4 JANUARY 1945 USS OMMANEY BAY The twin-engine Japanese medium bomber, converted into a flying bomb herself, dove toward USS OMMANEY BAY (CVE-79). To the American crew it was a complete surprise! Screened by the numerous small Philippine islands nearby, Ommaney’s Read More
21 DECEMBER 1863 BLOCKADE RUNNING The effect of Lincoln’s naval blockade of the Confederacy was starting to tell by the end of 1861, as cotton and tobacco began piling up on southern wharves. Unable to move their major exports, the agrarian Read More
3 DECEMBER 1941 ISABEL’S SECRET SORTIE The 245-foot USS ISABEL (PY-10) was left over from WWI, built in 1917 to be the personal yacht of millionaire John North Willys (of Willys jeep fame). She had been requisitioned on the ways by Read More
24 OCTOBER-21 NOVEMBER 1962 QUARANTINE OF CUBA On the 14th of October, 1962, a high-flying Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane photographed what appeared to be a missile base under construction at San Cristobal, Cuba. Shortly it was learned that Soviet Il-28 Read More
24-27 SEPTEMBER 1778 THE LOSS OF RALEIGH On December 13th, 1775, the Continental Congress issued our young nation’s first naval construction authorization, ordering that 13 frigates be built for the Continental Navy. Five of these were to be rated at 32 Read More
8 SEPTEMBER 1923 DEVIL’S ELBOW DISASTER On the map of California one will notice a prominence north of Santa Barbara at which the coast takes a sharp turn to head nearly east/west for 80 miles. This prominence, bounded by Point Arguello Read More
14 AUGUST 1870 THE PASSING OF FARRAGUT It is hard to overstate the reverence our Navy holds for David Glasgow Farragut. He entered our Navy at age 9 through the influence of his adoptive father, CAPT David Porter, in 1810. He Read More
16 JULY 1863 SHIMONOSEKI INCIDENT Negotiated by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japan to commerce with the western world. It also polarized traditionalist Japanese factions who wished a return to economic isolationism. One of Read More
17 MAY 1987 ATTACK ON USS STARK On 22 September 1980, years of animosity between Iran and Iraq erupted into a shooting war. Early in that conflict Iranian jets destroyed Iraq’s only Persian Gulf oil terminal, greatly hindering the flow of Read More