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This Date in Naval Aviation History – USS Hornet (CV 8) Commissioned
20 October 1941: USS Hornet {CV 8} is put in commission at Norfolk, CAPT Marc Mitscher, USN commanding. Laid down 25 Sept 1939 and launched in 14 Dec 1940, the USS Hornet, seventh ship in the Navy to bear that name, was built by Newport News Shipbuilding at a cost of $32M. At her launching,…
Reflections: "And the Sky Full of Stars"
“The stars … I miss the stars…†So went my response to a recent query from someone who noticed a certain wistfulness about me whilst talking of the sea. “What do you miss most about it?†they asked. To be sure, I missed the flying, the sense of purposeful direction and immediate feedback entailed with…
USS GERALD R. FORD (CVN 78)
Announced today — story follows. While YHS wishes the name had been reserved for use on another class as part of a return to tradition and convention, one hopes CVN 79 will be Enterprise, America, Intrepid or Coral Sea. (ed. note: The model unveiled at yesterday’s announcement also showed a more, *ahem* complete airwing than…
One Second After – Of EMP and Post-Apocolypse America (Part 1)
9 July 1962. At Johnston Atoll, a scrap of coral in a remote part of the Pacific, a Thor IRBM stands on the pad as launch preparations are carried out. Loaded with test equipment, its prime payload is a W-49/Mk-4 RV payload. The target, however, is not to be found on a map or chart….
Maybe a 5.9 on the Richter, But a 1.0 in Preparation
Ten years ago, a couple of weeks from now, I emerged from a burning, shattered Pentagon to a scene of utter chaos in South Parking, jammed cell lines and what soon became a traffic jam bordering on the Apocalyptic. Today, while much further to the south of DC, but actually closer to the quake’s epicenter,…
Americans At War
One of the things the Naval Institute has gotten right of late is the living history project (don’t get us started on the direction and content of Proceedings…). The latest manifestation ofthe living history project is Americans at War – a series of vignettes from WW2 to the present of Americans witnessing to extraordinary times…

