Navy Proud: It’s in the blood

On the sixth of April 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany. The declaration came after the German government increased its belligerent actions against the United States. President Wilson who had campaigned on the strength that he had kept the US out of war from 1914 until that very moment had relented after […]

They Never Lost Their Will to Win–The Battle of Cape Esperance

The Battle of Cape Esperance, also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the Sea Battle of Savo Island, took place on 11–12 October 1942, and was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and United States Navy. The battle […]

AWOL

One of my recurring nightmares from many years in the service was missing ship’s movement. It was drilled into us from the very early days as boots that missing a ship’s movement was one of the worst sins you could do as a sailor. The cost was high. In times of war, you could even […]

A Highland Festival of Note

The sky was exactly what would be expected for a festival that claims to celebrate the highlands of Scotland. Sunny one moment and dark grey and foreboding the next. The weather didn’t deter the faithful though as people from all over Western PA and anyplace within reasonable driving distance headed out to the Ligonier […]

The hardest work you will ever love should not cost you your vote.

In the short time I have spent on this planet, I have had a number of jobs. All of them have had their challenges and rewards and I feel blest for having had the experiences I have had. Beyond any shadow of a doubt though, my time in the service was probably the roughest and […]

The Die is Cast; Vandegrift does the impossible

America and her allies were woefully unprepared to fight the kind of war they found themselves with in the Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent attacks around the Pacific Rim decimated the plans and the resources of the forces that would become allied in their opposition to Japanese aggression. Traditional forces were […]

Two Battles that Determined the Course of a War

By July of 1942, the U.S. Navy had proven itself in two critical battles and a number of smaller but significant actions. The Battle for the Coral Sea and Midway proved that the American sailor was more than an equal for any naval force on the face of the planet. Despite numerical strength, the Japanese […]

The Storyteller’s Burden

I don’t know when I first learned how to tell stories As a young boy, I listened to the stories of many people who were older than me. Some of them were meant to inform, some were meant to teach lessons, and of course in the early days, the hope was that if I listened […]

600 Ships – The Path to Victory started on the 711

After the upheavals in the Navy caused by the end of the Vietnam conflict, you can imagine how discouraged many people who wore the uniform were by the time the Carter years were at the three and a half year point. Blend in the miserable economy, high unemployment, interest rates never before seen and you […]

PQ 17 July 4th 1942… 2132… “Scatter”

The summer of 1942 was not just a horrible time for merchant shipping long the east coast of the United States, it was also one of significant losses in the Atlantic U-boats were coming out in larger and larger numbers and even the convoy systems were being tested to the limits with the existing escorts. […]