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It’s official, first four LCSs headed to “Red Lead Row.” Why not Blow Row?
As we have talked about previously, the first flight littoral combat ships (Freedom, Independence, Fort Worth, and Coronado) have been deemed too beta to be upgraded enough for regular fleet use. In a...
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Warship Wednesday, July 8, 2020: Service Guarantees Citizenship
Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their...
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Taking the tube
The U.S. Navy’s early Plunger-class (SS-2) submarines were small. What we would consider midget submarines today. Submarine Boat Plunger 1905 L.H. Nelson Company news photo NYPL collection When Teddy...
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Cammies, KA-bars and GSDs
“Marine War Dog and Handler, Vietnam, circa 1970” Note the kennels in the background with the sandbagged roof. From the Craig Spraggins Collection (COLL/4154) at the Marine Corps History Division Of...
View ArticleThe Gun Writing World is Diminished
Jeff Quinn– the gun writer not the current and much younger Notre Dame coach of the same name– has reportedly passed. Every year, I enjoyed bumping into Jeff at SHOT Show and NRA Show. He was most...
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The road to Daegu
This original color photo shows the crew of an M-24 Chaffee light tank along the Naktong River front in largely DPRK-occupied South Korea. Note the sign to Daegu. NARA FILE#: 111-C-6061 On the ground...
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BBQ…swords?
Today the term “BBQ Gun” floats around for those who utilize a nice or customized handgun for some sort of open carry, be they a small-town sheriff ala Longmire style or just someone who likes to...
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Sun’s out, guns out
Resistance fighters with the French Forces of the Interior armbands meet up with curious recently arrived American troops on the beach in the Saint Tropez area during Operation Dragoon landings along...
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The last surface action of World War II
While the daring overnight anti-shipping raid in July 1945 by the nine American destroyers of DesRon 61in Tokyo Bay, an action remembered today as the Battle of Sagami Bay, is largely seen as the last...
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General Order of a Sentry, No. 5
Faithful Unto Death, by Edward Poynter, 1865, via the Walker Art Gallery in London, where it is on display. On what was believed by many to be the night of 24/25 August in AD 79, Italy’s Mount Vesuvius...
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Warship Wednesday Aug 26, 2020: Hazard Pay
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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Happy 151st, Herr Lerch, err, Lerch-San
In Japan today is a 100~ strong Alpine-style skiing club named Lerch no Kai, or the Society of Lerch in honor of one Theodor Edler von Lerch, late a general officer in the Imperial and Royal Army of...
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The power of Bangalore compels you!
“A sapper assigned to 54th Brigade Engineer Battalion, operating in support of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, clears a mine with a bangalore torpedo during...
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Yamamoto’s giant realized
“Seaman Paul Gray rides a Japanese bicycle in Tokyo, Japan. Photographed by Lieutenant Wayne Miller, September 1945.” National Archives Photo 80-G-473728 (TR-15480)
View ArticleMeet Sgt. Maj. Thomas P. Payne, MOH
From the DOD & the White House: On September 11, 2020, President Donald J. Trump will award the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Major Thomas P. Payne, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry while...
View ArticleTesting the Bhojpure
Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria has been cleaning and testing a relic Bhojpure kukri (khukuri) from the large collection of original 19th century Nepalese Government military stores that IMA and...
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Vale, Capt. Groom
He may have been born in D.C. but Winston Francis Groom Jr. was a true “Son of the South,” having graduated from UMS-Wright Military Academy and then the University of Alabama before spending much of...
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A guy walks into a bar with a Cessna
Saturday night, September 29, 1956: While sitting at his local watering hole–Joe’s Bar on St. Nicholas Avenue and 191st Street in NYC– having a drink and laughing with friends, Thomas Fitzpatrick, a...
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Ayo Gorkhali
Field Marshal Viscount Slim, who had plenty of experiences in which Gurkhas saved his bacon, in his Unofficial History, said, “The Almighty created in the Gurkhas an ideal infantryman, indeed an ideal...
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Shaken, not stirred
He passed in his sleep at his home in the Bahamas at age 90 Saturday. Not a bad way to go for an old salt. While we have talked about the (short) naval career of Sir Thomas Sean Connery in the past...
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