July 11, 2019

Reaching the Pinnacle: The Origin of Independent Duty Corpsmen (IDCs) in the U.S. Navy

On the night of April 17, 1918, the ammunition ship SS Florence "H" caught fire while moored in Quiberon Bay in the south coast of Brittany, France. As the ship's crew hurriedly pushed crates of smokeless powder off their decks the combustible cargo soon ignited unleashing a series of deadly explosions. In its wake was the sunken hull of the