12 APRIL 1884 “ABCD” CRUISERS By the end of the Civil War such advances as iron plate armor, steam propulsion, and large bore, rifled shell guns had poised our Navy on the cusp of technology. But sadly, in the following decades Read More
6 APRIL 1917 FIRST US SHOT OF WWI The US stood by in the summer of 1914 when Serbia, Austro-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain were plunged into WWI. For nearly the next three years we held ourselves neutral, and as Read More
31 MARCH 2004 GOODBYE TO ROOSEY While serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the 1920s, Franklin Roosevelt asked for the establishment of a naval base on eastern Puerto Rico. He even suggested it be named after his cousin, former Read More
13-26 MARCH 1997 OPERATION “SILVER WAKE” Against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein’s continued recalcitrance in Iraq, and the discord in Bosnia-Herzagovinia, the Adriatic coastal nation of Albania experienced a financial collapse in early 1997 that brought anarchy to that nation. On Read More
20 MARCH 1779 “THE FEW, THE PROUD” “The Few, the Proud, the Marines” has been an iconic slogan of the US Marine Corps since it was introduced in 1976 by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency during a critical post-Vietnam recruiting Read More
15 FEBRUARY–16 MAY 1865 THE GUN FROM USS SHUBRICK (outside the NMCSD Command Suite) RADM William Branford Shubrick’s Navy career was long and distinguished. Born on 31 October 1790, Mr. Shubrick received his midshipman’s warrant in the Spring of 1806 Read More
9 MARCH 1974 LT ONODA’S THIRTY-YEAR WAR In August 1944, a young Japanese 2nd LT in training, Hiroo Onoda, reported to the Futamata Army Training Squadron at the Nakano Military School. Over the next five months, he learned the guerrilla warfare Read More
4 MARCH 1825 EL PIRATA COFRESI Following the War of 1812, our Navy’s missions shifted to those of policing the slave trade off West Africa and combating piracy in the Caribbean. By 1825, our West India Squadron had nearly completed this Read More
28 FEBRUARY 1803 THE GUNBOAT NAVY “We are sacrificing everything to navigation and a Navy,” was candidate Thomas Jefferson’s slogan in the presidential election campaign of 1799-1800. Jefferson was an agrarian Southerner, distrustful of New England merchants and skeptical of our Read More
21 FEBRUARY 1945 TWO CARRIERS IN HARM’S WAY As the third day of the battle for Iwo Jima began, the ships of Task Force 58 kept up their shore bombardment and their efforts against Japanese sea and air defenses. Indeed, on Read More