Category Archives: History

History – Rift leaves hundreds of planes in world's bodies of water

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Virginian Pilot – The aluminum carcasses of crashed aircraft at the bottom of Lake Michigan ñ and other wrecks across the world ñ are also at the heart of a clash between two Navy agencies with different ideas on how best to preserve the wrecks. Officials with the National Museum of Naval Aviation want to retrieve the planes and put them on display.
But archaeologists with the Naval Historical Center in Washington, which claims ownership of all Navy aircraft and ship wrecks, believe the treasures may be better left alone.
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History – Dong Xoai: Seabees Earn a Special Place in Combat History

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Sea Power – Seabee involvement during the Vietnam conflict began as part of a humanitarian effort assisting refugees emigrating from the north to the south, in response to the 1954 Geneva Convention agreements recognizing Ho Chi Minhís communist government. The June 9, 1965, ambush at Dong Xoai, 55 miles north of Saigon, is particularly important because the first Medal of Honor given to a Seabee, Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Marvin G. Shields, was bestowed for extreme valor during the assault.

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History – During Battle of the Philippine Sea, Submarines Scored Big

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Sea Power – The first day of ìThe Battle of the Philippine Sea,î June 19, 1944, is also remembered as the day of the ìGreat Marianas Turkey Shoot,î a day that cost the Japanese more than 300 aircraft (See June Sea Power). While this date is well noted in naval aviation chronicles, it is also a milestone in the annals of the submarine force for entirely different reasons.

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History – Combined Action Program: Marines' Alternative to Search and Destroy

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Vietnam Magazine – Search-and-destroy operations in Vietnam failed as a working doctrine, and the strategy of attrition cost the needless deaths of thousands of American service personnel. That policy was based on principles the United States had employed in previous conventional wars, using superior American mobility and firepower to seize the initiative and inflict heavy losses on enemy units. The American policy and strategy during the Vietnam War should have been the pacification of the villages and hamlets, resulting in the destruction of the Viet Cong and their infrastructure. That could have been accomplished by the “clear-and-hold” tactics that the Marine Corps favored, using combined action platoons (CAPs).

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