On Our Scope

By Fred L. Schultz Editor-In-Chief
October 2003
When we heard about the Midway Night address delivered on 5 June 2003 by Dr. James Schlesinger at the Army and Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, we were determined ...
“Number 2 Gun” by Mitchell Jamieson

Turning the Tide at Salerno

By Chief Warrant Officer 3 Travis Beard, U.S. Navy (Retired)
October 2003
A chief gunner’s mate on board the destroyer Mayo looks back 60 years, when his ship provided gunfire support for the Allied invasion of Italy.
Bull Run

Among the Last to Run

By Colonel Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., U.S. Marine Corps
October 2003
On a hot, dusty July morning in 1861, the Civil War began in earnest at Bull Run. Marine Commandant John Harris initially balked at letting his Leathernecks join the ill-fated ...

The Baptism of Mr. Beasley

By Thomas Lawton Jones
December 2003
The young crew of the USS Puget Sound (AD-38) became full-fledged sailors when the ship’s totem-pole figurehead—nicknamed Mr. Beasley by the ship’s eccentric but capable captain—took a dousing during a ...

Duty, Honor, Country and Semper Fidelis

By Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
December 2003
Behind the U.S. Military Academy’s rivalry with the U.S. Naval Academy lies a storied tradition of bringing the best of the U.S. Military Academy to the U.S. Marine Corps—such as ...

Mickey & the Night Fighters

By William Slater Allen
October 2003
During World War II, the skies of Rhode Island were abuzz with the sounds of U.S. Navy night fighters, such as these Hellcats of Night Fighter Squadron 107. By 1945 ...

A Trip to Portsmouth-Kittery

By Paul Stillwell
October 2003
Back in the mid-1960s, when I was about to report for shipboard duty, I attended a one- week course on what was then known as the Registered Publications System. These ...

In Contact

October 2003
“The Enigma of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher” ( See H. Buell, pp. 50-51, February 2003 Naval History) Randy Stone With all due respect to Commander Buell, who correctly acknowledges Admiral ...

Historic Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
October 2003
The Herbert J. Thomas (DD-833) was one of two dozen Gearing (DD-710)-class destroyers designated early in 1945 for completion with facilities and equipment to carry out air-intercept direction, a capability ...

Shining the Light on Submarines

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
October 2003
By the late 1950s the sonar detection ranges of U.S. destroyers and escort ships began to exceed the range of ship-launched antisubmarine warfare (ASW) weapons. The initial solution was development ...

Naval History News

October 2003
Bob Hope Dies at 100 Comedian Bob Hope, an icon of vaudeville, radio, television, and film, died at his home in Toluca Lake, California, on 27 July, two months after ...

Book Reviews

Reviewed by James P. Delgado, Lieutenant Commander Henry J. Hendrix, U.S. Navy & Andrew Lambert
October 2003
Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific Rex Allen Smith and Gerald A. Meehl. New York: Abbeville Press, 2002. 316 pp. Photos. Maps. Index. $65.00. ...

Salty Talk

By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
October 2003
Throughout most of the 20th century, ships of war carried their guns in mounts or turrets, installations that enclosed the breech ends of the weapons and connected them firmly to ...