My collection has many examples of the various classes of US heavy cruisers. Almost all are painted in the camouflage patterns they actually carried at some time during World War Two. The US Navy called the patterns “measures”. Lower measure numbers date from earlier in the war. By 1944 the measure 31-32-33 series was being … More My Models US WWII heavy cruisers
I just had an item I wrote published on the US Naval Institute blog. https://www.navalhistory.org/2019/01/10/heroes-in-camouflage It’s not the first tie I ever had an item featured on-line, but it feels good to know that someone else appreciated what you’ve done enough to share it with their viewers. It was a good day all around, with … More A Good Feeling
I used to have models of the US battleships that served in WWII. When I got the bug about painting them in camouflage colors it led me to research which ships carried what patterns. I got a lot of enjoyment out of both the research and the painting.
I once had almost all the warships that fought in the Russo-Japanese War’ The Russians can be divided into sub-groups. The following groups comprised the Russian First Pacific Squadron at the start of the war. Group i are the 2 ships that were at Chemulpo when the war started Group 2 are the cruisers and … More My Models – Russian fleet from Russo-Japanese War
There are several Merchant Marine Academies in the US. Graduates of these institutions can accept a naval reserve officers commission if they so choose. When I was on active duty around 1970 my ship played host to a pair of midshipmen from the Maine Maritime Academy. The idea was to have them serve aboard a … More The Maine Midshipmen Caper
When I was in the US Navy there was considerable worry about potential conflict with the Soviet Union. The Red Fleet had the largest number of submarines of any power in the world at that time. It’s not surprising to find that the USN devoted a lot of time and training to fighting submarines. One … More A Visit to Norway
While assigned to the service force support group for the Sixth Fleet we had only a few opportunities to work with other supply ships. Usually, our tanker might team up with a stores ship. While we pumped fuel oil to other ships they would send over loads of food and similar items by high line … More A Near Miss
I did not get along well with the Captain of the Nantahala. There were probably a few others who also suffered as I did. But I thought that he reserved his worst for me because I was Jewish. This is an example from when we were assigned to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. The … More Because I Say So.
When a naval officer is transferred to a new ship or station there is a social protocol for making a formal call on the captain and the next senior officer in the chain of command. It is a formality, but it has roots in a very practical approach to making the newly arrived officer and … More Formal Calls – made and returned
In a previous post I told about being aground because of the captain/ This time there was some damage, but no one was hurt. It was also purely the fault of the captain, and no one else. The story started with our ship being one of two oilers supporting combined exercises between the US Navy … More A Collission!
Wetherhorn 