Zumwalt-Class Destroyers

          The Gulf War of 1990-91 saw the last deployment of our vaunted WWII-era battleships—in naval gunfire support for ground operations ashore.  By then, the cost of maintaining our battleship fleet had become prohibitive.  Yet Congress was keen to revive the gunfire support role with a new class of battleship equivalents.

          Technology answered with the development of the Long-Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) a 155 mm munition whose range was extended to 100 NM with rocket assist and fin guidance.  The round could only be fired from the Advanced Gun System (AGS), a Navy-only project.  As a platform, the Navy proposed a new destroyer for whom the AGS would form her main armament.   This “DD-21” design incorporated stealth technology with “tumbledown” surfaces above the waterline that deflect radar signals away from the vessel.  These were the largest destroyers in naval history at 610 feet, fifty feet longer than a Ticonderoga-class cruiser.    A 32-ship series was planned, with the keel of the class leader, USS ZUMWALT (DDG-1000) laid on 17 November 2011 at General Dynamic’s Iron Works in Bath, Maine. 

          But costs skyrocketed.  Lockheed Martin’s 2004 estimate for the per-round cost of the LRLQP munition was $35,000.  But by 2016 that per-round cost had risen to $800,000-$1 million. (the cost of a cruise missile).  The expense of the initial 2000-round procurement program mushroomed.  By November 2016 cost-overruns killed the LRLAP munitions program.  And the destroyer herself was equally plagued.  By 2008, the $3.3 billion cost of each DD-21 destroyer had risen to $4.24 billion.  And an extra $9.6 billion had to be pumped into the program for research and development.  Three hulls had been authorized by that date. 

In the interim, a new threat emerged.  Anti-ship missiles in the possession of non-state terrorists like Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen would place the Zumwalts in peril   Such threats were more effectively countered with advanced Arleigh Burke AAW designs.  Then in early 2009 the per-unit cost of the Zumwalts rose to $6.0 billion, triggering a Congressionally mandated re-certification of the entire program.  At this, Secretary of Defense Robert Gatres announced the DDG-1000 program would be capped at the three ships then under construction.  Future resources would be re-directed to the Arleigh Burke program.

Construction proceeded on the three destroyers then building, the AGS being replaced with hypersonic missiles.  USS ZUMWALT (DDG-1000) was commissioned on 15 October 2016, and on this date the second destroyer, USS MICHEAL MONSOOR (DDG-1001) entered service, both with our Pacific fleet.  The third destroyer, USS LYNDON B. JOHNSON (DDG-1002) is scheduled to enter service in 2027.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  4 FEB 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“155 mm/62 (6.1″) Mark 51 Advanced Gun System (AGS)”  Naval Weapons website.  AT:http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_61-62_ags.php,  retrieved 30 June 2022

Eckstein, Megan (4 December 2017). “New Requirements for DDG-1000 Focus on Surface Strike”. USNI News. U.S. Naval Institute. Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. retrieved 2 March 2018.

Kasper, Joakim (20 September 2015). “About the Zumwalt Destroyer”. AeroWeb. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. retrieved 25 October 2015.

LaGrone, Sam. “Navy Planning on Not Buying More LRLAP Rounds for Zumwalt Class.”  USNI, 16 November 2016.  AT:https://news.usni.org/2016/11/07/navy-planning-not-buying-lrlap-rounds, retrieved 29 November 2025.

Larter, David B. “The US Navy’s last stealth destroyer is in the water.”  Defense News, 10 Dec 2018, AT: https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/12/10/the-us-navys-last-stealth-destroyer-is-in-the-water/, retrieved 28 November 2025.

Lundquist, Edward. “The Navy’s Battlewagon of the 21st Century”. Marinelink.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. retrieved 5 April 2019

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  By 2016, the Advanced Gun System (AGS) had already been installed on the three Zumwalts then building.  The cancellation of the munitions program rendered these guns useless.  They were removed and replaced with hypersonic missile launchers.

Traditionally, destroyers are named for naval heroes.  ZUMWALT remembers Vietnam-era CNO ADM Elmo Zumwalt.  MONSOOR is named for MA2 Michael Monsoor, a Medal of Honoree and Navy SEAL from the Iraq War in 2006.  JOHNSON, of course, remembers our former Navy officer and 36^th Commander-in-Chief.

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                                    MONAGHAN vs. THE TEMPEST

The Pacific war was a long one for USS MONAGHAN (DD-354).  She was the ready destroyer at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941 and was just getting underway to investigate a report of a submarine off the entrance to the harbor when all hell broke loose.  She went on to fight at the Coral Sea, Midway, and in the Aleutians.  December 1944 found her screening carriers of the 3^rd Fleet for airstrikes against the Japanese in the Philippines.  December 17^th had been designated for refueling at sea, however rough seas postponed that evolution for a day.

But through the night the weather only worsened.  Water Tender 2^nd Class Joseph C. McCrane didn’t get much sleep and around 0630 the 18^th arose to find MONAGHAN in the throes of a severe typhoon.  She rode better than did her sisters with less fuel, MONAGHAN still had 76% of her capacity on board.  But by 0800 that mattered little–even the carriers had abandoned station-keeping and were fending for themselves.  The destroyer was rolling frighteningly, and McCrane and WT3c Les Bryan were sent to ballast the empty aft fuel tanks.  They struggled to keep their footing and labored even harder to accomplish their task.  Upon finishing, they took shelter with a growing group of shipmates in the aft 5″ gun turret.

But the rolls only got worse.  After seven or eight rolls onto her beam ends, MONAGHAN’s sailors in the gun turret recognized how untenable was their shelter!  They began to pile out onto the deck, Gunner’s Mate Joe Guio standing just outside the hatch in disregard of his own safety, to help his shipmates.  Loose gear crashed about, and cracks started to rip the overheads from the bulkheads below decks.  Electric power failed, then steerage.  And just at this moment the group of sailors was swept overboard.  Someone had the sense to throw a liferaft at the dozen or so flailing in the water.

The scene shifted to the liferaft, where nine made it aboard and clung for dear life.  Several hours later a half-naked, shivering Guio drifted by the raft and was pulled aboard.  McCrane cradled Guio to keep him warm through the night.  The next morning Guio awoke, thanked his shipmates for hauling him to safety, then curled up in the bottom of the raft.  Half an hour later he was dead.  Hypothermia claimed two more in the days that followed.  Another went mad, insisting he saw an island and disappearing overboard.  At one point an onion drifted by the famished sailors.  But an 8-foot shark circling nearby discouraged any recovery.  The only survivors from MONAGHAN were the six in this liferaft, rescued this day by BROWN (DD-546) (along with 13 from HULL (DD-350) who also foundered in this typhoon).  The exact time and details of MONAGHAN’s demise will never be known.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  27 DEC 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 412-14.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIII  The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindinao, the Visayas.  Little Brown and Co., Boston, MA, 1959, pp. 71-77.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 274-79.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 449-50.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  FADM Nimitz said this storm, “…represented a more crippling blow to the 3^rd Fleet than it might be expected to suffer in anything less than a major action.”

Turreted guns are not secured to the deck by anything other than their massive weight.  As such, should the destroyer capsize, the turrets would simply fall out of their cradles and sink like rocks, carrying anyone inside to Davy Jones.

MONAGHAN remembers ENS John R. Monaghan, a Spanish-American War veteran who was killed in a Samoan uprising in 1899 while trying to rescue his stricken Commanding Officer.  USS BROWN remembers George Brown, an Able Seaman who died aboard USS INTREPID during that ship’s daring raid in Tripoli Harbor in the Barbary Wars of 1804.  HULL, of course, remembers Commodore Isaac Hull, commander of USS CONSTITUTION during her engagement with HMS GUERRIER in 1812.

The post MONAGHAN vs. the Tempest appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                            USS COLE BOMBING

On January 3rd, 2000, the destroyer THE SULLIVANS (DDG-68) moored in the port of Aden, Yemen, for refueling.  While her crew worked, unseen Al-Queda operatives pushed a small boat loaded with explosives into the harbor. But the boat was overloaded and sank.  US Navy ships called on Aden 3-4 times each month for refueling, so the operatives bided their time, awaiting the next of Osama bin Laden’s year 2000 millennium strikes.

On this day 25 years ago, USS COLE (DDG-67) entered Aden harbor for refueling after transiting the Suez Canal and Red Sea.  She approached a fueling dolphin in the center of the harbor about 600 meters from land.  By 0930 she was moored, and at 10:30 she began what was expected to be a 4-hour fueling evolution.  Fishing boats and other small craft crisscrossed the harbor observed by COLE’s lookouts, who stood with unloaded guns and orders not to shoot unless fired upon.  About a quarter after eleven an inflatable open boat approached the fueling destroyer.  The deck watch stiffened, but the boat’s two occupants respectfully came to attention as their boat approached.  Suddenly, at 1118, the boat sped up and crashed into COLE’s port side, amidships.  Six hundred to 1000 pounds of high explosives crudely shaped to stove-in COLE’s hull detonated.

The explosion ripped a 40′ X 60′ gash in the hull, opening the mess deck to the sea.  Hungry sailors lining up for chow were blasted, seventeen in all were killed.  CDR Kirk Lippold’s damage controlmen struggled to keep the destroyer afloat as the ship’s IDC, HMC James Parlier, made his way to the deck.  On the way he came across a critically injured shipmate with several others standing by helplessly.  Parlier had a hatch taken off its hinges to transport the sailor to the deck and started CPR.  But shortly another Chief stopped him, saying there are many others worth saving who needed his help.  Parlier left the critically injured sailor to tend to the 39 other wounded.  The shipmate died.

DONALD COOK (DDG-75) and HAWES (FFG-53) were shortly on the scene to provide assistance and security.  Over the next few days the wounded were medevaced to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany.  The Norwegian semi-submersible heavy lift ship Blue Marlin was retained to transport COLE back to Mississippi, where she arrived on Christmas Eve.  Her repairs totaled $240 million, nearly a quarter of her original cost.  A JAGMAN investigation concluded that CDR Lippold acted responsibly and could not have prevented the attack.  Despite this he was passed over for promotion in subsequent years, and retired from the Navy at the grade of CDR in 2007.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  18 OCT 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

McMichael, William H., “10 Years after the COLE Bombing, a Different Navy,” Navy Times, 11 October 2010.

Piszkiewicz, Dennis.  Terrorism’s War with America:  A History.  Westport, CT: Praeger Pub., 2003, pp. 122-23.

Polmar, Norman.  The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 18^th ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2005, p. 151.

Schogol, Jeff.  “Memories Strong Five Years after COLE Blast.”  Stars and Stripes, 12 October 2005.

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. 305.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Linkage of this attack to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Queda terrorist group was later established, although technically, under US law “terrorism” cannot be charged when perpetrated against a military target.  Subsequent investigation determined that Sudan had materially aided Al-Queda’s plot to bomb a US warship in Aden harbor, and US Courts found the Sudan liable for $8 million in damages to the families of COLE’s deceased.  The Sudanese government is appealing this decision.

As a result of this incident the rules of engagement have been revised to allow more forceful actions against apparent terrorists, even if no “shooting” has occurred.

USS COLE remembers SGT Darrell S. Cole, USMC, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions on Iwo Jima during WWII.  Cole’s MOS was bugler but never endorsed that rating.  He fought at Guadalcanal, Tinian, Saipan, and Iwo Jima as a machine gunner.

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                                              THE “SPRU-CANS”

 By the 1960s our aging fleet of WWII Allen M. Sumner and Gearing-class destroyers was increasingly inadequate against the growing threat of Soviet submarines.  A more capable platform for convoy escort and to counter submarine-launched ballistic missiles was needed.  In response, the Major Fleet Escort Study of 1967 called for a fundamental technological re-design of our surface escorts.  That vision materialized 50 years ago this day with the commissioning of USS SPRUANCE (DD-963).

The Spruances were the largest post-WWII destroyers in any navy, stretched to a size more typical of a cruiser.  They were the first in our Navy to be powered by gas turbines, with later modifications installing General Electric LM-2500 aircraft engines in their four engine rooms.  Each carried 16 anti-submarine rockets (ASROC) and six Mk-46 torpedoes in addition to sophisticated submarine detection and tracking equipment.  Due to their predominant ASW mission they mounted only fore and aft 5″/54 guns and twin Phalanx 20mm CIWS mounts–small enough anti-surface weaponry to class them as “destroyers.”  (In traditional nomenclature surface ships are differentiated by the size of their guns.  Battleships mount 10″ guns or larger; heavy cruisers, 8″ guns; light cruisers, 6″ guns; and destroyers carry 5″ guns).

The Spruance platform had enduring utility and formed the backbone of our surface Cold War anti-submarine capabilities.  Thirty-one units were launched, from DD-963 to HAYLER (DD-997), commissioned 5 March 1983.  They served in every action of the latter decades of the Cold War.  Four additional hulls were laid down in 1978-79 intended for the Shah of Iran and fitted with more robust anti-air capabilities.  But after his abdication to the Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979, the four were retained in our Navy as the Kidd-class.  They took our Navy past the turn of the 21^st century and remained popular with our allies thereafter.  Their versatile hulls, power plants, and auxiliary systems are their legacy, being retained for the later Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke DDGs.

It was the emergence of this latter DDG that eclipsed the venerable “Spru-cans.”  Thirty years and one day after the lead ship was commissioned, our last Spruance left service.  On 21 September 2005 CDR Steven A. Mucklow, Commanding Officer of USS CUSHING (DD-985), accepted his ship’s commissioning pennant in ceremonies in San Diego timed to the 25^th anniversary of that warship’s commissioning.  An era of superlative destroyers for whom crews still emote undying affection thus ended.  “I could not have asked for better duty.” summed-up SH3 (SW) Eric Browning at the CUSHING ceremony, echoing the feelings of many “Spru-can” sailors.

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

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Global Security website. DD-963 Spruance-class.”  AT: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/dd-963-specs.htm, 29 September 2005.

Polmar, Norman.  The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 14^th ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1987, pp. 150-55.

Smith, Cynthia.  “Navy’s Last Spruance-Class Destroyer Decommissioned.”  Military.com electronic news release, 27 September 2005.

ADDITIIONAL NOTES:  USS SPRUANCE remembers ADM Raymond A. Spruance (1886-1969), who commanded US Naval forces in WWII at the battles of Midway and the Philippine Sea.  Near the end of WWII, Congress authorized the 5-star rank of Fleet Admiral, allotting 4 billets to the Navy.  Chester Nimitz, Ernest King, and William Leahy were obvious choices.  For the fourth billet, both William Halsey and Raymond Spruance were considered.  Halsey was chosen, to which Spruance reacted, “…if I had received it instead of Bill Halsey, I would have been very unhappy over it.^”

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                                               “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 by that July date only about 9,000 remained, fighting sporadically in the island’s interior.  Final securing of the island took until 10 August 1944.  American casualties totaled 1435 killed and 5648 wounded, almost all were US Marines.

Earlier, on 16 June 1944, a pre-invasion bombardment was conducted, concentrating on the Japanese airfield on the Orote Peninsula.  USS PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38), IDAHO (BB-42) and the cruiser HONOLULU (CL-48) launched this barrage, protected by a cluster of destroyers and destroyer escorts, including WESSON (DE-184).  Aboard this latter was Electrician’s Mate First Class Charlie Sullivan.  A plank owner, “Sully” served his entire WWII career aboard WESSON, by this date he had charge of the starboard motor room.  Here a powerful electric motor originally designed for train locomotives–powered by a diesel engine just forward the in the starboard engine room–turned the starboard shaft.  As WESSON patrolled for submarines around PENNSYLVANIA, at times less than a hundred yards distant, the cordite blasts that propelled 1600 projectiles shoreward battered the DE.  WESSON’s unarmored hull afforded little protection from the incessant concussions, even below decks.  Seeking refuge from the head-pounding, an off-duty Sully sheltered in the forward battery locker

Months earlier, Sullivan, whose upbringing in rural Pennsylvania included an introduction to music, had purchased a violin in Honolulu while on break from patrols.  He had spent $50 on the instrument–more than a month’s salary, and being one of the few sailors on board with a key to the battery locker, he stored his fiddle there.  With four other shipmates who played various instruments, “Sully” formed an impromptu band on the fantail on quiet days. 

In the battery locker, he picked up his fiddle.  To calm his nerves from the incessant bombardment, he began to play.  “Anchors Aweigh” emanated from the locker; his shipmates heartily appreciating his performance.  Then for months afterward, Sullivan’s nickname became “Nero” for fiddling while Guam was bombarded–a reference to the ancient Roman emperor who “fiddled” while Rome burned.

WESSON served throughout WWII in the Pacific, participating in the invasions of the Carolines, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.  She earned a respectable seven Battle Stars.  She was transferred to the Italian Navy in 1951 and was eventually scrapped in 1972. 

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  22 JUN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol VIII  New Guinea and the Marianas.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1953, pp. 375-80.

Oral history of EM1c Charles Sullivan, taken at: PA military Museum, Boalsburg, PA, 8 March 2107.

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. 174.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Roman emperor Nero probably correctly played a lyre–while a portion of Rome burned (that he intentionally set ablaze to clear a location for his planned palatial estate).

          WESSON remembers LTJG Morgan Wesson who was killed in action while serving as communications officer aboard USS ATLANTA (CL-51) in the Battle of the Solomons, 13 November 1942.

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                                                PERSISTENCE…

At 1400 on 13 May 1944, CDR George C. Wright of DESRON 21 was ordered to take USS GLEAVES (DD-423), NIELDS (DD-616) and MACOMB (DD-458) out of Oran, Algeria, to search for a submarine that had torpedoed two freighters in Convoy GUS-39.  The sub was being held underwater by two British destroyers, but by the time the Americans reached the spot, the contact had been lost.  The effort was part of Operation “Monstrous,” an appropriately named effort to employ overwhelming force to counter a frustrating run of convoy losses in the western Mediterranean.

During that night, MV G.S. Walden and SS Fort Fidler were torpedoed and damaged 85 miles to the northeast.  ELLYSON (DD-454), RODMAN (DD-456), HAMBLETON (DD-455) and EMMONS (DD-457) were augmented to the fight, also out of Oran, under CAPT Adelbert F. Converse of DESRON 10.  When they arrived on scene HILARY P. JONES (DD-427) and two DEs were already searching.  JONES damaged the sub with depth charges, but she escaped.  Shortly a search plane radioed a contact 30 miles to the west.  The (now) eight destroyers rushed to the area, only to receive another airplane contact well to the north.  It was dark by now.  Signal flares guided Converse’s flotilla and rewarded them with a sonar contact.  They attacked, and the following morning, May 15^th, a ten-mile diesel oil slick revealed the sub had been hurt.

For two more days the destroyers combed the area near Cape Santa Pola, but without any luck.  Unknown to them, all these contacts were the same sub, U-616!

Then at 2226 on May 16^th a British Wellington bomber caught a U-boat on the surface about 35 miles from the destroyers, moving away fast.  Converse charged to the area, and at 2356 MACOMB’s radar picked up a surface contact at 4600 yards.  Her spotlight silhouetted a conning tower and Macomb got off six 5″ rounds before the sub went under.  The sonars pinged!  Contacts were made, and depth charges splashed.  Through the night the ritual went on.  Again, it was U-616, but she was damaged, flooding, batteries low, air bad, and with little hope of escape.  At 0807 this morning she could take no more.  She surfaced to allow her crew to abandon ship and was immediately brought under 5″ gunfire.  Fifty-three of her 54 crewmen made it out before U-616 sank.  Oberleutnant zur See Seigfried Koitschka ordered her rigged for demolition, and minutes after she disappeared below the waves a muffled boom told her fate.  Only one crewman was lost.  The tireless hunt for U-616 had stretched over 90 hours from the time DESRON 21 sortied from Oran.  They had been chasing U-616 the whole time.  It was the longest, most persistent prosecution of a submarine during the entire war.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  22 MAY 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 186.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol X  The Atlantic Battle Won.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, pp. 257-59.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 371-73.

Wynn, Kenneth.  U-Boat Operations of the Second World War  Vol 2: Career Histories, U511-UIT25.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 84-85.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Neither G.S. Walden nor Fort Fidler (both British) was lost in the above attack.  U-616 was on her 9^th war patrol at the time operating with the 29^th U-boat Flotilla.  Across her career she is also credited with sinking two warships, the British landing craft HMS LCT-553 and USS BUCK (DD-420) both off Salerno, Italy, in October 1943.  Seigfried Koitschka was held in an Allied POW camp until June 1946.  During his captivity he was promoted to Kapitänleutnant and awarded the Knights Cross.

The post Persistence… appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                                  USS HALLIGAN

The bloody and bitter fight for Iwo Jima had barely begun to quiet before the next target on the relentless march toward Japan was determined–Okinawa.  Here the Marines expected yet another tenacious fight to the death by entrenched defenders loyal to their Emperor.  D-Day was set for April 1^st, and the last weeks of March saw the pre-invasion bombardment of the Okinawa landing zones.  Accompanying this “softening-up” force was the Fletcher-class destroyer HALLIGAN (DD-584).  A veteran of the campaigns for the Marshalls, Saipan, the Philippines, and Iwo Jima, her skipper, LCDR Edward T. Grace, had been allowed only a few days to refit in Ulithi before getting underway for Okinawa.  This morning found HALLIGAN patrolling between Okinawa and Kerama Retto, protecting minesweepers who were preparing an area known to be heavily mined.

Around 1830 this day, FN1c Eddie S. Strine stood in the chow line aboard the destroyer-minesweeper AARON WARD (DM-34) steaming a couple miles starboard of HALLIGAN.  Out the port passageway hatch he watched the strong silhouette of the destroyer calmly coursing in shoal water three miles southeast of Maye Shima.  Then suddenly a silent flash enveloped the destroyer, and a massive column of black smoke mushroomed from HALLIGAN.  Seconds later the concussion struck WARD and sent her sailors to General Quarters.

HALLIGAN was wrenched in two in the explosion, only a handful of sailors forward of the bridge escaped in the seconds it took for the bow section to flood and sink.  LCDR Grace and all but two of the wardroom officers were killed instantly.  ENS R.L. Gardner, who happened to be in the after 5″ gun mount, leapt back to his feet uninjured, and quickly ran forward.  Recognizing himself to be the only officer left aboard, he began organizing fire-fighting, damage control, and rescue operations.  The explosion had detonated the forward magazines and nothing forward of the No. 1 stack remained.  PC-1128 and LSM-194 pulled alongside to assist, but it soon became apparent that there was little left to save.  Gardner ordered the remaining crew to abandon ship and made one last sweep through the spaces.  Luckily one sailor was found still alive below decks, pinned under wreckage.  A handy torch quickly freed the man.  In all, 153 sailors perished with HALLIGAN, most instantly when the Japanese mine detonated beneath the destroyer’skeel.  She was the first US warship lost in the Okinawa campaign, without having fired a shot in her own defense.

HALLIGAN’s after section drifted 12 miles before running aground on the Okinawan shore.  Her rusting hulk remained aground until 1958, when it was donated to the Okinawans for scrap.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  31 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 216-17.

Lott, Arnold S.  Brave Ship Brave Men.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1964, p. 139.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIV  Victory in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, pp. 115-16.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 285-87.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  HALLIGAN was named for RADM John HALLIGAN, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and WWI, who later served as Chief of the Bureau of Engineering, Assistant CNO, and Commander of the 13^th Naval District.

Sailors feared mines as much as any other casualty, as ships striking mines were often doomed.  Sailors tread lightly on the decks in mine-infested waters, as a detonation would throw the decks up so violently that one would often suffer the fracture of both legs and be thrown overboard.

LCDR Edward Thomas Grace was awarded the Sliver Star for his actions this day.

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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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                                          BUCKLEY vs. U-66 (cont.)

Every available sailor manned BUCKLEY’s (DE-51) rail with a tommy gun, rifle, or any manner of weapon the arms lockers could yield.  Depth charges, set to explode at the surface, arched from the destroyer escort’s K-guns.  LCDR Brent M. Abel raced alongside the U-boat for several minutes, then in a flash threw his helm hard over.  Collision alarms blared as the escort’s bow struck and rode up across the foredeck of the U-boat.  At nearly the same moment Oberleütnent zur See Gerhard Seehausen ordered “Abandon Ship!”  In the darkness, smoke, and confusion, German submariners poured out of the hatches.  They were met with a hail of bullets, shell casings, tools, coffee mugs, shoe-shine kits, potatoes–anything the American sailors could grab.  Several scrambled aboard the fo’castle of the destroyer escort prompting an order not heard in the US Navy since the age of sail, “Stand-by to repel boarders!”

Abel now ordered “All Aback” to clear the U-boat, leaving five enemy sailors still crouched behind the anchor windlass on BUCKLEY’s foredeck.  One German even made it below decks but was arrested by a steward’s mate who defended his wardroom post with a hot coffee pot.  On deck the remaining Germans pleaded for quarter against a torrent of small arms fire.  They were corralled and taken below by a gunner’s mate brandishing a hammer. 

Meanwhile, with his engines still intact and enough crew left aboard, Seehausen seized this opportunity to speed ahead of the surface ship.  Abel quickly pulled abreast once again; more fire was exchanged.  But by now the U-boat was steering erratically, veering suddenly toward BUCKLEY, striking a glancing blow at the destroyer’s after quarter.  At precisely this moment, a deft American sailor lobbed a hand grenade down the sub’s main hatch.  Its detonation wrecked the control room and started an inferno.  Now completely out of control and shipping water, the U-boat zig-zagged away.  A few short minutes later her death plunge was heralded by turbulent waters and the sound of hissing steam.

The entire action took only 16 minutes, but in that time Abel’s destroyer expended over a hundred rounds from her 3″-50s, 3000 machine gun, and 360 pistol rounds.  Only one BUCKLEY sailor was injured, a deck hand who sustained a bruised fist in hand-to-hand fighting on the fo’castle.

Thirty-six German crewmen were rescued from the cold Atlantic waters, though captain Seehausen was not among them.  BUCKLEY suffered a flooded after engine room and a sheared starboard propeller.  A plow-shaped dent in her port bow made her prankish in answering the helm, but she remained seaworthy and ultimately made Boston under her own power.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 MAY 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 10  The Atlantic Battle Won.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, pp. 284-88.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 306-07.

Smith, Stan.  “Buckley’s Bare-Knuckles Bout with U-66.”  Sea Classics, Vol 38 (3), March 2005, pp. 30-33.

Wynn, Kenneth.  U-Boat Operations of the Second World War  Vol 1: Career Histories, U1-U510.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1997, pp. 46-48.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  By this time in the war, German U-boats were being aggressively prosecuted by the Allies.  Most were only able to surface at night, and then only for short time periods.  When BUCKLEY picked up these 36 prisoners, they all appeared pale and gaunt, and all showed signs of vitamin deficiency.

This incident harkens to the 1779 victory of BONHOMME RICHARD over HMS SERAPIS in which a savvy Able Seaman in the American rigging noticed the British hatch to be open and lobbed a grenade therein.  It landed on stacked canister ammunition which exploded, clearing the British gun deck.

German sailors in this event have been characterized in some accounts as aggressively attempting to board and commandeer the American warship, and in truth some might have been.  But the majority were probably following orders to abandon ship and were simply trying to save themselves.

BUCKLEY received a unit commendation for her actions this day.

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