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The technological face of United States naval power carried its own risks, even in peacetime. On May 23rd, 1939, the submarine USS Squalus submerged for a test dive off the New Hampshire coast and suffered a catastrophic failure in one of its main air and water systems. Seawater flooded aft compartments, sending the boat to the bottom in cold, dark water with part of the crew trapped inside.
At the dawn of a new century, American forces operating far from home faced a different kind of threat.
At Groton, Connecticut, the United States Navy stepped into a new era when USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, was commissioned on September 30th, 1954.
Off the New England coast, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher was conducting deep-diving tests when something went catastrophically wrong. Communications suggested trouble with systems and attempts to surface as the boat descended beyond its safe limits. Moments later, contact was lost, and later analysis pointed to flooding and a reactor shutdown that left the submarine unable to recover.
Lead ship of the Iowa class, with service in World War II, Korea, and the renewed battleship program of the 1980s.
On a winter day on the Potomac River in 1844, the brand-new steam warship USS Princeton hosted Washington dignitaries for a demonstration cruise. The pride of the ship was a massive naval gun nicknamed “Peacemaker,” intended to showcase the Navy’s technical skill and the promise of long-range, heavy artillery at sea.
USS Texas served from the Veracruz crisis through two world wars, fired in support of major amphibious operations, and survived as one of the most important preserved dreadnoughts.
The New York class introduced the 14-inch gun to American battleships and carried two ships from the dreadnought race through both world wars.
USS Arizona served in the U.S. battle fleet for twenty-five years before her destruction at Pearl Harbor. Her wreck and memorial now connect an individual ship, its crew, and the national memory of 7 December 1941.
USS Monitor served for only ten months, but her rotating turret, battle with CSS Virginia, loss at sea, and continuing archaeological conservation made her one of the most consequential warships of the nineteenth century.
A story of nuclear propulsion, undersea endurance, and how one boat reshaped the Cold War at sea.
A story of secret overflights, Cold War nerves, and the moment a “untouchable” spy plane finally fell from the sky.
The air over Balete Pass crackled with small-arms fire and the flat explosions of grenades. On the steep slope of Hill B, a narrow finger of ground jutting out above the zigzag road that threaded the Caraballo Mountains, five exhausted American infantrymen hugged the earth around a captured Japanese trench. It was 8 May 1945, deep in the Battle of Luzon, and Private First Class Anton L.
A story of high-tech American armor meeting Soviet-designed tanks in the desert and how it reshaped modern ground warfare.
A story of a jungle airstrip, thin lines of Marines and soldiers, and how local air power reshaped the Pacific war.
A story of street-to-street fighting, shattered assumptions, and how one city battle reshaped the Vietnam War.
A story of a winter surprise offensive and exhausted American units holding the line under crushing odds.
The first explosions rolled across Pearl Harbor like distant thunder, then slammed into the harbor with terrifying clarity. On the repair ship USS Vestal, moored outboard of the battleship USS Arizona, Commander Cassin Young felt his ship shudder as bombs found their mark up and down the fleet. Men sprinted for their battle stations, the air already thick with smoke, the rising whine of diving aircraft cutting throug