Map showing midmorning attacks on Japanese carriers during the Battle of Midway

Sinking the Carriers

By Jonathan Parshall
June 2017
The Battle of Midway’s final score is familiar. Less well known is how SBD Dauntless dive bombers sank four Japanese aircraft carriers on 4 June 1942.
A port quarter view of the guided missile frigate USS STARK (FFG-31) listing to port after being struck by an Iraqi-launched Exocet missile

Assault on the Stark

By Rear Admiral Harold J. Bernsen, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2017
Thirty years ago, an Iraqi Exocet missile slammed into the USS Stark, killing 37 members of her crew.
Naval History and Heritage Command

Historic Ships - The Forgotten 'Saras'

By J. M. Caiella
June 2017
The Navy has commissioned seven vessels named Saratoga into the service of the United States, but at least four others flew the nascent nation’s colors into battle. Indeed, the first ...
Courtesy of Andrew C. A. Jampoler

In Contact

June 2017
Last Regular RationHenry VorisLouis Norton’s article in the April issue (“Rum: The Spirit of the Sea,” pp. 20–23) dredged up a fond memory. At the time of “Black ...

Book Reviews

June 2017
The Lost Submarines of Pearl Harbor: The Rediscovery and Archaeology of Japan’s Top-Secret Midget Submarines of World War IIOne of the enduring mysteries of the air raid against the U.S ...
www.rgsmithart.com

On Our Scope

June 2017
Seventy-five years ago, with three of four Japanese aircraft carriers smashed, Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo and Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi rolled the dice at the Battle of Midway. Despite the ...
U.S. Navy

Historic Aircrafts - A Lackluster Performance, Part II

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
June 2017
The Brewster Aeronautical Corporation’s follow-on to the lackluster SBA/SBN scout bomber was the SB2A Buccaneer. This later aircraft was designed with an internal bay for a 1,000-pound bomb load and ...

Bluejacket's Manual - The Flag Bag

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2017
Few things are more symbolic of the nautical world than signal flags. Ashore, a man wearing a belt decorated with an array of signal flags may be a yachtsman (or ...
U.S. MARINE CORPS (DANA BEESLEY)

Naval History News

June 2017
Long-Lost Tarawa Marine Comes Home at LastThe Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced in March that the remains of a U.S. Marine, unaccounted for since World War II, have been ...
National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, FL

Torpedo Eight's Celebrated Survivor

By Robert J. Mrazek
June 2017
Gay wasn’t actually the squadron’s sole survivor, but he was as indisputably brave as the two others from Torpedo Eight who survived the battle that day. Ensign Albert K. “Bert” ...
Ufficio Storia Marina Militare

Lessons from a Lost Fleet

June 2017
A hundred years ago, united under the Habsburg crown, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a 1,125-mile mainland coastline that ran along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and included major ...
U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE

Pieces of the Past

By Eric Mills
June 2017
This particular piece of the past has a distinct resonance for the U.S. Naval Institute; it ties us to a landmark chapter in the long saga of the Navy’s oldest ...

Operation Hardtack's Hard-Luck Target Sub

By Captain William Carbine Green, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2017
What is it like to experience a nuclear explosion from inside a submarine? An officer whose boat was used as a target vessel in 1958 tells the tale.I was none ...

VT-8 Aviators Immortalized

By Robert J. Mrazek
June 2017
The story of the gallant, one-way mission of Torpedo Squadron Eight’s Devastator aviators captivated the U.S. public’s attention, as well as that of famous Hollywood director John Ford. A commander ...
National Archives

The Spy Ship Left Out in the Cold

By James M. Scott
June 2017
The 8th of June this year will mark the 50th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty (AGTR-5), a spy ship the Israelis repeatedly strafed, napalmed, and torpedoed during ...