A contemporary lithograph “sketched and drawn on stone by Parsons; lithographed and published by Endicott & Co., New York,” shows the ship uncluttered by sails.

The Service’s White Elephant

By J. M. Caiella
April 2024
Perhaps the least known of the U.S. Navy’s Civil War–era ironclads was a highly innovative, technologically advanced, high-freeboard seagoing ship built solely to battle the Royal Navy.
The NB-36H was the world’s first aircraft to fly with an operating nuclear reactor on board. The reactor did not power the plane but was used to obtain data on the effects of radiation on instruments, equipment, and the airframe. The NB-36H’s dark blue nose and orange radiation symbol on its tail distinguished it from a conventional B-36.

Atomic-Powered Aircraft

By Norman Polmar
April 2024
The program that developed the atomic bomb awarded a contract to the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Company to determine the feasibility of using nuclear energy to power an aircraft.
Naval warfare was forever changed by the Battle of Hampton Roads, in which ironclad faced ironclad for the first time. But every depiction of this history-altering showdown may be missing a key element of the Monitor’s appearance on that fateful day.

A New Look for an Old Icon

By Francis DuCoin
April 2024
The world is well familiar with the iconic design of the ironclad USS Monitor—but there is compelling evidence to suggest that the images of her in battle are not correct.
HMS Warspite, celebrated British battlewagon of World Wars I and II, served as the flagship of the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet as the Imperial Japanese Navy unleashed its Indian Ocean raid in March–April 1942. She would survive and go on to garner lasting renown as the first ship to open fire in the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944.

Operation C

By William M. Twaddell
April 2024
As the Japanese juggernaut rolled its way across the Pacific, it also made bold moves westward—to destroy the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in April 1942.
17 April 1943: Guns ablaze, the USCGC Spencer bears down on U-175 after having blown the U-boat to the surface with depth charges.

A Nautical Knife Fight

By Chief Petty Officer William A. Bleyer, U.S. Coast Guard
April 2024
A gripping account of one of the most dramatic U.S. Coast Guard engagements of World War II, when the USCGC Spencer attacked, boarded, and sank U-175 in April 1943.
Hero Image goguen

From Exigent to Expendable

By Commander Randy Carol Goguen, U.S. Navy (Retired)
April 2024
With World War II heating up, the U.S. Navy needed women to help fill its ranks—but was keen on making it clear that this was but a temporary wartime measure.
Frigate United States

The Heroic James Barron

By William Prom
April 2024
Barron would take Decatur’s life in 1820, but first he saved him and others of the pantheon of early American naval heroes.