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Douglas World Cruisers at 100
This month marks the centennial of the first successful aerial circumnavigation of the globe. Kicked off on 6 April 1924 when four pairs of U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics, using modified...
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Warship Wednesday, April 10, 2024: Mongolia by way of Massachusetts
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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Romeo Actual Gets a Well-Deserved Dry-Docking
The “Black Dragon,” USS New Jersey (BB-62), whose keel was laid in September 1940, was last dry docked from late 1990 into 1991 when she was being deactivated and prepared for the mothball fleet....
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And in USCG News…
Lots of stories from the Coast Guard that you may have missed (as they don’t get much press). Polar Star Returns The 48-year-old USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10) and her crew have returned home to Seatle...
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Welcome, Hannah!
80 years ago today: A great shot of the brand new Essex-class fleet carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) underway in Boston harbor on 15 April 1944, the day of her commissioning from the Fore River Shipyard at...
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The ‘Last’ Yankee Battleship
Some 80 years ago today, the final American battleship laid down whose construction was completed* entered the fleet. The second U.S. Navy warship to be named for the 30th State, USS Wisconsin...
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Warship Wednesday (On a Thursday) April 18, 2024: Return for the Taxpayer
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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Pegasus Out, T-54A In
The twin PT6A-34B turboprop Beech King Air B90 was adopted in 1977 by the Navy as the T-44 Pegasus for “intermediate and advanced multi-engine flight training for the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard...
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Polaris Surface Surprise
Some 60 years ago this month, an important show of force for the Fleet Ballistic Missile Progam: The Lafayette class ballistic missile submarine USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a Polaris A-2...
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Seperated by 9,000 miles: 66 & 77
80 years ago. Two Gator (LST Mk 2) sister ships, built almost side-by-side in the same yard in Indiana (Jeffboat), were hard at work on opposite sides of the globe in two very different campaigns in...
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Steaming in Circles
80 years ago this week, how about this great original color image of the Moore-McCormack company’s American Republics Liner Rio de la Plata, seen in her WWII configuration as the escort carrier USS...
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Museum Tin Can Upgrades
We’ll always cover museum ships here on the blog and a pair of preserved greyhounds have some important recent updates. First, the USS Kidd (DD-661)— one of just three Fletchers on display in the U.S....
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We’re living in the age of real comic books: Enter the Manta
Out of nowhere, DARPA and Northrop Grumman this week debuted the Manta of the deep sea. No, not quite the above, but possibly cooler: (Photo: Northrop Grumman) As noted by DARPA: The Manta Ray...
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The Men with Green Faces
55 years ago today, 7 May 1969, in Norfolk, Virginia: “Members of SEAL Team TWO participate in a ceremony to award them nearly 60 medals, most of which were earned in combat in the Mekong Delta,...
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Warship Wednesday, May 8, 2024: Surigao Torpedo Slinger and Overall Slugger
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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Red Sea Update (spoiler: it is not as quiet as it seems)
With the undeclared asymmetric naval war in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden stretching into its eighth month (and Operation Prosperity Guardian into its sixth), it has largely fallen from Page 1 of the...
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Aeronautique navale at Dien Bien Phu
Some 70 years ago this week, the pivotal 1954 Battle of Diên Biên Phu ended after a 57-day siege, an event that set the stage for the French withdrawal from Indochina and the American entrance into...
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Weekend Warriors
How about this great shot of a stubby U.S. Naval Air Reserve North American FJ-1 Fury fighter, BuNo 120368 F-101 of the Naval Air Reserve Training Unit (NARTU) from Naval Air Station Oakland, May...
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Sea Orbit at 60
Some 60 years ago this week, the world’s ocean saw a novel naval squadron take to sea. On 13 May 1964, the first all-nuclear-powered task group, “Task Force One,” was organized and deployed to the...
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Drone CVEs and CVLs abound (except in the US)
I know you guys are together and bathe regularly and don’t need me to point stuff like this out, but drone carriers are seriously becoming a thing. In the past couple of years, Turkey has decided to...
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