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The *Other* Sole Survivors of Torpedo EIGHT
80 Years Ago Today: Here we see the heavy cruiser USS Pensacola (CA-24) as she disembarks Marine reinforcements at the Sand Island pier, Midway, on 25 June 1942. Note M1903 Springfield rifles and...
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VS22 Looking Flat
It is just a little bit over 80 years after the Plum/Pensacola/Republic Convoy was ordered to make for Australia instead of reinforcing the Philippines– a good call because the 2,000 mobilized...
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Quiet Developments in 5th Fleet
It hasn’t gotten a lot of press, but CENTCOM has seen some interesting visitors and additions in recent days. First up, the Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Sioux City (LCS 11), commissioned on...
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‘Eyes on the Gulf
Official caption: “Gulf Of Mexico. A pair of T-2C Buckeye aircraft wait behind the blast deflector on the flight deck of the auxiliary aircraft landing training ship USS Lexington (AVT-16) for their...
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RIMPAC on Parade
You gotta love RIMPAC just for the sheer quantity of exotic vessels on display. This year’s exercise draws from 26 nations contributing 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft, and 25,000...
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That straight-pull, tho
116 Years Ago: Gun drill at Newport, Rhode Island, July 5, 1906. Photographed by Enrique Mueller. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. PR-3-Box-33-5 Note the white summer jumpers, which were at the...
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Because I was inverted: $305M for two squadrons of Swiss Tigers
As we covered in 2019, starting in 1978, the Swiss Air Force bought 110 late-model F-5E/F Tigers to augment their locally made F+W Emmen Mirage IIIs and replace their older Hawker Hunter aircraft (and...
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Warship Wednesday, July 6, 2022: Dispatches from the New Navy
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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Battlewagon Vought
95 Years Ago Today: Vought UO floatplane, arriving at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California, 8 July 1927, marked on its fuselage as being from USS Nevada (Battleship No. 36). U.S. Navy...
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Frogman Kit: DPDs & Jetboots Doing Their Thing Quietly
There have been lots of interesting combat swimmer news bits in the past week. For starters, check out this photo dump from Saventa, Aruba (June 19, 2022) showing Marines with 2d Reconnaissance...
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Abbreviated Warship Wednesday: Tennessee by the pale moon light
I’m on the road, haunting New England on a gun industry-related trip all week (although I do plan to catch the screening of “Master and Commander” on the deck of the USS Constitution on Friday...
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SEAL Vet Holds Class on SOPMOD History
Every gun nerd knows about SOPMOD. SOPMOD refers to Special Operations Peculiar MODification kit. This stuff: The purpose behind SOPMOD is to provide rifles with the flexibility and versatility to...
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Recalled!
80 years ago today, official caption: “CPO George Sanderson. View was taken in 1942. Sanderson held the distinction of being the oldest man in the armed forces on active duty. Joined (sloop-of-war)...
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Wind of the Great North
We’ve covered the Wind-class “battle icebreakers” several times on Warship Wednesday including USS Atka (AGB-3)/USCGC Southwind (WAG-280) (then became the Soviet Kaptian Bouleve then later Admiral...
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I don’t often recommend content from Business Insider, but they have been posting otherwise well-made videos from Great Lakes recently, and these two I found interesting: A Navy sailor breaks down...
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The Many Houses of the late, great, John Paul Jones
That brilliant naval scofflaw, Scottish-born John Paul Jones of “Give me a fast ship, for I intend to sail in harm’s way” and “I have not yet begun to fight!” fame, is credited today by some as “The...
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Warship Wednesday, July 20, 2022: Four Stacker Convoy King
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own,...
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The Old Man Returns to Manage the Joint
In July 1937, some 85 years ago this month, otherwise surface warfare-qualified Capt. William Frederick Halsey Jr. (USNA 1904) arrived at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola– where he had just earned...
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Sweeping on the night shift
The date: the overnight of 22/23 July 1945. U.S. Navy Destroyer Squadron 61 (DesRon 61, CAPT Thomas Henry Hederman), consisting of nine modern Allen M. Sumner-class destroyers USS De Haven (DD-727),...
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MK25 Gets some Screentime
The “Terminal List,” which debuted earlier this month on Amazon Prime, is based on the best-selling novel by Navy SEAL veteran Jack Carr and follows Navy Lt. Commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) after...
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