did he allow himself to be treated.  But by then the effects of his pulmonary burns were too severe to reverse.  He died this following day.  For his gallant sacrifice he is a recipient of the Navy Cross.  The WWII Gearing-class destroyer THEODORE E. CHANDLER (DD-717) bore his name, as does our former Kidd-class guided missile destroyer DDG-996.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, pp. 127-28.

 Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 13  The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindinao, the Visayas.  Boston, MA: Little Brown and Co., 1959, pp. xii, 109.

Theodore E. Chandler

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USS ALBANY COLLISION

          The catastrophic collision of the container ship Dali with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on 26 March 2024 is by no means the only time such an event has occurred.  Indeed, on this date 50 years ago a US Navy cruiser was involved in a similar accident at Yorktown, Virginia.

          The Yorktown Naval Weapons Station lies on a navigable section of the York River about 14 miles above Yorktown, Virginia.  When this facility was originally commissioned in 1918, navigation up the York River was unencumbered.  But in 1952 the State of Virginia built the George P. Coleman Bridge to carry Route 17 across the York River between Gloucester Point and Yorktown.  To allow the passage of traffic, the bridge was constructed with a central pillar supporting the middle of a 1000-foot span.  This span could pivot 90°, creating port and starboard channels for the passage of ships.  Each channel was an ample 450 feet wide.  All was well until this Saturday afternoon, when the guided missile cruiser USS ALBANY (CG-10) attempted to reach the fuel pier at WPNSTA Yorktown.

As ALBANY approached the bridge, appropriate signals were exchanged between the ship and the bridge operator.   The bridgeman powered up the motors that began to swing the central span.  But as ALBANY neared, the bridge operator recognized that the warship’s speed was too great.  She would reach the bridge before the span had fully opened.  The crew aboard the cruiser reached the same conclusion at nearly the same time, and her engines were reversed “full astern” in an instant.  The bridgeman reversed his motor too, closing the span, hoping to create a few more feet of space in which the cruiser could stop.  It didn’t work.

With the screech of twisting metal, the superstructure of the cruiser collided with the bridge span.  Electrical cables and limit switches on the bridge were torn loose.  Pinions on the circular rack gear were sheared off and the bridge’s central span was pushed 35° in the wrong direction.  Repairs to ALBANY would tie her up for the next five months.

The Commission on Ship Bridge Collisions, in their investigation, called the accident near-catastrophic.  Had the cruiser been moving only slightly faster, the Coleman bridge likely would have collapsed.  The next closest York River crossing for motorists was 32 miles north at West Point, Virginia, creating a 65-mile, 90-minute detour while repairs to the Coleman Bridge were affected.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  20 DEC 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

National Academies Press.  Ship Collisions with Bridges: The Nature of the Accidents, Their Prevention, and Mitigation.  Chapter 6, p, 24, 1983. At: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/27742/chapter/6, retrieved 24 March 2025

Oral History, CAPT James Bloom, USN, a witness to the event.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Sailors from this day will remember Nick’s Seafood Pavilion, a restaurant located under the Coleman Bridge in Yorktown.  Owned by Nick and Mary Mathews, Greek immigrants who loved America, his restaurant was a favorite of celebrities such as John Wayne, Randy Travis, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred McMurry, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.  Since 1944, as US Navy ships passed the restaurant, Nick could often be seen waving an American flag from the civilian dock.  Mary Mathews was chosen to be the sponsor of USS YORKTOWN (CG-48) at the warship’s launch in 1983.  Nick unexpectedly died on the way to the christening ceremony.  Nick Mathews is remembered today by the many South Vietnamese refugees he sponsored in the 1970s and for his generous donation of the Yorktown Visitor’s Center.  Nick’s Seafood Pavilion was severely damaged in Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and was demolished.  A boutique mall stands on the spot today.

          George Preston Coleman (1870-1948) was the head of the Virginia Highway Commission from 1913-1922 and was elected mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, in the following years.

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                                               SAN DIEGO LOST

Almost as our ten Pennsylvania and Tennessee-class armored cruisers entered service at the turn of the 20^th century they were rendered obsolete by advances in technology and dreadnaught design.  By the entry of the US into WWI in 1917, our armored cruisers were no longer being detailed to front-line missions.  For example, USS CALIFORNIA (ACR-6), newly renamed SAN DIEGO to allow the former name to be given to the battleship BB-13, was shepherding merchant ships from eastern seaboard ports to the convoy assembly points in Nova Scotia.

This morning found SAN DIEGO steaming alone south of Long Island, headed for New York City.  She was zig-zagging in calm seas with good visibility.  But at 1123, the morning routine was interrupted when a violent explosion lifted her port quarter.  Seawater flooded through a large hole blown in her port side just aft of amidships.  Two secondary explosions signaled the bursting of her port boiler and the detonation of a magazine.  Sailors clamored to their GQ stations–all eyes searching the seas for a periscope.  Guns opened on anything even remotely resembling a feather wake.

CAPT Harley H. Christy ordered the starboard engine full ahead even as a list to port rapidly developed.  He turned in the direction Fire Island Beach in the hope that the settling cruiser could reach shallow water.  All her guns were in action, firing at any wisp upon the surface.  Assuming they had been torpedoed by a lurking German U-boat, her port gunners fired until their stations went awash.  On the starboard side the firing ended when the advancing list pointed the guns skyward.  Men stayed at their posts until the starboard engine flooded, and CAPT Christy became convinced the ship would founder.  Christy himself was the last to leave, working his way from the bridge to the boat deck, then over the side to the exposed docking keel.  He jumped the last eight feet to the water to the cheers of his crew in the boats, who broke out singing The Star Spangled Banner.  SAN DIEGO rolled and sank.  All but six of her crewmen were rescued.

SAN DIEGO was the only major US warship lost to combat in WWI.  A survey of her wreck by hardhat divers in the days that followed reported her capsized on the bottom with severe hull damage.  A salvage effort by the Navy was not attempted.  Though the men on the scene were convinced she had been torpedoed, the exact nature of her demise was never determined.  The controversy persists today, however German records indicate she was most likely the victim of a floating mine laid by U-156.  Her wreck remains a popular sport diving site today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Albert, George J.  “The U.S.S. San Diego and the California Naval Militia.”  AT: http://www.militarymuseum.org/usssandiego.html, 7 June 2007.

Berg, Daniel.  “The USS San Diego Shipwreck.”  AT:  http://www.aquaexplorers.com/sandiego.com, 7 June 2007.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Though most of SAN DIEGO’s sailors were picked up by other ships in the area, four lifeboats full of sailors managed to row the 8 miles to shore, three landing at Bellport, and one at the Lone Hill Coast Guard Station.

          Though The Star Spangled Banner was often used for official occasions and ceremonies from as early as the 19^th century, it was not officially adopted by Congress as our National Anthem until 1931.

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                                               RADIO FAUX PAS

Communication between ships at sea had been line-of-sight visual to date, even in foul weather.  Experimentation had been in the works for years, indeed in 1888 a genius of naval invention, CAPT Bradley A. Fiske, ran current pulses through insulated wire wrapped around the steel hull of the cruiser ATLANTA and listened to sounds picked up on a nearby similarly enwrapped ship.  Fiske later experimented with “fleet telephony”–stringing telegraph wire between ships steaming in column.  By 1903, Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless telegraph had become practical, and shore wireless sets of 1906 were broadcasting weather information seaward.  As well, the Naval Observatory was transmitting wireless time signals to 75 radio-equipped US Navy warships.

On this brilliant blue Monday morning of December 16^th, the steam yacht USS MAYFLOWER (PY-1), with President Theodore Roosevelt embarked, weighed anchor and proceeded out of Hampton Roads.  She led sixteen first-class battleships of the “Great White Fleet” in single file.  This was Roosevelt’s “big stick,” cruising around the world to demonstrate new-found US naval prowess.  MAYFLOWER paused at the mouth of the Chesapeake to wish the fleet a final farewell.  The battleships filed past the Commander-in-Chief at precise 400-yard intervals, CONNECTICUT (BB-18) in the van, each firing a gun salute, each with the rails manned.  No spectacle of this scale had ever before been accomplished.  These were the finest and best equipped ships in any Navy, but even among our own sailors there were doubts about the durability of turn-of-the-century naval technology.  In fact, against the possibility of embarrassing mechanical failures, Roosevelt and Navy officials announced only that the fleet intended to go as far as California.

After dinner on this first night at sea, fleet commander RADM Robley D. Evans addressed his fleet.  Despite official precautions about the itinerary, and despite Evan’s unfamiliarity with this new-fangled radio, he announced to the fleet their true intent to sail around the world.  Cheers echoed across the water.  Unknown to Evans however, his broadcast was picked up by wireless stations along the Atlantic coast.  The story headlined newspapers around the nation the next day, humiliating President Roosevelt.  An immediate walk-back claimed it was only Evans’ personal belief that a world cruise was planned.  Secretary of the Navy Victor H. Metcalf denied even this, stating that the ultimate destination of the fleet beyond San Francisco was as yet “undetermined.”  In fact, the political damage control proved prudent on December 20^th, when ILLINOIS (BB-7) and KENTUCKY (BB-6) did suffer brief mechanical issues.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 DEC 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Fiske, Bradley A.  “Fleet Telephony”.  Proceedings of the USNI, Vol 121, March 1907, pp. 239-42.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, p. 442.

Reckner, James R.  Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1988, pp. 23-27.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, pp. 109-10.

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                                      GERMAN RAIDER ATLANTIS

Recognizing at the outset of WWII that the Kriegsmarine had not the strength to match the Royal Navy’s warfleet, Hilter’s maritime strategy concentrated on guerre de course, interrupting the flow of merchant ships carrying the necessities of life to the island nation.  His U-boats performed such yeoman service in this regard that they overshadowed the efforts of Germany’s auxiliary cruisers and surface raiders.  These latter were converted freighters that mounted concealed heavy guns behind an innocent outward appearance.  One of the most successful was ATLANTIS (Schiff #16), who escaped to sea through the British blockade in March 1940.

This morning found ATLANTIS cruising the eastern Indian Ocean, deceptively rigged and painted as a Norwegian freighter.  At dawn, she found herself on a converging course with the British Blue Funnel Lines freighter Automedon, who was outbound from Liverpool to Far Eastern ports.  By this time in the war, British merchant captains had become wary of any ship that approached on the high seas, and Automedon immediately altered course.  At this, ATLANTIS charged and unmasked her guns.  The freighter’s panicked radio calls were quickly squelched with a barrage of 6″ shells to her bridge and radio shack.  Heavily outgunned, Automedon hove to and awaited the German boarding party.

Kapitänleutnant (equivalent to LT) Ulrich Mohr stepped aboard the freighter to find the deck running with blood.  ATLANTIS’ first shells had killed Automedon’s master and most of her officers.  Her cargo proved worth the effort as she was carrying an assortment of crated airplanes, autos, uniforms, medicines, supplies, cigarettes, and 550 cases of whiskey.  More importantly, the sudden demise of her officers had prevented the destruction of Automedon’s papers.  The Germans struck gold.  Automedon’s safe yielded invaluable Admiralty sailing instructions and copies of three Merchant Naval Codes, fleet cipher tables, top secret high-level correspondence, and the plans for the British defense of Singapore!  After commandeering her whiskey, cigarettes, and fresh vegetables, Automedon was scuttled.

CAPT Bernhard Rogge dispatched the captured documents with his most trusted officer to Axis ally Japan on the captured tanker Ole Jacob.  Korvettenkapitän (LCDR) Paul Kamenz arrived in Kobe on December 6^th, and in Tokyo, shared the documents with Tojo’s planners.  Rather than risk a seaborne transit through the British blockade, he journeyed to Vladivostok, then overland through Moscow on the Trans-Siberian railway.  In Berlin, his captured documents were as well received as Rogge anticipated.

Follow the further story of ATLANTIS on 22 NOV

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Frank, Wolfgang and Bernhard Rogge.  The German Raider Atlantis.  New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1956, pp. 84-88.

Hoyt, Edwin P.  Raider 16.  New York, NY: World Publishing, 1970, pp. 129-39.

Matthews, Alan.  “S.S. Automedon:  The Ship that Doomed a Colony.”  AT: http://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/automedon.html, retrieved 22 November 2009.

Rusbidger, James.  “The Sinking of the ‘Automedon’ and the Capture of the ‘Nankin:’  New Light on Two Intelligence Disasters in World War II.”  Encounter magazine, May 1985, AT: http://www.defence.gov.au/sydneyii/SUBM/SUBM.003.0034.pdf, retrieved 22 November 2009.

Slavick, Joseph P.  The Cruise of the German Raider Atlantis.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2003.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The British have still not come to grips with this embarrassing intelligence coup.  Though Automedon’s documents were found in the German Foreign Ministry archives in Berlin at the end of the war, London refuses to publicly acknowledge the gravity of this security breach.  In 1983, when Margaret Thatcher was asked by historians to look into the Automedon affair, she stalled for seven months before stating it would be “improper” to release any details.

In light of the fact that the captured documents above were shared with the Japanese, it is interesting to recall the details of the fall of Singapore.  The “Gibraltar of the Pacific” fell to the Japanese in March 1942 after mediocre, some said trifling, resistance.  It seems the British defensive plan anticipated a seaborne assault, but the Japanese surprised the defenders by attacking from landward through the jungles of the Malay peninsula.  In fact, after the fall of Singapore the Emperor of Japan gifted Rogge in April 1943 with an exclusive katana Samurai sword.  Only two other individuals have been similarly honored–Erwin Rommel and Herman Goering.

The survivors of Automedon were placed aboard the German blockade runner Storstad and landed in Bordeaux, France, on 5 February 1942.  Here they were herded aboard trains bound for POW camps near Munich (sub-camps of Dachau).  While en route across France Automedon’s 4^th Engineer, Samuel Harper, jumped from the train.  He located friendly Frenchmen who secreted him for several weeks, shifting him to Marseille.  He was smuggled across the Pyrenees, but on 13 April he was captured by Germans in Spain.  As Spain was not part of the Axis, the British successfully negotiated his release on 29 May 1942, and two days later he arrived in Gibraltar.

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                                              MV SAN DEMETRIO

The Eagle Oil and Shipping Company operated in England from 1912-59 moving petroleum products between Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom.  Each of their tankers was given the Spanish name of a Christian saint.  MV San Demetrio was an 8070-ton tanker launched in 1938.  In October 1940 she shipped a cargo of 11,200 tons of aviation gasoline in Aruba and headed to Halifax, where she was to join 38 other freighters in British-bound Convoy HX-84, shepherded by HMS JERVIS BAY, an armed merchant cruiser.  By the eighth day at sea the convoy was halfway to Avondale, England.

The sky this day was overcast with only a ribbon of light on the horizon as the afternoon watch finished.  Lookouts spotted the masthead of a ship to port just as the sound of gunfire boomed across the moderate swell.  The German pocket battleship ADMIRAL VON SCHEER climbed over the horizon firing her 11″ guns.  JERVIS BAY turned to, making a suicidal charge.  She was burning from stem to stern before her seven 6″ guns were within range.  The gallant former liner sacrificed herself with the loss of Acting CAPT Edward S.F. Fegen and 189 crewmen, but she bought time for the convoy to scatter.  Fegen would later receive the Victoria Cross. 

Scheer now turned her guns on the convoy.  SS Beaverford, Fresno City, Trewellard, Maiden, and Kenbane Head all went down–Beaverford after engaging the attacker herself to buy more time.  San Demetrio was hit three times and caught fire.  A gasoline tanker ablaze is a potential disaster, and most are abandoned.  Such was the case when Captain George Waite, O.B.E., signaled “finished with engines” from the bridge telegraph–the signal to San Demetrio’s enginemen to abandon ship.  Sixteen crewmen led by 2^nd Officer Arthur C. Hawkins clamored into the starboard lifeboat and lowered to the roiling, gasoline-coated sea below.  The skipper and 22 others slipped away in another boat, but the two boats quickly lost contact.  Capt. Waite’s fears proved true, San Demetrio’s amidships tanks exploded like a giant Roman candle.

The starboard lifeboat drifted through the next day, sighting, but failing to attract, a passing ship.  On the second day another ship was seen on the horizon, emitting a column of black smoke.  It turned out to be San Demetrio, who burned but had not sunk.  Taking their chances, the men reboarded and revived the engines and fire mains.  Slowly they stemmed the fires.  Down by the bows, Hawkins set a course for Ireland, navigating by dead reckoning and the occasional glimpse of the sun.  Miraculously, on 16 November San Demetrio dropped anchor off Glasgow, her original destination.  Her tattered Red Ensign still waved, set a half mast for engineman John Boyle who had finally succumbed to his injuries near Ireland.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 NOV 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Brock, Paul.  “Am Engaging Enemy…Believed to be Admiral Scheer.”  Sea Classics, Vol 55 (4), April 2022, pp. 8-16.

Jesse, F. Tennyson.  The Saga of San Demetrio.  London, England: H.M. Stationery Office, 1943, (reprint by Pratt Press, 2007).

Warsailors.com website.  “Convoy HX-84-Page 2: Report of an Interview with Mr. Charles Pollard, Chief Engineer, and Mr. Arthur C. Hawkins, 2^nd Officer of M.V. San Demetrio.” dtd. 20 November 1940, AT: http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx84page2.html, retrieved 25 July 2024.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Three San Demetrio crewmen were killed in the initial attack and four more died of injuries after abandoning ship.  The men in Captain Waite’s lifeboat were rescued by a passing freighter and taken to Newfoundland.  Because San Demetrio had been abandoned at sea, the 15 crewmen who brought her safely to port were entitled to salvage compensation to the tune of £2000 for some.  Arthur Hawkins received the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for his heroism in recovering and salving the tanker.

San Demetrio was repaired and returned to service.  She was torpedoed by U-404 and sank off Virginia on 17 March 1942.

Captain Waite had received his O.B.E. after the Eagle Company tanker San Alberto was torpedoed and broke in half in December 1939.  Days later, he and several crewmen reboarded the still-floating after section of the tanker, revived her boilers, but were unable to make headway, backwards, toward England.

In 1943 the story of San Demetrio was made into a movie, “San Demetrio London,” starring Walter Fitzgerald and Arthur Young.

An armed merchant cruiser was a former civilian freighter or ocean liner acquired by the Navy, armed usually with 8-inch guns or smaller, and detailed to escort duties.  Such would have been no match for a German pocket battleship.

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                           DREXLER AND CHOLISTER OF TRENTON

The light cruiser USS TRENTON (CL-11) was commissioned in April of 1924, one of the last of ten Omaha-class vessels authorized during WWI.  The principal difference between light and heavy cruisers of that day was not their displacement, rather the size of the guns.  Heavy cruisers mounted 8-inch guns, TRENTON mounted 6-inch guns–twenty of them (six mounted in five forward-firing turrets, six in stern turrets, and eight amidships).  TRENTON’s shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean was interrupted in August 1924 with news that the American Vice Consul to Persia, Robert Imbrie, had died.  TRENTON was diverted to Bushire, Persia (modern Bushehr, Iran), via the Suez Canal, where she received the Consul’s remains on August 25^th.  After exchanging gun salutes with Persian shore batteries, she departed that same day.  A month later she arrived at the Washington Navy Yard where she conveyed the diplomat’s remains to his final rest.

TRENTON began drills off the coast of Virginia this afternoon, commencing gunnery practice around 1500.  In the twin 6-inch mount on the cruiser’s forecastle, turret officer ENS Henry Clay Drexler mentored his nineteen-man gun crew through firing and reloading procedures.  One ever-present risk in such work was the possibility that residual cinders from a previous round might prematurely ignite charges rammed behind the next round.  The results were often disastrous, and crews were regularly drilled in dealing with such accidents.  Then shortly after 1535 the unthinkable happened.  A bagged powder charge for the port tube ignited prematurely as it was being loaded.  Flames and hot gasses engulfed the interior of the turret, killing three men instantly.  As the others reeled from the smoke and flame, Drexler and BM1 George R. Cholister lunged simultaneously for an unaffected charge still sitting exposed on the starboard gun’s ramming tray.  Drexler grabbed the powder bag and tried to pull it into an immersion bath beside the gun.  He was a split-second too late.  The charge cooked-off in his hands killing him instantly.  The interior of the turret was again bathed in hot gasses and flame.  Cholister, who had not quite reached the starboard charge, fell unconscious and lay mortally burned until the fires subsided.  He and nine others died the following day.  The six remaining gun crewmen survived their severe burns and inhalation injuries.

Both Drexler and Cholister were awarded the Medal of Honor for the selfless sacrifices this day.  The Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer DREXLER (DD-741) and the Drexler Manor Bachelor Officers Quarters on the present day JAB Little Creek in Norfolk are named in Drexler’s honor.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 OCT 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 300.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 266.

Moore, John.  Jane’s American Fighting Ships of the 20th Century.  New York, NY: Modern Publishing, 1995, pp. 108-10.

Site visit, Drexler Manor BOQ, JAB Little Creek, VA, 17 October 2001.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 490, 491.

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                                        THE TRUE BLUE SALOON

Frictions between the President of Chile, José Manuel Balmaceda, and the Chilean Congress erupted into civil war in January 1890.  US sympathies leaned weakly toward Balmaceda, but in the main, President Benjamin Harrison was most interested in preventing European powers (particularly England) from exploiting the struggle for their own gains.  Toward this end, Harrison dispatched the protected cruisers CHARLESTON (C-2), BALTIMORE (C-3), and SAN FRANCISCO (C-5) to patrol the Chilean coast.  The insurgents won the initial battles, forcing the weakened Balmaceda government to seek refuge in the American consulate in Valparaiso.  The consulate then became such an object of local anger that on 28 August 1891 a guard of Marines under CAPT William S. Muse had to be landed.  Then in October of 1891, the incumbent government collapsed after Balmaceda committed suicide.  Tensions momentarily eased in the city, and CDR Winfield Scott Schley, whose cruiser BALTIMORE had been standing in the harbor for months, seized the opportunity to send his thirsty sailors on liberty.

In retrospect, Schley’s decision was regrettable as mobs of victorious insurgents with long memories still roamed Valparaiso’s streets.  Neither did Schley organize the customary precaution of a shore patrol.  Nevertheless, on the night of 16 October a liberty party from the BALTIMORE located a likely watering-hole called the True Blue Saloon.  In short order they were hunted down by an anti-American mob who still recalled the US support of their deposed former president.  A brawl ensued in which local police “looked the other way” as Boatswain’s Mate C.W. Riggins and another sailor were beaten to death and sixteen others injured.  The Chilean foreign minister complicated matters with some disparaging remarks about the incident, prompting President Harrison to demand reparations and an official apology.  The new Chilean president, Jorge Montt, was oblivious to US concerns and ignored the request.

In the ensuing months, anti-Chilean factions in America pressed Harrison for a military solution.  By January the absence of any reply had piqued Harrison’s anger.  He ordered Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Tracy to pre-position American warships, and on the 27^th of January requested a war declaration from Congress.  Impressed with the apparent American resolve, five days later the Montt government agreed to pay a $75,000 indemnity to the families of the two slain sailors.  A war with Chile had been narrowly averted.  (One factor that temporarily cooled the crisis was the surprised realization on the part of US planners that the Chilean Navy was materially stronger than our own, having purchased several British-built cruisers during Chile’s recent war with Peru). 

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Rehabilitation Medicine

Coletta, Paolo E.  American Secretaries of the Navy  Vol 1 1775-1913.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1980, p. 420.

Howarth, Stephen.  To Shining Sea:  A History of the United States Navy  1775-1991.  New York, NY: Random House, 1991, p. 241.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 365-68.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 203.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, p. 100.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This was not Winfield Scott Schley’s only questionable decision.  He later became embroiled in an embarrassing public controversy with RADM William Sampson, his senior at the Battle of Santiago on 3 July 1898.  Schley’s alleged cowardice and confusing ship movements during that battle became the point of argument between the officers, a shameful public fight that ultimately required the intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt.

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                                   OPERATION “INFINITE REACH”

Osama bin Laden had already earned the respect of senior Islamic extremists for his efforts, both financial and personal, supporting the mujakideem against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.  Bin Laden became further incensed during Operations “Desert Shield/Desert Storm,” when Saudi Arabia, his home, invited the aid of the United States rather than accepting his plan for an all-Islamic push against Saddam Hussein.  The presence of American male and female “infidels” debased Saudi Arabia and incited his desire for a holy war against the US.  Then in 1993, from political asylum in the Sudan, bin Laden noted the pull-out of US forces from Somalia after the remains of US servicemen were desecrated in the street of Mogadishu in the “Black Hawk down” incident.  From this he learned that it took only the deaths of a few servicemen to destroy the American will to fight.  Bin Laden now reasoned that if America could be baited into a war in Afghanistan, his Al-Qaeda fighters, allied to the Taliban, would repeat the Russian experience.  He saw our foreign embassies as a tool to do so.  As early as 1993 a cell had been formed in Nairobi, Kenya, to “case” our embassy and other targets for a possible suicide vehicle attack.  By 1998 plans were finalized and on 23 February 1998 bin Laden issued a fatwa calling for jihad, or holy war, against “Jews and Crusaders.”

By 4 August all the Al-Qaeda operatives in eastern Africa except the actual vehicle drivers had evacuated, destroying the paper trail of evidence.  Bin Laden, now back in Afghanistan, moved from Kandahar into the countryside expecting US retaliation.  And on the morning of 7 August, only five minutes apart, the suicide truck bombers struck our embassies in Nairobi and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania.  A dozen Americans and 212 local civilians died in the attacks, thousands were wounded.

The clear connection of bin Laden to these attacks would not allow President William J. Clinton to let them pass.  On this date, USS SHILOH (CG-67), BRISCOE (DD-977), ELLIOT (DD-967), HAYLER (DD-997), and MILIUS (DDG-69) of the ABRHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72) carrier strike group launched six cruise missiles against the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, while USS COLUMBUS (SSN-762) joined them in launching 75 Tomahawks against the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr training camp complex in Afghanistan.  Unfortunately, the strikes killed 20-30 civilians and missed bin Laden by two hours.  The Pakistanis, who were advised of the raid because their airspace was overflown, may have warned bin Laden.  The strike failed to cripple terrorism and only served to intensify anti-western hatred in Islam.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  24 AUG 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Barker, Greg, Director.  “Manhunt: The Search for bin Laden.”  HBO Documentary Films, 2013.

Crawley, James W.  “U.S. Attacks on bin Laden Detailed.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 August 1999, pp. A-1, A-19.

Davies, Karin.  “Twin Terrorist Bombings:  Scores Killed in Attacks on American Embassies.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 August 1998, p. A-1.

Kreisher, Otto.  “America Target Terror:  U.S. Attacks Terrorist Facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 August 1998, pp. A-1, A-13.

Myers, Stephen Lee.  “U.S. Says Iraqis Tied to Factory in Sudan.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 August 1998, pp. A-1, A-8.

Naftali, Timothy.  Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism.  New York, NY: Basic Books, 2006.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States.  The 9/11 Commission Report.  New York, NY:  W.W. Norton & Co., 2004, pp. 47-70.

Pearl, Daniel.  “Doubt Grows about Sudan Bombing.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 August 1998, p. A-10.

Shenon, Philip.  “Twin Terrorist Bombings:  Clinton Vows to Catch Bombers.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 August 1998, p. A-1.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 300.

Weiner, Tim.  “Saudi Pledges Vast Fortune in Holy War Against U.S., Allies.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 August 1998, pp. A-1, A-13.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  “We have struck back,” announced President Clinton following the operation, “our target was terror.”  At this same moment President Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky affair, prompting the suggestion that Operation “Infinite Reach” was simply an attempt to distract public attention.

Regrettably, none the guidance computers on the Block II cruise missiles on board the combatants was programmed with the required digitized map of Afghanistan.  The strike had to be launched using 100 Block III missiles, guided by GPS.

Soil samples secretly collected earlier from the Al-Shifa plant contained traces of chemicals used in the nerve agent “VX,” and the plant was believed of have ties to bin Laden.  Since, most agree this intelligence was faulty.

USMC SGT Daniel Breihl of the embassy guard was praised for his work in saving victims of the Kenya bombing, despite his injuries.  He was awarded the Purple Heart.

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                                     BAGHDAD MISSILE ATTACK

The decade following Operation “Desert Storm” was marked by Iraqi frustration over continuing United Nations sanctions and Coalition policing.  Then seemingly to rub salt in Iraq’s wounds, on 14 April 1993 a specially chartered Kuwait Airways Boeing 747 touched down at the Kuwait City carrying former President George Bush, his wife, his son Neil, three Bush daughters-in-law, former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, former Secretary of State James A. Baker, and former Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady.  As a gesture of good-will facetiously dubbed “Operation Love Storm,” a grateful Kuwait welcomed the crafter of “Desert Storm’s” coalition.  At a state dinner hosted by Kuwaiti leader Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, Bush received the Mubarak al-Kabeer (Mubarak the Great) Medal, Kuwait’s highest civilian award, named for Mubarak al-Sabah, a turn-of-the-century ruler.

But the night before Bush’s arrival, Kuwaitis had quietly arrested 14 agents who had entered Kuwait in possession of high explosives and detonators.  Among these were two Iraqi nationals, Ra’ad al-Asadi and Wali al-Ghazali, reportedly recruited specifically for the purpose of assassinating our former President.  A Toyota Landcruiser was seized in whose rocker panels had been secreted 80 kilograms of high explosives wired for remote detonation.  It was estimated by the CIA that had the bomb been set off, a four-city-block area would have been leveled.  In the event the car bomb failed, al-Ghazali wore a leather belt packed with explosives that he was to detonate after working through the crowds near the former President.  Al-Ghazali was reportedly paid the equivalent of $1300 US dollars for his work.

In the weeks that followed, a CIA, FBI, and Justice Department inquest discovered likely Iraqi involvement in this assassination plot.  The Clinton White House acted this night when targeting data were transmitted to USS CHANCELLORSVILLE (CG-62) in the Persian Gulf and USS PETERSON (DD-969) lying in the Red Sea.  Nine Tomahawk cruise missiles from the cruiser and 14 from the destroyer burst from their silos.  An hour later, the pre-dawn darkness of Baghdad was broken by the flashes of twenty-three 1000# warheads impacting at or near the Iraqi Intelligence Service compound, a six-story building two miles from the center of Baghdad.  US officials estimated the target to be completely destroyed in an action the Joint Chiefs of Staff characterized as “highly effective.”  Quoting an old American war cry, President Clinton warned the Iraqi’s, “Don’t tread on us… The Iraqi attack was an attack against our country and against all Americans.  We could not let such action against our nation go unanswered.”

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  29 JUN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Associated Press.  “Kuwait Continues Bomb-Plot Trial of 14:  Agent Testifies on Plan to Kill Bush.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 June 1993, p. A-11.

Associated Press.  “`They Told Me to Kill Bush,’ Iraqi Says.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 June 1993, p. A-17.

Condon, George E., Jr.  “U.S. Missiles Blast Baghdad:  Plot to Kill Bush Avenged.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 June 1993, p. A-1.

Farrell, John Aloysius and John W. Mashek.  “Clinton Wins High Marks in Raid Polls.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 June 1993, p. A-1.

Reuters.  “Executions Considered on Plot on Bush.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 September 1994, p. A-29.

Reuters.  “Kuwait Charges 16 with Attempt to Assassinate Bush.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 May 1993, p. A-7.

Reuters.  “Kuwait Gives Bush its Highest Honor:  `This was a Very Moving Day,’ Ex-President Says.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 April 1993, p. A-20.

Reuters.  “Kuwait Nabs Iraqis Reportedly Targeting Bush.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 April 1993, p. A-10.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Bush also toured Kuwait University during his three-day visit, where he was presented a plaque and an honorary degree by the Kuwaiti Education Minister, Ahmed Al Mubai.

Most correctly, international law forbids retaliation, reaction, retribution, and revenge, and the United States never officially takes these actions.  However, Article 51 of the United Nations charter grants any nation the right to take all necessary actions toward its own self-defense.  The US justifies events such as the above with our right to self-defense in preventing future similar episodes of terrorism.

The Kuwaiti investigation eventually turned up 17 individuals implicated in the plot against former President Bush.  Six were convicted and sentenced to death, seven others were sentenced to varying prison terms.

It did not go unnoticed by Congressional Republicans that Clinton’s decision to strike at Baghdad coincided with a sagging 39% public approval rating.  Following the missile strike, Clinton’s rating shot up to 50%.  Such “rally events” generally boosted Clinton’s approval rate an average of 8% for 10 weeks.

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