10 May 1986 – 20 September 2008
Continue reading “Remembering CTM3 Matthew J. O’Bryant — KIA in Islamabad, Pakistan, during the terrorist bombing of the Marriott Hotel.”
The steel decks of the battleship USS NEW MEXICO trembled beneath the thunder of war. Across the blood-soaked waters off Okinawa in the spring of 1945, death came screaming from the sky in the form of Japanese kamikaze aircraft—pilots on one-way missions of destruction. Amid the chaos, deep within the nerve center of Admiral Spruance’s flagship, one young American Sailor listened intently to the enemy.
Continue reading “Remembering RM1c Walter L. Rougeux, Katakana Intercept Operator, KIA”
On March 25, 1985, the Naval Security Group Activity Misawa, Japan lost one of its most valuable members, and Misawa Air Base lost a trusted and respected pillar in the base community – Master Chief Petty Officer Robert E. Hall, United States Navy – our Command Master Chief. He died of an apparent heart attack.
Continue reading “Remembering NSGA Misawa’s Command Master Chief (CTTCM) Robert E Hall”
Communist attacks on the destroyer USS Maddox (DD 731) in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 and the killing of American service personnel in South Vietnam later in the year and in early 1965 convinced American military leaders that the outbreak of war was imminent. It was apparent that rather than buckling under U.S. military pressure, Hanoi had decided to take the offensive. CINCPAC noted in March 1965 a “shift of communist tactics” intended to “bring about the disengagement of the U.S. in South Vietnam.” In a prescient statement, Admiral Sharp concluded that the North Vietnamese felt that “if they can kill Americans, harass U.S. personnel, and destroy U.S. facilities the American people will, in time, become so tired of the war that we will abandon our efforts there.”
Continue reading “Preparations for War in Southeast Asia, 1965”
In the late hours of May 1, 2011, a quiet garrison town in Abbottabad became the stage for one of the most consequential covert operations in modern military history. Known as Operation Neptune Spear, the mission ended a nearly decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden—the architect of the September 11 attacks—and reshaped the global fight against terrorism.
Continue reading “Operation Neptune Spear: The Night the Hunt Ended”
Originally posted in 2020:
Last week, I came across an announcement that Scott O’Grady had been nominated by President Trump to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. When I heard the news, I was transported back to my junior officer days in the mid-1990’s. If you were alive and old enough at the time, you probably remember Scott O’Grady. He came to International attention in June 1995 when the F-16 he was piloting was shot down over Bosnia. Back in those days, Scott O’Grady was an Air Force junior officer enforcing the no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the American contingent supporting of NATO’s Operation DENY FLIGHT.
Station HYPO 