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Shades of Prime Chance
Back at the hottest part of the Iran-Iraq Tanker War in 1987-89, Operation Prime Chance saw Army Little Birds and AH/OH-58Ds “Sea Cavalry” of Task Force 118 deploying from FFGs and two leased Brown...
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Navy Turns to Charters to fill ATF/ARS/ATS roles
Back in the day, the Navy ran its own salvage ships (ATS), salvage rescue ships (ARS), submarine rescue ships (ASR), and fleet tugs (ATF), amassing a giant fleet of such hard-working niche auxiliaries...
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Sprucan Desert Shield Watercolors
While assigned to the Middle East Force from September to December 1990, the Pascagoula-built Spruance-class destroyer USS O’Brien (DD-975) participated in maritime interdiction as part of Operation...
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Contract tea leaves
Last Friday had a bunch of interesting contract announcements including $450M from the Army to General Atomics for a kind of undetailed drone award (Predator, Gray Eagle, or something better?), while...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022: Albacore Pancakes
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their...
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Naval and Marine Aviation in a nutshell, from the Med to the Americas
This great shot from Neptune Shield 22 shows a U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet (BuNo 169735), attached to the “Fighting Checkmates” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 211– part of Carrier Air Wing One,...
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RIMPAC Review (and Coasties, too)
The 28th biennial RIMPAC, the world’s largest maritime warfare exercise, wrapped up last Friday. In all, some 26 nations sent 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft, more than 30 unmanned...
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And the Tico slaughter begins
When I was a kid growing up in Pascagoula, I remember the sleek and modern Ticonderoga class of Aegis cruisers leaving the ways at Ingalls like clockwork. They were majestic “billion-dollar” ships–...
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The Worst Night in U.S. Navy history at 80
USS Quincy (CA-39) photographed from a Japanese cruiser during the Battle of Savo Island, off Guadalcanal, 9 August 1942. Quincy, seen here burning and illuminated by Japanese searchlights, was sunk...
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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022: Savo Pig Boat Avenger
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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Brown Shoes of Fighting Six
80 years ago: Four aviators of Fighter Squadron Six (VF-6) — two of which are enlisted “silver eagle” NAP pilots– pose beside a Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat (Bureau # 5126) on board the Yorktown-class...
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Museum Ship Maintenance via 3D Printing
USS Massachusetts (BB-59), the third of four SoDak super dreadnoughts built during WWII, turned 80 this year. USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the pacific (1943) Of course, she only spent five...
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USCG at the ‘Canal
In July 1940, the Coast Guard numbered just 13,766 officers and men of all ranks, spread out from the Philipines to the Virgin Islands. By July 1942, it would balloon to 58,998 men (and was starting...
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80 Years Ago: Welcome to the Fleet, Big Al
Ordered on April Fool’s Day 1939 from Norfolk Navy Yard, at a time when Czeechlovakia had ceased to exist and Poland was looking to their borders, Battleship No. 60 would be the final...
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Arizona Marine Det flotsam
While at Gunsite earlier in the month, I spent some downtime wandering around (so I didn’t cramp up in the Arizona heat, to tell you the truth) and saw lots of plaques and trophies dotting the walls...
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Avenger down der periscope
Paintings of Naval Aviation during World War II: Abbott Collection. #98: “The Kill” Artwork by Robert Benney. “In this dramatic presentation of sea-sky battle, a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber, bomb...
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75 Years Ago: Back-to-Back Skystreak Records
Pre-dating Chuck Yeager’s ride in X-1, U.S. Navy CDR Turner Foster “Stinky” Caldwell set a new world air-speed record of 640.663 mph while flying Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak #1 (Bureau No. 37970-NACA...
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Admiral Halsey’s Saddle
Fancy tooled leather Western-style saddle, extensively decorated with 166 silver pieces, presented to Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander, U.S. Third Fleet, by the Reno, Nevada, Chamber of Commerce...
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Into the Lion’s Den
50 years ago today. Haiphong Harbor, 27 August 1972: In the last naval battle of the Vietnam War and the last time that American surface ships would close within mutal range of enemy shore batteries...
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CVN-80 Moves Forward
In 1775, the Continental Navy commissioned a sloop of war and dubbed her Enterprise. A second schooner followed in 1776 with the same name, one so good you had to see it twice on the Naval List. In...
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