The Navy commissioned the fleet ocean tug Quapaw in 1944. The 205-foot ship served in the Pacific theater near the close of World War II, aided warships off Inchon during the Korean War and added to its collection of Battle Stars during Vietnam. Decommissioned in 1985, it came to a less-than-glorious end, sinking at a Richmond, Calif., dock in 2011 and eventually being scrapped earlier this year. But the USS Quapaw Association had one last chapter in mind. Members asked Allied Defense Recycling officials whether they would donate one of the tug’s bow anchors to the Quapaw Tribal Museum in…
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Navy History and Heritage Command had planned to name the winner of its logo contest sometime last month, possibly to coincide with the Navy’s birthday celebration. Then, this happened. Instead, the word came out late last week that designs entered by Nathan E. Quinn, a graphics specialist at the Defense Media Activity, were selected as the best out of dozens of proposals. “The main point I was trying to convey with the design is that ‘our past guides our future,'” Quinn told NHHC community outreach officials in a news release announcing his selection. His work appears at right. Honorable mention…
First the video, then a few deep breaths, then some background: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-5kdCdM6So[/youtube] Rather than parades, appliance sales or ribbons one day a year, sailors aboard the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis are paying tribute to veterans on a more personal level — visiting veterans homes as part of the ship’s community-relations efforts. It’s led to one-on-one history lessons and brightened the days of both generations. It also led to the three-minute video above, put together by MCSNs Eric Melone and Jose Hernandez and featuring Aviation Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Joseph Hodge during a visit to the Washington Veterans Home in…
Sailors on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln opened a time capsule of sorts last month and didn’t know it. While performing work connected to the refueling and complex overhaul Lincoln is undergoing at Virginia’s Newport News Shipbuilding, sailors assigned to the ship’s combat systems department found the signatures of two sailors on the carrier’s original deck plates while they were removing tiles. The plankowners made their marks less than a year after the ship’s 1989 commissioning. A picture of the signatures went up on the ship’s official Facebook page shortly after the Oct. 23 find. In a social media success…
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Mercury Theater on the Air’s radio production of “War of the Worlds” — a dramatization of a Martian invasion that put both Orson Welles and Grovers Mill, N.J. on the map. A recent PBS documentary discussed the broadcast and the fallout from it — angry listeners who thought the whole thing was real, that Martians were using poison gas and heat rays to rip up a good chunk of the East Coast, and that civilization as we know it was as good as roasted — and on the day before Halloween, no less.…
The Navy unloaded its first supercarrier Tuesday for 1 cent. Texas shipbreakers earned a penny from the Navy to dismantle and recycle the remaining hulk that was formerly the aircraft carrier Forrestal, a ship that sailed to wars and crises over 38 years and which suffered one of the Navy’s worst tragedies: a 1967 fire that killed 134 sailors. Despite its service over 21 deployments, the ship’s legacy is forever tied to the flight deck conflagration that raged for hours after a rocket mounted under wing accidentally fired, slamming into another jet and unleashing a fuel blaze that cooked off…
On this date in 1797, one of six frigates authorized by the Naval Armament Act of 1794 was launched in Boston. Safe to say, it outlasted the other five. The frigate Constitution entered service to battle pirates and protect a young country’s global maritime concerns, but its success during the War of 1812 began a legacy that’s lasted more than two centuries. It’s impossible to sum up the history of the world’s oldest active commissioned warship afloat in a few words, but this passage from the London Times, courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command’s Constitution website, comes pretty close.…
A history lesson from the pages of Navy Times: “ABOARD THE USS ENTERPRISE IN THE ARABIAN SEA — Most Americans can only imagine striking back in anger after terrorist attacks 0n the United States on Sept. 11. But the 5,100 men and women aboard this — the Navy’s first nuclear aircraft carrier — were in position to respond when the word came to attack Oct. 7. They got the chance to exact a little vengeance.” Then-staff writer William H. McMichael (Bill, for short) began his extensive coverage of the first shots fired in Operation Enduring Freedom with those words in…
Sailors who need a full list of up-to-date Navy uniform regulations can head here. But be warned — a printout will take up about five full, single-spaced pages. And that’s just the table of contents. If you’ve ever wondered what led to all those instructions — the fleetwide message that would launch many, many fleetwide messages — you’d have to go back a few hundred years. On today’s date in 1776, the first official details for “Uniform of Navy and Marine Officers” were released out of the Marine Committee in Philadelphia. Uniforms for four officer ranks — captain, lieutenant, master…
Naval History and Heritage Command is in the home stretch of a contest that’ll help create the centerpiece of its rebranding effort. Your mission: Create a logo for the command — one that promotes the command’s mission of preservation and historical outreach. The winner’s work will be used to inspire a new official NHHC logo, which will be rolled out as part of an overall command branding effort, likely later this year. Get the rules and details here. Your deadline: Monday. Your prize: The knowledge that your artwork helped shape the next generation of fleet history. Also, a certificate. One…
