20 SEPTEMBER 1975 – 21 SEPTEMBER 2005 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 Read More
14 SEPTEMBER 1861 THE FIRING OF JUDAH Had other theaters of the early Civil War not been in the limelight, the tension at Pensacola might have been keener. The Confederates held the Pensacola Navy Yard and Forts Barrancas and McRee guarding Read More
19 JULY 1918 SAN DIEGO LOST Almost as our ten Pennsylvania and Tennessee-class armored cruisers entered service at the turn of the 20th century they were rendered obsolete by advances in technology and dreadnaught design. By the entry of the US Read More
18-23 SEPTEMBER 1863 “TERROR OF THE CHESAPEAKE” John Yates Beall was born New Year’s Day, 1839, on a farm in Walnut Grove, Virginia (now West Virginia). His dreams of studying law seemed to come true when he was admitted to the University of Read More
5 AUGUST 1864 CAPTURE OF CSS TENNESSEE By August 1864, the last remaining Confederate seaport not in Union hands was Mobile, Alabama. At 0530 this morning, VADM David G. Farragut’s Union squadron “damned the torpedoes” and forced their way past Fort Read More
6 MAY 1944 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 Read More
6 MAY 1944 BUCKLEY vs. U-66 Oberleütnant zur See Gerhard Seehausen was in desperate need of re-supply. Operating in the mid-Atlantic west of the Cape Verde Islands, his cruise so far had been constantly dogged by US aircraft from a nearby Read More
19-20 JANUARY 1942 PT-31 Matters had run afoul for LT Edward G. DeLong and the 12-man crew of PT-31 soon after splitting company with PT-34. The fuel strainers of his wing engines clogged, and the center engine failed shortly with an Read More
18–19 JANUARY 1942 ACTION IN SUBIC BAY The first five weeks of our involvement in World War II found US forces battling a Japanese onslaught in the Philippines. On Luzon we were pushed farther and farther down the Bataan Peninsula, cut Read More