Seven decades ago, Petty Officer 1st Class George Mendonsa and his date were among the hordes in Times Square celebrating Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II when Mendonsa grabbed what he thought was a nurse (she was a dental assistant), leaned her back and kissed her in a fit of emotion. Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the moment, and as they say, the rest is history. The iconic photo came to represent the relief and excitement over the war’s end, but Eisenstaedt never got his subjects’ names. On the photo’s 40th anniversary, Life asked the nurse and…
Browsing: Historical
Neil Armstrong with the American Flag on the moon on July 20, 1969. (Credit: NASA)
The spacesuit worn by distinguished naval aviator and famed astronaut Neil Armstrong during the first moon landing is in rough shape, and the National Air and Space Museum is asking the public for help. The museum launched a Kickstarter campaign, seeking to raise $500,000 to fully restore and create a 3-D digital scan of the suit for display and to create replicas in the future. NASA says the suit is being preserved but shouldn’t be displayed until its refurbished, hence the fundraiser. “You may be surprised to learn that spacesuits are among the most fragile artifacts in the Museum’s collection,” the website…
A movie about one of the great maritime disasters of World War II had a little disaster of its own. A WWII-era Navy sea plane broke up during shooting for an upcoming movie about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis near the end of WWII. A PBY aircraft used to stage the rescue of survivors was being used for the shoot started leaking as it was floating on the surface of the water, said Elizabeth Wolfe, spokeswoman for the film “USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage.” The film crew had to evacuate the plane for safety reasons. The crew attempted to…
When Naval History and Heritage Command ran a contest last year asking sailors and civilians alike to submit ideas for a new logo, command officials were careful to make clear that the winning logo wouldn’t actually be the NHHC logo, but it would influence the final design. The contest winner’s design focused heavily on the frigate Constitution, with a compass rose in the background. The runner-up’s work involved a quill, symbolizing how the sea service recorded its important information in the days before multiple databases, dozens of logins and passwords, and the occasional moth. So it should come as no…
World War II history buffs should set aside a good part of Monday for some light reading. Maybe some of Tuesday. In fact, don’t make any plans the rest of the month. The “Gray Book,” a collection of communications from Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz that range from the Pearl Harbor attack to the days before Japan’s surrender, has been digitized and will be unveiled Monday as part of a live web program on the Navy’s official blog. The document — brittle from long-term storage and classified until 1972 — had been scanned previously, but better, searchable scans will offer easier…
The Navy’s collection of wartime art has almost skipped a generation — a problem you can help solve. Art curators with Naval History and Heritage Command have plenty of pieces from World War II and the Korean War — everything from paintings by official Navy artists to cartoons drawn on notebook paper. Vietnam and Desert Storm are well-represented in the Navy Art Collection, as well, but there are few works from current sailors. So, do you fill your downtime with doodles? When the ship needs a mural, does everyone in the room turn to you? Do you hope the characters…
Those of you who’ve already used the world’s most popular search engine this morning likely were greeted by a brief animation: A woman operating an old-school, room-sized computer, which spit out the number 107 and what appears to be a moth. It’s an unusual place to find a visual representation of Navy history, but it’s an honor, nonetheless — the Google “doodle” comes on what would’ve been the 107th birthday of Rear Adm. Grace Hopper: primary developer of the Common Business Oriented Language, better known as COBOL, and an officer whose career spanned five decades. Head to Naval History and…
Sailors assigned to the Marianas detachment of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 5 kept Guam safe from a blast from the past. On Thursday, after an evacuation, their “render safe” procedure on a 500-pound, World War II-era bomb found near the entrance to the naval magazine proved successful. The team disarmed the bomb’s tail and nose fuzes before it was removed from the area for disposal, according to a post on Naval Base Guam’s official Facebook page. The bomb was found on a construction site. Lt. Dhruy Parashar, the unit’s officer in charge, had some words of advice for others…
Sailors assigned to Navy Explosive Disposal Mobile Unit 5, Detachment Marianas, are about to get a history lesson. Everybody else is about to get out of the way. Beginning at 3 p.m. local time Thursday, the area surrounding Naval Base Guam Ordnance Annex will be evacuated to allow for a “render safe” procedure on a 500-pound, World War II-era bomb found earlier this week, according to this Naval Base Guam Facebook post. The bomb was discovered at a construction site near the entrance to the annex, formerly known as Naval Magazine Guam. Anyone within 2,150 feet of the construction site…
That old saying about a picture being worth 1,000 words? There’s a reason everybody says it: A few words, anyway: As the striking photo above — part landscape, part history lesson — shows, the crew of the aircraft carrier Nimitz made its way to Pearl Harbor on Tuesday, en route to a pre-Christmas homecoming in Everett, Wash. As the ship passed by the USS Arizona Memorial, sailors and Marines paid tribute to fellow service members lost during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. “Every time I stand up there, I feel goosebumps when we pass the Arizona,” Interior Communications 2nd Class…
