My Grandfather was aboard the troop ship S.S. Dorchester on February 3, 1943 when it was torpedoed by a German submarine in WWI. Of the 904 men on board, 605 were lost. Such a terrible loss of life. I'm glad YOU and I are here to remember their sacrifice.

This 19th century bronze statue on display at the New Bedford Free Public Library is not what you will find in your average public library. Donated to the library by “Whale Master” Thomas Nye Jr. it gives some idea of the untold wealth that was gathered from the blubber and bone of the great whales during the heyday of the American whaling industry and “The Whaling Capitol of the World” New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was cast in 1870 by French sculptor Jean-Louis Gregoire (1840-1890) and depicts the rescue of Andromeda by Perseus. At the back of the statue Perseus can be seen standing on the severed head of Medusa, which he used to turn the head of the beastly sea-monster Cetus into stone, saving his beloved Andromeda from the human sacrifice necessary to appease Poseidon, who was highly enraged by comments Andomedas mother made about her own beauty being superior to that of the sea gods personal assistants (sea nymphs), you have to love those Greek myths. It’s current value is in the $20,000 dollar range and it’s in the hall, outside the Art Room door, just imagine what else they have on display.

This UGM-27A (U for submerged launch, G for ground or surface target, M for guided missile) can be found at the Sub Force Museum standing next to the sail of the former USS George Washington SSBN-598 (Submersible Ship Ballistic Nuclear), the first of the Washington-class submarines and the world’s first ballistic missile boat. Packing sixteen of these missiles tipped with nuclear “large city killer” size warheads, this type of boat would soon come to be affectionately known as a “BOOMER” for obvious reasons. The “Cold War” turned into a “Deep Freeze” when Russian operatives reported to Moscow that the “Washington” had successfully completed the first submerged launch test of the Polaris A-1 on 20 July 1960. For the first time, the, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) and the we can’t counter it, if we can’t find it, theory’s really hit home, and kicked the Russian SLBM (Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile) program into high gear. The A-1 was 28’6” tall, weighed 28,800 pounds, and the solid fuel rocket engines on it’s two stages could throw a 720 pound, W47Y1, 600 kiloton yield, warhead 1,200 nautical miles with a half mile of accuracy. However, the Whiskey 47 warhead was considered too weak (the Nagasaki gravity bomb “Fat Man” was only 21kt) and the accuracy unacceptable for use against hardened targets, such as missile silos and command and control bunkers so we went and designed a “Gooder” system. GOD HELP US!

Posted and dedicated to all the men who served aboard USS Massachusetts, she never lost a man to combat action.

The A-3 Sky Warrior was designed and developed by Douglas Aircraft Corporation in the early 1950’s to meet US Navy requirements for a carrier based, jet powered, nuclear delivery capable, strategic bomber, just what the Navy was doing in the strategic bomber business is still a topic of much debate. At 76 feet 4 inches long with a 72 foot 6 inch wingspan and maximum take off weight of 82,000 pounds, she was dubbed the “Whale” and is the largest bird ever to CAT, TRAP or CRASH on any carrier (except those stupid C-130 tests) in any navy, ever! And she did it well, remaining in active naval service for THIRTY-FIVE years! (1956-1991). Since the Forrestal-class “Super carriers” (990 Feet AOL, 130 foot beam) would not all be at sea until 1959, she first flew from WWII Essex-class ships (872 feet AOL, 93 foot beam), 100 foot wide deck, 72 foot wing, you do the math. After fleet duty and who knows how many CLC’s (Carrier Landing Cycles) she was assigned to NATC/NAS Pax River (Naval Air Testing Center/ Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland) where she was emblazoned with the Big Red Stripe under her canopy, that means, HELLO, I am a Test Platform, I could have Spanky the chimp at the controls, or Nicola Teslas’s death ray in condition HR (Hot, Ready) on board, so BACK OFF! She was unceremoniously stricken from the Naval Register in February 1976 and donated to the Bradley Air Museum for permanent display. On 3 October 1979 a class F4 tornado, obviously mistaking the outdoor display of aircraft for a trailer park, touched down and did a Pearl Harbor to the museums collection. An irreplaceable, 110,000lb C-133 Cargomaster, 100,000lb C-124 Globemaster, and an 80,000lb Constellation (all empty weight) that were parked around her were flipped on their backs and ripped apart, of the 30 aircraft on display, only a Regulus Missile, a B-47 Stratojet, a B-57 Canberra, and this lucky “Whale” survived in display condition

When I first saw this A model Electra at the New England Air Museum, the sign stated that she was serial #1002 and listed Amelia Earhart’s E model as #1005, only three numbers away. Something did not seem correct, I turned to my life long bud and said “there ain’t no way they went from an Alpha to an Echo model in three airframe numbers in the original five ships, he replied “Right, Mr. Know-it-all”. According to the Lockheed website, 10, the first two digits in the serial number reference Model 10, the next numbers designate the airframe number, thus #1002 would be the second L-10 built, it is important to remember the builders airframe number, is not the same as the aircraft registration number. After some Internet mining, Amelia’s E ship airframe number came up as 1055SP (special). The major difference from the Alpha to the Echo ship was the engine up-grade from the Pratt & Whitney “Wasp Jr.” R-985-13, 450 hp radials, to the newer P&W “Wasp” R-1340-49, 600 hp mills, however Amelia’s one-off wore a pair of Pratt "Wasp" R-1340- S3H1 “air pushers” rated at 550 hp. The 985 and 1340 engine numbers reflect cubic inch displacement. The passenger area on her “Special” was dedicated to fuel tanks, and the bird was basically transformed into a flying gas can, which, if our military had any clue to the coming prowess of air power, quite probably could have evolved this L-10 configuration into the world’s first air tanker. Anyway this A model at the NEAM turned out to be #1052, three numbers from Amelia’s #1055SP E model, this aircraft was the personal air taxi of the SECNAV before being sold into civilian service post WWII. Enjoy the airbrush work!

How did a US Air Force bomber get named after Canberra, the capitol of Australia, you ask? (No, Sydney is not the capitol). During the early years of the Korean “Conflict” (War) the USAF was looking for a modern, all weather, close ground support aircraft to replace the ageing, WWII era, piston engine powered A-26 (A for Attack) bomber. So after spending 12.6 million of the taxpayers dollars to have Martin Aircraft develop the XA-45/XB-51 low level bombing and close support aircraft the bright boys at the Pentagon decided to dump it in favor of the English Electric Canberra, a British designed, high speed, high altitude, bomber, just what I would want if I was in the market for something to go in “low and slow” to strafe, drop bombs, and take recon photos. Martin Aircraft produced over 400 under license in the US as B-57 Canberra in about a dozen variations, however they never really worked for us, 58 of the 94 B models sent to Vietnam were lost there. The Brits on the other hand, using the aircraft as intended, kept them in RAF service for over 55 years, finally retiring them in 2006. This bird at the New England Air Museum is a photo-recon model with an early FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) detector mounted in the nose.

Like any other military force, the submarine arm of the IJN did not want to be left out of the “big game” at Pearl Harbor. On 18 November, 1941 a flotilla of five I-class, long range, fleet subs, modified with special cradles to “piggyback” these midgets subs, put to sea from Kure, Japan as part of a twenty-eight boat submersible force bound for Hawaiian waters. Under cover of darkness on “The Day of Infamy” the mother-ships released the five Type A’s close to the entrance channels of Pearl with orders to penetrate the harbor defenses, sink ships, and create as much chaos and mayhem as possible. Around 0600 the wheezing, old, WWI era, four stack destroyer, USS Ward (DD-139) responded to a periscope sighting report from a Navy tug and at 06:37 the modern (1916) 4”/50 #3 gun aboard Ward, ably manned by naval reservists, opened up, punching a four inch hole through the conning tower of the midget, sending her to the bottom. The first shots and confirmed sinking of an enemy vessel in the Pacific War, were from our side, well over an hour before the air attack began. Oddly enough the USS Ward went down on 7 December, 1944 off Leyte in the Philippines, exactly three years to the day later. Of course, the midget sinking report was ignored and the controversy not fully resolved until 2002, when the remains of the sub were located in 200 fathoms of water outside Pearl. Four of the five subs have been raised or located, the final resting place of the fifth is yet unknown.

There seems to be a lot of interest in the 5”/25 on Lionfish, so here’s a shot of the other side of the gun, this one is located at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, CT.

Every year thousands of Battleship Cove visitors walk by, snap pictures, and even sit down and train around this 5”/25 gun mounted on the deck of the SS-298 Lionfish, a WWII Balao class submarine on display there, but how many know the real story behind this gun. According to the Cove website when the “Fish” arrived in 1972 the 5” mount was not aboard and since she had been mothballed and recommissioned twice no one knew when and where the gun had been removed. They found a 3”gun and mount for her and bolted it on and started the search for this rare weapon. Twenty-eight years later a dedicated Lionfish volunteer attended a function, or maybe just stopped in for a “cold one” at the Norwich, CT VFW Post, and low and behold out front sits a 5”/25 MK40 Wet Mount Gun. A trade was worked out, and in 2001 a 5”gun was back aboard the Lionfish. Is it the original gun? No one is sure, she was decommissioned at Boston Navy Yard in 1953, pulled out again in 1960 and stationed at Providence, RI until struck from the Navy Register in 1971. The gun and mount weigh 7 tons so if it was pulled off in one of those locations it probably didn’t go to far.