Trapped in the engineering spaces after the USS Lexington (CV-2) suffered two torpedo hits, Fireman Apprentice Vernon Highfill’s only way out was up.

Narrow Escape from the Lady Lex

When Vernon Highfill, fresh from basic training, reported to the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) in spring 1942, he found himself in a strange new world.

Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2025
In January 1967, the Viet Cong mined the dredge Jamaica Bay, trapping one of her civilian mariners in the mangled hull. It would take a heroic effort to free him from the rapidly sinking craft.

Saving Rather than Taking a Life

During the war in Vietnam, keeping open the vital waterways of the Saigon River and Mekong Delta was essential to the South Vietnamese economy.

Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
May 2025
The Great White Fleet

Ensign Halsey and the Great White Fleet

Ensign Halsey was one of 14,500 sailors making the cruise, and he and his shipmates enjoyed numerous port visits.

Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
April 2025
After Submarine School, then-Lieutenant Robert McNitt joined Commander Eugene Fluckey as executive officer on board the USS Barb (SS-220). On patrol duty during World War II, the submarine “took a real pasting” that came too close for comfort.

Scope with Tail Feathers

In these edited excerpts from his oral history, RADM Robert McNitt recalls a 1944 action against convoys in an area between Formosa and the Philippines known as Convoy College.

A. Denis Clift
March 2025
Jim and Taimi Leavelle at Pearl Harbor, the site of Jim’s first brush with history in 1941. Two decades later, as a detective with the Dallas Police Department, he would be witness to another momentous event in the nation’s history.

Jim Leavelle—Fate Knocks Twice

When Jim Leavelle left the destroyer USS Hammann (DD-412) in spring 1941 and reported to his new assignment, he expected a quiet tour of duty...

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2025
Grievously wounded in November 1942 at Guadalcanal, then-Ensign Robert Hagen would not be with the Aaron Ward when she sank five months later, and he would survive the loss of the Johnston, pictured here, at Leyte Gulf in October 1944.

Fickle Fate Spares a Sailor, Twice

Robert Hagen had wanted to attend the Naval Academy and, in fact, did—for one day.

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2025
Japanese records confirmed Navy Captain Edwin T. Layton’s suspicions: Japan had tried a second strike on Pearl Harbor using two Kawanishi H8K “Emily” flying boats.

Second Attack on Pearl

Navy Captain Edwin T. Layton shared the details of a second, failed Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

A. Denis Clift
December 2024
The author with his father in February 1956.

Two Destroyers for Postwar Japan

After World War II, the United States decided to transfer two U.S. destroyers to Japan. They would be building blocks for a reconstituted Japanese Navy.

Lieutenant Commander Warren B. Galkin, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired)
November 2024