Every Moment Mattered – Epilogue

Every Moment Mattered – Epilogue At 01:48 on 13 November, Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan’s relatively small landing support group of thirteen ships engaged the enemy. The Japanese force consisted of two battleships, one light cruiser, and nine destroyers. Because of bad weather and confused communications, the battle occurred in near-pitch darkness and at almost […]

Every Moment Mattered – The Life and Death of Cassin Young, Captain, USN MOH Recipient – Chapter Twenty: “Like a ballroom brawl with the lights turned out.”

Chapter Twenty: “Like a ballroom brawl with the lights turned out.” Four days. From the moment Cassin Young reported on board until the night of October 13th there were only four days for him to prepare for the battle that was waiting just beyond the horizon. The San Francisco had nearly 1000 crew members on board […]

Every Moment Mattered – The Life and Death of Cassin Young, Captain, USN MOH Recipient – Chapter Nineteen: Into the Battle. Every Man a Hero

Chapter Nineteen Into the battle. Every man a hero The Marines that landed on Guadalcanal were about to write a page into history that would be written with blood. This tiny island in the Pacific should not have been the place where the allies would start their long drive to Tokyo. But observation planes had […]

July – August 1925 the US Navy Spends Time Down Under

I was visiting my favorite Library of Congress website today that features newspapers from the history of the US. One of the featured stories on the front page of the Washington Times for August 1, 1925, was about how many American sailors married Australian women after a recent port visit. The story brought a smile to […]

Reunion Redux – A Story from a friend

This morning’s email had a story about another reunion in Charleston a while back that had an interesting experience at another Charleston hotel. My friend served on the cruiser USS Toledo CA 133 and their association has had a number of reunions. They actually did more due diligence in preparation for their gathering, but from […]

Military Reunions… Why bother?

Why indeed. I have planned and executed three reunions for my third submarine (USS San Francisco SSN 711) to date. I am in the process of putting together the fourth. My beautiful bride of forty-three plus years has told me that this will be the last one I put together. I had forgotten how much […]

Pennsylvania Amphibs – 21st Century Warriors

I contribute articles to the Pittsburgh Council of the Navy League, and this is one of my recent submissions about a unique naming situation for five current and future LPD amphibious ships. Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania have contributed their names many times to warships and support ships over the last 240 years. Even my hometown of […]

“if a submarine is hit, the crew will never hear the explosion”

October 1943 was a very busy time for an expanding fleet in every corner of the world. The trials for the leadership of the Navy and Army that had been in charge during the attacks on Hawaii and elsewhere were finally getting under way. Less than two years after that disastrous day, many people were […]

Nuclear Power: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963-2023)

(NOTE: This post is a big longer than my usual post, but hopefully it will be worth your time to read.) Nuclear Power: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow I was reading about the two nuclear powered aircraft carriers and their battle groups gathering in the eastern Mediterranean this week and got to thinking about when I […]

Remembering the Marby – The Story of the USS Marblehead and her Brave Crew

Watching the types of ships being built for the past few years reminds me of the ideology of the 1920’s. There was a desire for peaceful relations between the global community mixed with theunderstanding that peace was an illusion as long as resources were desired by the same forces around the world. Battleships were limited […]