National Museum of the United States Navy

02/20/2021

Naval History & Heritage Command

Naval History & Heritage Command

On #NationalLoveYourPetDay we celebrate our pets, big or small, furry or fluffy, we love them all!

On this Holiday we focus on giving our furry best friend extra pets, possibly treats, and all the love. The U.S. Navy has a long history of supporting a special kind of furry mascot whether out to sea or on land.

Click the link below to see an extensive list of hard-working (or hardly working...?) good boys and girls in the Navy.

02/19/2021

The #NMUSN honors the trailblazing career of Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr., the first African American to achieve flag rank in the United States Navy!

Gravely’s nearly 40 year career in the Navy spanned three major conflicts – World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War – in which he distinguished himself as a leader. He was the first African American to command a combatant ship and a naval fleet, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery upon his death in 2004. In 2010, the destroyer USS Gravely (DDG-107) was commissioned in his honor.

Join the Naval History and Heritage Command this April in celebrating the 50th anniversary of Admiral Gravely's achievement of becoming the Navy's first African American flag officer!

#TrailBlazer #BlackHistoryMonth #50thAnniversary #NHHC #NavyReadiness

Photograph: Captain Gravely is shown speaking at the ceremony marking his promotion to flag rank on board USS Jouett (DLG-29) at San Diego, California, 2 June 1971. Prior to his promotion to Rear Admiral, Captain Gravely was Jouett's Commanding Officer [U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command photograph, catalog #: NH 96777].

02/19/2021

The first U.S. Navy ship to be named for an African American was USS Harmon (DE-678), laid down in May 1943.

Mess Attendant 1st Class Leonard Roy Harmon was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his noble actions on 13 November 1942. While serving on USS San Francisco during the Battle of Guadalcanal, the ship was heavily struck by Japanese gunfire. MAtt1c Harmon courageously cared for and evacuated the wounded during the attack. He intentionally shielded Pharmacist's Mate Lynford Bondsteel from flying debris, ultimately sacrificing his life for the welfare of his shipmates. #LeonardHarmon #BlackHistoryMonth #NavyCross #NavyReadiness #NMUSN #NHHC

Learn more about MAtt1c Harmon and USS Harmon's WWII service here! https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/h/harmon.html

Image: Poster featuring Mess Attendant Harmon and USS Harmon (DE-678), which was named in his honor. The poster features the text of his Navy Cross award citation and a representation of the Navy Cross medal. [U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command photograph, catalog #NH 69652]

02/18/2021

Mark your calendars!

Rosie the Riveter Look-a-Like Contest
March 20, 2021 | 12:00 PM—1:00 PM. Virtual Program – Facebook Premier

Applications accepted beginning Monday, February 15, 2021 through Friday, March 19, 2021

In celebration of March “Women’s History Month,” the museum is celebrating with a “Rosie the Riveter” look-a-like contest. Rosie the Riveter wasn’t a real person but an allegorical cultural icon of World War II representing the women who worked in factories and shipyards during the war effort. Many of these women produced munitions and war supplies. Rosie’s image appeared everywhere and was used as a symbol of American feminism and women's economic advantage. Even today the name and image of Rosie the Riveter denotes female activism, determination and entrepreneurship.

CONTEST RULES: Email us a photo of yourself in your best “Rosie the Riveter,” look. In addition to the photo, send a short paragraph on the impact “Rosie the Riveter” had in America during World War II and what her legacy means today.

Send your submissions to our education dept. via: [email protected]

On March 20, 2021, the museum will announce the contest winners by reading the top three essays and showing the photos that go with them. The announcement will be made via Facebook Premier.

This pre-recorded Facebook Premier program will be broadcast on the NMUSN page on the date and time indicated above. If anyone has any problems accessing the museum's page, please send an email to [email protected]

02/18/2021

Out of a date which will live in infamy, came Petty Officer Third Class Doris “Dorie” Miller.

Following his initial training at Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Va., Miller received assignment as a mess attendant, one of the few ratings available to African Americans at that time.

On 7 Dec. 1941, Miller was serving aboard USS West Virginia stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Despite having no formal training, Miller courageously operated an anti-aircraft gun and fired on the attacking Japanese planes. In addition to combatting the enemy attack, he also attended other wounded sailors. For his gallant actions, Miller became the first African American sailor to be awarded the Navy Cross.

In addition to the Navy Cross, Miller was awarded the Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal and the WWII Victory Medal. For a complete biography and a transcript of his naval service, see:
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/biographies-list/bios-m/miller-doris.html

But there is yet another honor bestowed on Miller, USS Miller (FF-1091), originally (DE-1091) was a Knox-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy commissioned on 30 June 1973. She served with distinction until being decomissioned in the 1990s. Now we await the completion of USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), a future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier.

Images:

A photograph of Mess Attendant Second Class Doris Miller just after Adm. Chester W. Nimitz presented him with the Navy Cross. Photograph taken on board Enterprise (CV-6) while at anchor in Pearl Harbor, T.H., on 27 May 1942. U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-408456, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Mrs. Henrietta Miller (mother of Doris Miller), sponsor for USS Miller attending 1973 commissioning ceremony at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. NARA.

Miller underway off Cape Henry, Va., on 20 May 1974. (U.S. Navy photograph K-103414, NARA.

Artist's impression of a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier. Courtesy of the Dept. of Defense.

02/17/2021

Naval History & Heritage Command

If you didn't get enough at today's Brown Bag Briefing, here's an Artifact Spotlight.

Join the Naval History and Heritage Command as we Spotlight interesting and unique artifacts from the collection of the US Navy. Recognition Models were used by the Navy to teach Sailors ship characteristics, to learn friend from foe.
https://bit.ly/34zzZzB

02/17/2021

Brown Bag Brief: Moving Toward Racial Integration in the Navy, 1942-1945

Historian Dr. Regina Akers from the Naval History & Heritage Command answers some questions about the process of integrating the United States Navy.

02/16/2021

Chancellor Alphonse "Pete" Tzomes had an extraordinary career in the Navy. In 1983 he became the first African American to command a nuclear-powered submarine. This month in 1969 he reported to blue crew aboard USS Will Rogers (SSBN 659). His shore duty included five different stations, he received four awards, and multiple campaign ribbons.

#BlackHistoryMonth #NavyHistory #NavyReadiness #CentennialSeven

02/15/2021

Which POTUS did you guess?

John F. Kennedy commanded a motor torpedo boat that was run over by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands; despite being a sitting member of Congress, Lyndon B. Johnson was briefly stationed in New Zealand and Australia; Richard Nixon supervised air cargo operations; Gerald Ford served as an aircraft carrier’s assistant navigator; Jimmy Carter attended the Naval Academy (and became a submariner after the war); and George H.W. Bush flew 58 combat missions, including one in which he was shot down over the Pacific.

In, fact, no president had ever served in the Navy until World War II. And then service at sea practically turned into a prerequisite for reaching the White House for a few decades.
But POTUS 40 did not shirk from duty. Starting in 1937, Ronald Reagan served first in the Army Enlisted Reserves before transferring to the Army Air Force in 1942. He was separated from active duty in Dec. 1945.

#USN #history #Trivia #Presidents #POTUS

Image: Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan aboard an American boat in California, 14 August 1964.Released by the Reagan Library, US National Archives.

02/15/2021

How about a little President’s Day trivia?

The #USNavy has the unofficial motto #ForgedByTheSea and has produced many notable leaders. In fact, only one of the seven presidents from 1961-1993 was not a Navy man. Can you correctly name who?

#USN #history #Trivia #Presidents #POTUS

*all images classified for reuse.

***Yes. This is a little throwback post from last summer because who remembers what day of the week it is anymore.

02/14/2021

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who famously called from his flagship USS Hartford to “Damn the torpedoes!...Full Speed Ahead!” during the American Civil War, wrote a loving letter to his wife on 04 August 1864 while on board USS Hartford. The letter reads:

My dearest Wife,

I write and leave this letter for you. I am going into Mobile Bay in the morning if "God is my leader" as I hope he is, and in him I place my trust, if he thinks it is the proper place for me to die I am ready to submit to his will, in that as all other things. My great mortification is that my vessels, the Iron clads were not ready to have gone in yesterday. The army landed last night and are in full view of us this morning and the Tecumseh has not yet arrived from Pen-sacola.

God bless and preserve you my darling and my dear boy, if anything should happen to me - and may his blessings also rest up-on your dear mother and all your sisters and their children.

Your devoted and affection-ate husband, who never for one moment forgot his love, duty, or fidelity - to you his devoted and best of wives.

Very truly yours
/s/ D.G. Farragut

#ValentinesDay #Love #Duty #LetterHome #NMUSN

02/13/2021

STEAM Saturday: Steam Power and Robert Smalls

Join our educator Mike Galloway to learn about steam power, the early ships that used it, and some extraordinary stories that go along with it! Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.

#NMUSN #STEAM #SteamSaturday #Virtual #RobertSmalls

02/12/2021

Dang, Devil Dog! Why you got to play a sailor like that?

Here's hoping you have a happy Valentine's Day.

Image courtesy of the USMC Museum

#valentine #valentinesday2021 #usmc #sailor #usnavy #shoreleave

02/12/2021

Don't forget that special shipmate!

Shipmates, Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Here are a few "digital postcards" to send home to your sweetheart or to give you the inspiration to make your own. 😉

02/12/2021

The last of the US Navy's flying aircraft carriers crashed #OTD in 1935. The loss of airship USS Macon (ZRS 5) ended the Navy's involvement in lighter-than-air technology and using the vehicles as carriers for aircraft scouting.

Naval History & Heritage Command, Underwater Archaeology Branch works with NOAA to preserve this wreck. Check back soon as we unveil some exciting exhibit updates as we place material about USS Macon on display in our museum!

Megan Lickliter-Mundon, a researcher with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, explains the special solution a girder from the wreck of the rigid airship USS Macon (ZRS 5) soaks in to conserve it. The artifact was brought to Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology and Conservation Laboratory to study the effects of 80 years at 1,500 feet under the Pacific Ocean. Macon crashed Feb. 12, 1935 during a storm off Point Sur, Calif., ending the Navy's program of rigid airship operations. (NHHC Photo Archives Identifier: USS Macon 150827-N-TH437-003 - 4)

02/11/2021

In just under one hour learn an intriguing American Civil War personal story from our historian and curator Gordon Calhoun. You can register ahead of time for this Zoom webinar from our partners at New Bedford Whaling Museum! We hope to see you there!

#NavyHistory #AmericanCivilWar #WilliamPritchardRandall #BattleofHamptonRoads

William Pritchard Randall (1832-1904), the subject of tonight's #LocalHistoryGuild discussion, was the son of New Bedford whaling agent George Randall and Martha Sturtevant Randall. William graduated from Philips Academy in 1846 and made three whaling voyages from New Bedford before joining the US Navy in 1861. He was appointed acting master of the USS Cumberland, a heavy sloop of war. William gained fame during the Battle of Hampton Roads when he refused to surrender, taking over the firing of one of the ship’s pivot guns as it sank. The Cumberland was rammed by the Merrimac (CSS Virginia) on March 8, 1862, and sank with the loss of 121 men. Randall was promoted for his actions and given command of a gunboat, the USS Port Royal in support of McClellan on the James River. He rose through the ranks and was honorably discharged as a volunteer in 1865. He was admitted to the Navy in 1866. He had a long career and was made full commander after his retirement in 1904. Learn more tonight beginning at 6 pm on Zoom. Register for this free event at http://ow.ly/hQcW50Dx5mm .
AHA! New Bedford #dnbinc #whalingmuseum National Museum of the United States Navy

02/09/2021

"the only master I have now is the Constitution,"

So many of the best stories are the ones we share from our lived experience.

Please enjoy this priceless treasure from the Navy Dept. Library, The Diary of Michael Shiner Relating to the History of the Washington Navy Yard 1813-1869 .

https://www.history.navy.mil/.../diary-of-michael-shiner...

#BlackHistoryMonth #livedexperience #michaelshiner #Washingtonnavyyardhistory #Warof1812 #strike1835

The Diary of Michael Shiner Relating to the History of the Washington Navy Yard 1813-1869
“Reflecting on his hard won freedom, he once stated emphatically, "the only master I have now is the Constitution," and when asked to describe himself, he answered, "I am a laboring man in the paint-shop in the Washington navy-yard." Today Michael G. Shiner is famous for his diary chronicling events at the Washington Navy Yard and the District of Columbia from 1813 to 1869. Among the diary's better known passages are Michael Shiner's accounts of the War of 1812, the 1833 abduction of his family by slave dealers and the strike of 1835. In Michael Shiner's lifetime (1805-1880) few if any of his acquaintances or family knew of his diary.”
Click the link below to learn more about Michael Shiner and his diary.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/d/diary-of-michael-shiner.html
#michaelshiner #Washingtonnavyyardhistory #Warof1812 #strike1835

02/08/2021

Master Chief April Beldo is a pioneer that knows her history and nods to the trailblazers that came before her.

Learn more about her proud service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0oHpY7vH2w

#BlackHistoryMonth #trailblazer #usn #history #navyreadiness

02/07/2021

So we hear there's a big football game today.

#SuperBowl

02/07/2021

Naval History & Heritage Command

💥Calling all “Boomer” families:

In March the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum, Home of Historic Ship Nautilus SSN 571 will be featuring the anchor date of the Navy’s Strategic Deterrence program. In the Submarine Force, this translates to the Ballistic Missile Submarines – or “Boomers”. As part of this overall story, the Museum wants to tell about family experiences while their loved one was out on deterrence patrol.

If you would like to tell your story, please send the Submarine Force Museum an email sharing your experiences. The Museum will post these stories during the last two weeks of March.

To send your submission, send an e-mail to [email protected] Please have all submissions sent in before March 1st!

02/07/2021

Puppies!!!

Did youever wish you could take your dog to work?

Send in the Dog 🐕

#Marines with Marine Raider Support Group execute beach landing detection during the Special Operations Capabilities Specialist D (Multi-Purpose Canine Handler) Level 1 training course in Camp Pendleton, Calif., Jan. 6, 2021. The students learn amphibious techniques during the first week which provides basic waterborne capabilities and prepares them for the rest of the amphibious operations conducted during the course. The level 1 course familiarizes the students and dogs with visit board search and seizure operations, zodiac boats, amphibious operations (water entry/exit, scout swimming techniques), distance swimming and helocasting.

02/05/2021

#OTD 1854, the dedication of the first chapel built on Naval property was held at Annapolis, Md.

The third and current Naval Academy Chapel is a focal point of the Academy. It is a Beaux-Arts structure by architect Ernest Flagg, who based on the design of Hotel des Invalides in Paris, France. The chapel is an important feature which led to the Academy being designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Traditionally, new third-class midshipmen become "Youngsters" when they sight the chapel dome upon returning from their summer cruise.

Learn more:
https://www.usna.edu/Chaplains/virtualTour/main_chapel.php

Images:
Three phases of USNA Chapel construction from an American Architect and Building News article from July, 1908 describing the newly rebuilt Academy. [It shows] the Chapel being constructed c. 1905.

[This] photo is from a midshipman's scrapbook and shows the 1929 project to remove the original terra-cotta dome and replace it with copper. The photo was probably taken from Bancroft Hall.

The last photograph was taken [autumn, 2019] and shows progress on the current round of Chapel renovations which will include the replacement of the current copper dome. The nave was extended about 150 feet in 1939, which is why the 1907 photo and the 2019 photo look slightly different. Photos courtesy of United States Naval Academy.