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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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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50^th ANNIVERSARY

THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD (cont.)

No Coast Guard vessel in the area was capable of braving such heavy seas this night, but an HU-16 “Albatross” and an HH-52 “Sea Guard” helicopter were launched.  In addition, Anderson reversed course to search the area (no small feat in that sea state) and the American freighter SS William Clay Ford and the Canadian Hilda Marjanne got underway from Whitefish Bay to assist.  The following morning SS William R. Roesch picked up half a lifeboat drifting toward the Canadian shore.  Later on the 11^th another lifeboat and two pressure release inflatable rafts were found.  None of Fitzgerald’s 29 crewmen was aboard.

Coast Guard, Canadian, and civilian vessels searched until November 14^th, when MAD-equipped US Navy P-3 “Orions” operating out of NAS Glenview detected a solid metallic contact.  Winter postponed further work, but the following April the Navy unmanned remote camera sled CURV III, deployed from USCGC WOODRUSH (WLB-407), confirmed the object to be Edmund Fitzgerald.  She lies 17 miles northeast of Whitefish Point just inside Canadian waters.  She broke into three sections, her bow is resting upright, plowed 30 feet into the mud.  Her stern is inverted, lying only about 170 feet to the northeast.  Her amidships section is an unrecognizable jumble of twisted steel and taconite pellets.

Theories abound as to her demise.  Some suggest she scraped lightly when she passed too closely aboard the reef at Caribou Island and opened a small breach in her hull.  Some suggest the flexing of her massive length in the heavy seas fatigued her bulwarks.  However, the official Coast Guard inquiry sited damage disclosed on the underwater video to the cowlings of her multiple deck hatches.  This suggests Fitzgerald was in graver straits than even her skipper realized.  Over-crashing waves had opened the seals of her hatchways, admitting water directly into the hold.  Her pumps did not draw from the cargo hold, in fact freighters of her day had no way even to monitor water accumulation here.  To make matters worse, taconite absorbs water, increasing its weight by 7%.  Fitzgerald lacked watertight bulkheads, allowing the accumulating water to shift freely toward the bow, trimming her stem ever more deeply.  Her terminal dive might have been precipitated by striking an unseen floating object, or simply by a massive wave that finally tore away the loose hatch covers, but in any event, she dove suddenly, nose first.  Her bow struck the 550-foot bottom with her stern still out of the water, causing a strain amidships that broke her apart.  Still adored at that time as “The Pride of the American Flag,” her loss shocked the entire region.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  17 NOV 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of Transportation, US Coast Guard.  SS Edmund Fitzgerald Sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November with Loss of Life.  US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations Report and Commandant’s Action, Report #USCG167/64216, Washington, DC: GPO, 15 April 1977.

“Edmund Fitzgerald’s Grip on Hearts Still Powerful 20 Years After.”  The Detroit News, 10 November 1995.

Farquhar, D.M., “The Loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  Sea Classics, Vol 29 (7), July 1996, pp. 40-42.

“Lakes’ Safety Plan Tied to ’75 Tragedy.”  Chicago Tribune, 10 November 1985.

Ratigan, William.  Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals.  Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977, pp. 315-46.

Smart, David.  “The Last Expedition:  Retrieving the Bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  Sea Classics, Vol 28 (12), December 1995, pp. 44-48.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

“Superior, they say, never gives up her dead

When the gales of November come early.”

This line from Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit is surprisingly accurate (as is the rest of his lyric).  Superior is the coldest and deepest of the Great Lakes.  Hypothermia kills in minutes, and so frigid is the water that corpses frequently “refrigerate” rather than bloat.  No trace of Fitzgerald’s 29 crewmen has ever been found.

Fatal Fall gales (“Witches of November”) occur with some regularity on the Great Lakes.  On 11 November 1913 a storm destroyed 18 ships and killed 254 sailors.  On 11-13 November 1940, three freighters took 57 sailors to their deaths.  On 18 November 1958 the freighter Carl D. Bradley foundered in a gale killing 33 of her crew.  And on 29 November 1966 another gale wrecked Daniel J. Morrell killing 28.

In 1995 the Canadian Navy assisted Michigan State University’s expedition to recover Fitzgerald’s bell.  This task was made more difficult by the knowledge from the 1976 underwater video that the bell had been dislodged in the sinking.  It was located however, and brought ashore on July 7^th, 1995, at Whitefish Point.  It rests today in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at that location.  A facsimile bell, inscribed with the names of the 29 who died, was replaced by the expedition atop Fitzgerald’s pilothouse.  As the wreck is believed to contain human remains, a 2009 amendment to the Ontario Heritage Act forbids any surveying, salvage, or exploration of the wreck.

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                                              50^th ANNIVERSARY

                        THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

When she slid off the ways in 1958, the 729-foot SS Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest man-made object ever to hit freshwater, indeed her size took Great Lakes freighting to a new standard.  Named for the sitting chairman of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, her owner, she bordered on luxurious even by modern standards; her crew spaces bore leather-grained wall coverings, thick pile carpet, and tiled heads.  Her size earned her the accolade “Queen of the Lakes” from a payload perspective as well, as she repeatedly broke records for tonnage carried per trip and per season.

On Sunday afternoon, 9 November 1975, Capt. Ernest R. McSorley departed Superior, Wisconsin, at the extreme western tip of Lake Superior, heading out on the northeast-southeast dogleg course to the locks at Sault Ste. Marie.  On this last trip of the season, he was laden with 26,116 tons of taconite (iron ore) pellets, drafted to the minimum freeboard the recently loosened shipping laws allowed.  Two hours out he met Capt. Jessie B. Cooper aboard SS Arthur M. Anderson, another ore freighter outbound from Two Harbors, MN.  As the wind freshened both captains elected to take a more northerly course and hug the lee shore of the Canadian side.

A storm broke with uncommon fury through the night and following day.  And having made their dogleg to the southeast, both ships now bucked the full force of what had unexpectedly matured into a once-a-century gale with 70 mph headwinds and 30-foot seas.  Snow squalls limited visibility, and both vessels took green water over their weather decks.  About 1530 McSorley radioed Anderson that two ventilation covers had been carried away, that he was shipping water and listing slightly, and that both radars were out.  He confirmed that his pumps were working but asked Anderson for help in maintaining a correct course for the sheltered waters of Whitefish Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.  As the stormy afternoon wore on, several subsequent radio transmissions beamed from Fitzgerald, one to the Swedish freighter Avafors, upbound in the opposite direction, asking whether the Whitefish Point navigation beacon was operational.  In none of these communiqués did McSorley suggest a threat to his ship, in fact Fitzgerald’s last transmission at 1910 indicated, “We are holding our own.”

The watch aboard Anderson monitored Fitzgerald on their radar throughout that dark and fateful afternoon.  From their position about ten miles behind they even caught an occasional visual sighting between snow squalls.  Ground clutter periodically overwhelmed the radar, but Fitzgerald’s lumbering progress against the heavy seas was followed.  Then around 1930 this day Edmund Fitzgerald vanished from the radar.  Having battled over 500 miles down Lake Superior, at that moment the shelter of Whitefish Bay lay a mere fifteen miles distant.

Continued tomorrow…

Department of Transportation, US Coast Guard.  SS Edmund Fitzgerald Sinking in Lake Superior on 10 November with Loss of Life.  US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations Report and Commandant’s Action, Report #USCG167/64216, Washington, DC: GPO, 15 April 1977.

“Edmund Fitzgerald’s Grip on Hearts Still Powerful 20 Years After.”  The Detroit News, 10 November 1995.

Farquhar, D.M., “The Loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  Sea Classics, Vol 29 (7), July 1996, pp. 40-42.

“Lakes’ Safety Plan Tied to ’75 Tragedy.”  Chicago Tribune, 10 November 1985.

Ratigan, William.  Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals.  Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977, pp. 315-46.

Smart, David.  “The Last Expedition:  Retrieving the Bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  Sea Classics, Vol 28 (12), December 1995, pp. 44-48.

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                                 24 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1995

                                     THE LAST CRUISE OF DIXON

At 1600 on the sunny Tuesday afternoon of 24 October 1995 the L.Y. Spear-class submarine tender USS DIXON (AS-37) cast off from middle pier at SubBase Point Loma and was eased by tugs into the channel.  This still fit 25-year-old Cold War veteran, built to service nuclear attack subs, was bound for Norfolk to await scrapping in the James River ghost fleet.  Her normal 1200-man crew had been pared down to 400-odd essentials.  Her repair shops, boats, and much of her loose gear had already been off-loaded.  A sheared pin in a circulating pump delayed her departure eight hours but her skipper, CAPT David W. Hearding, still planned her twilight cruise to be one of her best.

Calm seas and fine weather cooperated in keeping the lightened tender from rocking too badly as she steamed south.  The weather held on the 28^th when, in a solemn ceremony, the ashes of CWO3 Frazier Russell were committed to the deep by MACS(AW) Francisco M. Aguinot.  In keeping with the retired Warrant’s wishes after his death the previous June, he was intombed from the deck of the ship aboard whom he had proudly served.

DIXON, who held the speed record for tenders at that time, cruised well, allowing a detour so far south that on Halloween, Davy Jones appeared on the bridge requesting the ship lay to for an audience with King Neptune and his Court.  Subsequently 251 polliwogs successfully endured a traditional initiation into the realm of Neptunus Rex.  Turning north again, DIXON steamed to within 40 miles of the Panamanian coast to begin operations with US Army “Dustoff Panama” helicopter units from the Canal Zone.  Throughout that day US Army UH-60 “Black Hawk’s” made a total of 71 touch-and-go approaches to the after flight deck.  And during lulls in this excitement, the crew was treated to a mid-ocean swim call.  The participation of DIXON in helo operations was noteworthy–on 6 November 1984 she had become the Navy’s only sub tender with helo deck certification.

Her passage through “the ditch” coincided with Panamanian Independence Day festivities.  The occasion was celebrated under steamy tropical heat with that which had become a regular during the tenure of CAPT Hearding–a steel-beach picnic.  On the Caribbean side the waters proved rougher and hotter, hampering only mildly the last leg of the 4950 mile transit to West Palm Beach.  Following liberty call here, DIXON arrived at Norfolk Naval Shipyard on November 10^th.  In an august affair on 15 December 1995 USS DIXON decommissioned.  Taken out of service as part of post-Cold War “right” sizing, her crew wondered at the wisdom of scrapping a vessel with so much service left to give.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  7 NOV 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Oral history of CAPT James Bloom, aboard for the cruise.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  During the ’90s the breakup of the Soviet Union brought a revised op-tempo, during which fixed shore facilities like Bangor, Washington, and Kings Bay, Georgia, assumed a greater role in supporting submarine operations.  As a result, many of our fleet of tenders fell under the budget axe.  DIXON was named for LT George M. Dixon, the Confederate Army officer who piloted H.L. HUNLEY on her historic mission against the Union frigate HOUSATONIC near Charleston Harbor in 1864.

DIXON lay in the James River Reserve Fleet until the summer of 2003, when she was towed to sea and, on 21 July, expended as a target.  She rests today in 17,000 feet of water 360 miles southeast of Charleston.

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                                            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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                                              MARIEL BOATLIFT

The Cuban economy took a nosedive in the 1970s.  Housing shortages and joblessness fueled popular dissent, yet Fidel Castro’s harsh restrictions on emigration appeared to condemn Cubans to a life of struggle.  Faced with possible civil unrest in the late 1970s, Castro loosened his grip.  In January 1979 he released several political prisoners and allowed Cuban exiles in foreign lands to visit relatives in Cuba.  Then in April 1980, Castro declared the port of Mariel 25 miles west of Havana to be “open.”

Overnight, hundreds of local watercraft, many unseaworthy, began shipping aboard refugees.  Hundreds more boats departed Miami bound for Mariel as a boatlift of those fleeing Communist Cuba developed.  US Coast Guard District 7 was quickly overwhelmed as scores of overloaded and questionably sound boats ran out of fuel or broke down in the seas between the island and Florida.  President Jimmy Carter called up 900 Coast Guard Reservists, but even these, coupled with re-deployed Guardsmen from other Atlantic areas, could not keep up with the struggles at sea.  Typical was the ocean-going tug Dr. Daniels, intercepted on this day by USCG CAPE GULL (WPB-95304).  She had been chartered by Cuban-Americans to transport relatives, but at Mariel, Cuban authorities ordered her (over)loaded with 447 of those immediately available.  Dr. Daniels had lifesaving equipment for about 150.

The US Navy responded as well on 5 May.  USS SAIPAN (LHA-2) and BOULDER (LST-1190), augmented by P-3 Orion patrol aircraft from NAS Jacksonville, joined the rescue now dubbed Operation “Freedom Flotilla.”  When civilian aircraft interfered with operation, the FAA declared a flight restriction over southern Florida, with F-4 Phantoms from VMFA-312 at MCAS Beaufort flying enforcement.  The 1^st Battalion, 8^th Marines, 2^nd MarDiv went ashore at Key West to help process the refugees.  The Orange Bowl stadium and decommissioned Cold War missile defense sites were converted to hold refugees.

Among the 125,000 Cubans and detained Canadians who reached Florida were Pulitzer Prize winning writer Mirta Ojito, opera singer Elizabeth Caballero and TV actor Rene Lavan.  Then Castro, seeing an opportunity, began emptying Havana’s jails and mental hospitals.  This now ramped up a requirement for intensified screening–complicating an already chaotic scene.  An estimated 1000+ violent criminals entered Florida, including arsonist and mass-murder Julio Gonzalez and convicted murderer and gang leader Luis Felipe.  The exodus lasted until Castro re-closed Mariel that autumn.  In a testament to American seapower, only 27 refugees died at sea from the more than 1700 boats of the Mariel Boatlift.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 MAY 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Lazelere, Alex.  The 1980 Cuban Boatlift.  Washington, DC: National Defense Univ. Press, 1988.

“Mariel Boatlift”  Global Security website.  AT: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mariel-boatlift.htm, retrieved 16 October 2015.

“Mariel Boatlift.” US Nook Website.  AT: http://usnook.com/ english/politics/history/diplomacy/2013/0924/61491.html, retrieved 16 October 2015.

“Mariel Boatlift, 1980.”  USCG History Center.  AT: http:// www.uscg.mil/history/articles/uscg_mariel_history_1980.asp, retrieved 16 October 2015.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This was one in a series of humanitarian operations in the Caribbean and Central America in the latter 20^th century in which the Navy and Marine Corps participated.  VMFA-312 and the 8^th Marines received the Humanitarian Service Medal for their actions in this operation.

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                                      GLENN’S SHUTTLE MISSION

At 19 minutes after 1400 this afternoon, Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center roared to life with the lift-off of the space shuttle Discovery (OV-103).  COL Curtis L. Brown, Jr., commanded Mission STS-95 with his Air Force buddy COL Steven W. Lindsey piloting.  The other military astronaut aboard was destined in the next 30 minutes to become the oldest man in space to date, 77-year-old Payload Specialist COL (Ret) John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC.  On October 15^th, and for several months after today’s shuttle flight, the main causeway at the Space Center in Florida had been temporarily re-named “John Glenn Parkway.”

A USMC fighter pilot in WWII and Korea, by 1998 John Glenn was a national hero.  His Mercury 6 space mission of February 1962 was the first in which an American orbited the Earth.  His capsule for that flight, Friendship 7, was on display at the Smithsonian Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Since retiring from the astronaut program in 1964, Glenn had followed a new career in public service, becoming a 6-term Senator for the State of Ohio. 

Glenn’s duties for this shuttle mission were to study the parallels in physiology between human aging and space flight.  For years, NASA and the National Institute for Aging had collaborated on research into human aging, after it was noted how similarly spaceflight and aging effect the human body.  In a designed laboratory in the shuttle’s payload bay, Glenn worked on the nine-day mission to document changes in balance, perception, immune response, metabolism, bone and muscle density, blood flow, and sleep associated with weightlessness.  Glenn’s return to space 36 years after his first flight was the longest time between missions for any human.  Personal attributes beyond his age, such as intelligence and physical fitness, made him the ideal candidate to study the space effects of aging.  Meanwhile, his fellow astronauts deployed the SPARTAN 201 satellite for two days of free fight to study solar wind, then recaptured it.  Hardware that would be used on a later Hubble Telescope maintenance flight was readied.

Discovery orbited 134 times, a far cry for Glenn’s three orbits of his Mercury mission.  As they had done for his initial space flight in 1962, the Australian towns of Perth and Rockingham, in darkness during Glenn’s 1962 mission, turned on all their public and private lights, a salute to Glenn.  Another first for the mission was the presence of Payload Specialist Pedro Duque, the first Spaniard in space, representing the European Space Agency.  They all touched down safely at the Kennedy Space Center at noon on November 9^th, Glenn becoming one of the few astronauts to experience both a splash down and a touch down.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  5 NOV 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Glenn, John with Nick Taylor.  John Glenn:  A Memoir.  New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1999.

“John Glenn Returns to Space.”  NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA website.  AT: http://www.nasa.gov/ centers/glenn/about/ bios/shuttle_mission.html, retrieved 24 January 2013.

“STS-95.”  NASA website.  AT: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ shuttle/archives/sts-95/, retrieved 24 January 2013.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  On her 39 missions, the space shuttle Discovery amassed nearly 366 days in space.  She is currently preserved at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution in Chantilly, Virginia.

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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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