“Whenever the Enterprise roams in the traditional freedom of the seas, she is the sovereign of the United States, a mighty symbol of our determination to preserve liberty and justice and a clear sign of our nation’s ability to do so.†– ADM Arleigh Burke, 24 Sept 1960 This Friday (24 Sept) marks the 50th…
As part of the sea trials coming out of a yard period, you put the ship through its paces to include high speed runs and extreme turns. When we pulled IKE out of the yards on my first at sea period as her ‘gator (navigator) we did the whole nine-yards, including a high speed run…
17 Jan 1930.  USS Lexington (CV-2) completed a 30-day period in which she furnished electricity to the city of Tacoma, Wash., in an emergency arising from a failure of the city’s power supply. The electricity supplied by the carrier totalled 4,251,160 kilowatt-hours. From Historylink.org: In the 1920s, Tacoma received most of its electrical energy from…
On Oct. 19, 1962, the Pentagon’s Bureau of Aeronautics contacted Koch while he and Ecker were fishing in Orange Park, Fla. The bureau had a top-security mission in mind. “They called up and said, ‘Can you really take pictures this good?’ †Ecker recalled. “We said not only ‘yes’ but ‘hell yes.’ †A few…
Written narratives and biographies are important and a primary research source. However, when one has the opportunity to listen to a narrative, especially of one who was there and played a key role in a major event – that is even better. Courtesy friend and contributor to this blog, LCDR George Walsh, USN-Ret, himself a…
(which might also serve as a cautionary tale to those who decry ‘future warists’ – SJS) …Investments in blood and treasure: Jan. 1927: 8 officers and 81 enlisted men of VO-1M, led by Maj. Ross Rowell, arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua with six DH’s. Amidst the anarchy of the civil and banditry, the U.S. Marines held…
As we wrestle with an ISP that seems to have a different sense of urgency than YHS when it comes to transferring service upon shifting our flag, access to the ‘verse will continue to be, well, spotty, over the next few days. What little we are able to accomplish is via the services of our…
We noted last year that the Kitty Hawk would not be with us much longer…Today, forty-eight years after being commissioned, the mighty Battle Kat was finally silenced: Kitty Hawk’s Final Chapter “It ties a loop around almost half a century,” Capt. Todd Zecchin, the ship’s 34th and final commanding officer, said of the event. Martinelli, 68,…
11,000 tons gross displacement. 622.5 ft long. 45 aircraft – that was the USS San Jacinto (CVL 30). Sixty-five years ago, on a September morning, a young naval aviator launched his Grumman TBF Avenger from her deck on a mission to strike facilities at Chi Chi Jima. Forty-five years later he was raising his hand,…
14 Dec –Installation of the Pilot Landing Aid Television system (PLAT) was completed on Coral Sea, the first carrier to have the system installed for operational use. Designed to provide a video tape of every landing, the system was useful for instructional purposes and in the analysis of landing accidents making it a valuable tool…
