In response to Ed Wittenberg’s query, and taken from Terzibaschitsch’s
_Curisers of the US Navy 1922-1962_:

MARBLEHEAD commissioned Sep 8, 1924, followed by a shakedown cruise to
England and the Med.
1925: cruise to Australia.
1927-8: surveillance of political events and elections in Nicaragua; then to
Shanghai with RICHMOND and TRENTON, operating on the Yangtze until
March 1928: sailed to Boston via Nicaragua.
8/28-1/33: operated along East Coast.
2/33-1/38: operated along West Coast.
1/38: detached to Asiatic Fleet, based at Cavite.
11/24/41: departed for Philippines with TF5.
12/7/41: in Philippines at outbreak of hostilities; convoy & patrol duty with
Dutch & Australian ships in Dutch East Indies.
1/42: covered withdrawl of Allied ships following attach on Japanese convoy
off Balikpapan.
2/4/42: badly damaged by 2 bombs, 15 killed, 34 injured.
2/13/42: began difficult passage with intermediate stop at Ceylon on 2/21,
where adequate repairs could not be carried out; left for South Africa.
3/24/42: arrived Simonstown; report work until
4/15/42: departed for East Coast USA.
5/4/42: refit at New York Navy Yard.
10/15/42: sent to South Atlantic Fleet; operations based on Recife & Bahia
until 2/44. Five months operations on convoy routes in North Atlantic, then
departure for Palermo, Sicily.
8/44: New York Navy Yard; began preparations 7/29/44 for landings in southern
France.
8/15-17/44: Fire support of landings then returned to USA; summer training
cruise with USNA midshipmen.
November 1, 1945: decommissioned.

So, she not only made it back, she stayed in the fight.

HTH,
John Snyder
John_Snyder@bbs.macnexus.org

This Week in Navy History: Feb. 17, 1776
The Continental Navy was put to sea on its first cruise.

-USN-

Status of the Navy: Feb. 18, 1998
Personnel:
388,439 active duty
55,519 officer
326,391 enlisted
4,027 midshipmen
202,057 civilians
219,733 Ready Reserve Force:
93,426 SELRES/125,984 IRR
Aircraft: 4,666
Ships: 348
Underway: 158 ships (46%)
Deployed: 107 ships (31%)
58,761 personnel
Exercises: 11
Carriers/Airwings at Sea:
USS Nimitz (CVW-9): in transit, Mediterranean
USS George Washington (CVN-73): SOUTHERN WATCH, Arabian Gulf
USS Independence (CVW-5) SOUTHERN WATCH, Arabian Gulf
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) COMPTUEX, west Atlantic
LHAs/LHDs/LPHs at Sea:
USS Peleliu/13th MEU: in transit, Pacific
USS Guam/24th MEU: in transit, Arabian Gulf
USS Belleau Wood: SOCEX 98-1, west Pacific
USS Essex: east Pacific
USS Tarawa: in transit, Pacific Ocean
USS Inchon: in transit, Gulf of Mexico
Ships assigned to Maritime Interception Operatons:
USS Young, USS Samuel B. Roberts
Other Exercises/Operations:
COUNTER DRUG OPS, east Pacific/Caribbean Sea
Information source: OPNAV Staff
-USN-

Tom Robison
Ossian, Indiana
tcrobi@adamswells.com
_|_
–X-X-(ô)-X-X–

Hello Folks!

I was recently asked if there is currently a vessel bearing the name of
the USS DEWEY.

Does anyone know the answer to this one??

Patrick McSherry

Mea culpa! I got my W___bergs confused. Teach me to send email after a
long day of grading midterms without the benefit of caffeine. My
apologies.

David Snyder
History Department, Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4236
(O): 409/862-1314 (H): 409/823-0715
das3050@pop.tamu.edu OR hokie@tamu.edu

Patrick McSherry wrote:
>
> Hello Folks!
>
> I was recently asked if there is currently a vessel bearing the name of
> the USS DEWEY.
>
> Does anyone know the answer to this one??
>
> Patrick McSherry

Patrick,

None currently on the Naval Vessel Register
(http://www.nvr.navy.mil). This is the data on ex-DDG 37

USS DEWEY (DDG-37)
Status: Disposed of by Navy sale
since: 04/15/1994
Builder: BATH IRON WKS CORP
Keel Date: 08/10/1957
Commission Date: 12/07/1959
Launch Date: 11/30/1958
Decommission Date: 08/31/1990
Custodian: SCHOOLS, ORGANIZATIONS AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISES

The Historic Naval Ships Association
(http://www.maritime.org/hnsa-guide.htm) doesn’t list Dewey so I don’t
know her custodian.

David Riley

**************************
Participate in the most “honor”able of hobbies
Join the Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA)
http://www.omsa.org

Does anyone have any knowledge of Ltjg. Donald E. Runyon? He was born
in 1913 so he may not be alive. My last contact with him was March 1944. He
was regular Navy so he may have stayed in after the war.

Just curious,

Glen Boren

“We get so soon old and so late smart” – – Sign in a hardware store
window, 1933, Manhattan Ks.

In the last few days, I been re-reading E.B. Potter and Chester Nimitz’s
work _Sea Power: A Naval History_. While reading the sections concerned
with World War I, a question occurred to me regarding German and
British capital ship design. Why, when it is apparent that German ship
design surpassed Britain in most categories (i.e. compartmentization,
distribution of armor, etc.) did Germany persist in using coal when
Great Britain, through conversion and new construction, had adopted
fuel-oil? Further, did the German High Seas Fleet ever deploy a capital
ship which used fuel-oil? Thanks in advance, Ed.

Edward Wittenberg
ewitten507@aol.com

P.S. As an aside, does anyone know whether any of the German ships
which were scuttled at Scapa Flow on June 21, 1919 and later salvaged
served in either the Royal Navy or USN as part of the battle line?

From TheHistoryNet Newsletter:

* USS Laffey’s Pacific Ordeal **
Picket duty some 30 miles north of Okinawa proved to be a
harrowing experience for the crew of USS Laffey. On April 16,
1945, her third day on station, the American destroyer was
attacked by 22 Japanese planes.

http://thehistorynet.com/WorldWarII/articles/1998/0398_cover.htm

Tom Robison
Ossian, Indiana
tcrobi@adamswells.com
_|_
–X-X-(ô)-X-X–

Service life may perhaps be considered as dating from Commissioning,
but my impression is that Operational life could start several weeks
or months later. AFAIK Commissioning is not equivalent to the RN
Completion which is handover from shipbuilder to the navy.

So US carrier Operational lives could be even shorter than shown.

Ian Buxton

>
> In looking up the histories of certain Aircraft Carriers of WWII
> vintage, I discovered that the USS Bismark Sea CVE-95 was commissioned on
> 20 May 1944 and sunk in battle on 21 Feb 1945 for a total service life of 9
> months and 1 day.
>
> The USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 was commissioned 28 Dec 1943 and sunk in
> battle 25 October 1944 for a total service life of 9 months and 27 days.
>
> Two questions,
>
> 1. Does anyone know of any Aircraft Carrier with a shorter lifespan in
> combat than these ?
>
> 2. Any idea on which combat ship, regardless of type or size, that had
> the shortest lifespan being lost in combat during WWII ?
>
>
> Glen Boren
>

**********************************************************
Dr Ian L Buxton Dept of Marine Technology
Reader in Marine Transport University of Newcastle
Phone +44 191 222 6712 Newcastle upon Tyne
Fax +44 191 222 5491 NE1 7RU U K
E-mail i.l.buxton@newcastle.ac.uk

US War Plan Red covered possible conflict with Britain (Red and hues
thereof for
other parts of the empire: Scarlet, Ruby, etc). US Army planners argued that
Britain might intervene in a US-Japan (Blue-Orange) conflict because USN plans
to blockade Japan would inevitably cause losses to neutral shipping. The Army
hoped for a 4.6 million-man army to subdue Canada. The USN predicted Canada
would simply declare neutrality. The USN gave it lip service as War Plan
Red-Orange until 1930, then effectively ignored it. War Plan Red was cancelled
in 1939.

For Canada’s current (1998!) preparations to invade the USA, such the build up
of a huge
guerrilla army all along the northern border, see
http://www.neptunenet.com/antican/.

> > I seem to
> >recall reading, years ago, that as late as 1915, both British and American
> >naval dons were still working diligently on war plans aimed at
likelihood of
> >fighting one another!
>
> Uh … this planning was extremely hectic on both sides of the Great Puddle
> in ’19, ’20, and ’21. For a while, it looked like a UK-Japanese-Italian
> alliance would be scarfing it up with a US-French alliance, a development
> subvented by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. See the first volume of
> Roskill’s NAVAL POLICY BETWEEN THE WARS for details.