fiction

How Do You Know You Are Ready for Battle?

By Admiral Charles Richard, U.S. Navy (Retired)

“Man Battle Stations! Dong Dong
Dong Dong! Man Battle Stations!”

Everyone who has served on board a ship, submarine, or squadron can remember being jolted out of the rack by that announcement, knowing almost instinctively what to do. For most, that knowledge never leaves. More than 20 years later, I am still pretty confident I could execute the Battle-stations Firing Point Litany in Control on board a submarine, at least as it was at the time, from any watch station in the room. I don’t think I’m unusual.

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6 December 2025 1

Remembering The NSGA Kamiseya Fire

By Jack Jones

In the early morning hours of Sept. 24, 1965, I sprawled face-down, struggling to breathe after scaling and leaping from the top of a tall, barbed wire-tipped fence behind the U.S. Naval Security Group operations building in Kamiseya, Japan. About a dozen of my shipmates crawled and wandered in dazed confusion around me.

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24 September 2025 3

The Only Medal of Honor the Government Kept Secret

“He kept fighting despite his painful wounds, continuing to repel the attack until his position was overrun. When last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers,” according to his Medal of Honor citation.

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28 March 2025 2