Editors Picks

By Jeffrey Bowdoin, Curator Branch Head, Naval History and Heritage Command USS Comfort (AH 6) Pennant (NHHC 2019.075.005): This pennant is from the former USS Comfort (AH 6), the second of three hospital ships to bear that name. The Curator Branch collects a wide variety of material to include rare …

By MC3 Randy Adams, NHHC On April 20, 1974, President Richard Nixon established National Volunteer week to offer appreciation for the great work of volunteers and call for more citizens to give back to their communities. In presidential proclamation 4288 Nixon stated, “I urge all Americans to observe that week …

By: Samuel J. Cox RADM, USN (retired)Director of Naval History, Curator for the NavyDirector, Naval History and Heritage Command It is with deep regret I inform you of the passing of Rear Admiral Edward Lewis “Whitey” Feightner on April 1, 2020, at age 100. Feightner enlisted in the Navy’s Aviation …

Editor’s note: this blog was originally published in the Navy Live blog. By André B. Sobocinski, Historian, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery On March 18, President Trump announced Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and Comfort (T-AH-20) were to be activated and deployed stateside to serve as referral centers …

Compiled by Brent Hunt, Naval History and Heritage Command’s Communication and Outreach Division Welcome to Navy History Matters—our weekly compilation of articles, commentaries, and blogs related to history and heritage. Every week we’ll gather the top-interest items from a variety of media and social media sources and then link you …

By Guy Nasuti, Historian, Naval History & Heritage Command On the night of March 28-29, 1945 (LOVE-Day minus three), amphibious assault ship LSM(R)-188 conducted an aggressive harassment patrol only eight miles off the town of Naha, Okinawa Jima. At 0557 on March 29, Japanese suicide dive-bombers appeared overhead, and the crew …

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Mutis A. Capizzi, Naval History and Heritage Command Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) hosted Mrs. Ima Black, widow of the Navy’s first Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Delbert Black, for a tour of the National Museum of the United States Navy …

By: Samuel J. Cox RADM, USN (retired)Director of Naval History, Curator for the NavyDirector, Naval History and Heritage Command A note from the editor: Donald Stratton, who served in the Navy aboard USS Arizona (BB 39) during the attacks at Pearl Harbor, and later in the Western Pacific, passed away February …

By Benjamin Ioset In early January 2020, I and many of my fellow archaeologists gathered in Boston, Massachusetts for the 2020 Society for Historical Archaeology meetings. For myself, and some of my fellow graduate students from Texas A&M University’s Nautical Archaeology Program, this presented a potential opportunity to visit USS …

Naval History and Heritage Command’s Communication and Outreach Division The Battle of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945 as Sailors and Marines faced Imperial Japanese forces over the control of the island. The island was a critical point for the United States as it planned their attacks on the …