Happy Birthday, Navy!

Oct. 13, 2019

Since today is the U.S. Navy’s 244th birthday, I figured I’d share some pictures of my mom from her navy days and some history.

My mom was a wave in the navy back in the day. I have other photos, but I can’t find them, so this will have to do!

And some facts/history…

• The U.S. Navy was established October 13, 1775.

Pirate Problem

The United States Navy originated over 240 years ago as the Continental Navy. The then Continental Congress authorized 2 armed vessels to search for ships supplying the British army with weapons and ammunition during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

When the war ended, the Continental Navy was dismantled, but pirate threats to American merchant shipping led President George Washington to establish the Naval Act of 1794, creating a permanent standing US Navy.

Naval Celebration

The day is mainly celebrated by personnel, veterans, or other people related to the navy. Usually, it is marked with a Navy Birthday Ball with a formal dinner, birthday cake, and entertainment.https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/navy-birthday

Some things you may not know…

All submariners are volunteers.

Most attack submarines in the U.S. Navy are 33-feet wide and about the length of a football field. Ballistic missile submarines are the length of the Washington Monument. Submarines stay submerged for months at a time. There are no windows, there is no night and day, you have fifteen square feet of living space and no privacy—and there’s a nuclear reactor right behind you. They don’t just let anyone in a submarine. All submariners are volunteers, and have passed rigorous psychological and physical tests. Claustrophobics need not apply. Those serving on submarines are among the most highly trained personnel in the military.

How does the Navy name its ships?

In 1819, the United States Congress placed the Secretary of the Navy in charge of naming ships—a power he or she still enjoys. Generally, names are compiled by the Naval Historical Center based on the suggestions from the public, sailors, and retirees, and from naval history. The Chief of Naval Operations formally signs and recommends the list to the Secretary. Ships named for individuals are christened by “the eldest living female descendent” of that individual. Commissioned ships are prefixed with USS, which stands for United States Ship. Though the convention had been in use since the late eighteenth century, it was not standardized or formalized until 1907, by Teddy Roosevelt.

The Navy SEAL Trident is sometimes called the “Budweiser.”

The trident worn on the uniforms of Navy SEALs is officially designated as the “Special Warfare Insignia,” but it is sometimes called the “Budweiser,” named in part for the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) course, the grueling twenty-five week special warfare school. The trident also has an uncanny resemblance to the Anheuser-Busch logo.

You’ve heard of a few people who know the words to Anchors Aweigh.

• Neil Armstrong flew armed reconnaissance as a Naval aviator during the Korean War. In 1951, he landed on Korean soil after his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and he had to eject. Eighteen years later, he landed on a more famous patch of ground.

• There’s a good argument to be made that Robert Heinlein’s literary universe was influenced by his time at the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated, and his time on the USS Lexington and USS Roper.

• Humphrey Bogart enlisted in the Navy in 1918 and served on the USS Leviathan and USS Santa Olivia.

• Before he was MC Hammer, he was AK3 Stanley Burrell (short for Petty Officer Third Class Aviation Storekeeper).

• Bob Barker’s time as a Navy fighter pilot means he’s familiar with more means of transportation than just a new car!

If not for the Navy, James T. Kirk would have been captain of the USS Yorktown.

In the original pitch for Star Trek, the ship we know as the USS Enterprise was called the USS Yorktown. Gene Roddenberry renamed it in part for the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier whose maiden voyage was in 1962. The seafaring Enterprise was (and remains) the longest vessel in the U.S. Navy. Roddenberry felt that the starship at the heart of his series would have had a similar standing as the aircraft carrier, and a new Enterprise was christened.

In the Navy, there are no walls or bathrooms.

The Navy has a rich lexicon established by millennia of naval tradition. Ships don’t have walls, they have bulkheads. The mess deck is where you eat food, the deck is where you walk. The head is where you’ll find a toilet. The rack is where you sleep. Birds take off from the bird farm or, rather, planes take off from an aircraft carrier.

The first admiral in the Navy was David Farragut.

Even if you’ve never heard the name, you know his words, allegedly spoken at the Battle of Mobile Bay: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” (It’s unknown whether he spoke those exact words—different accounts give slight variations.) He was commissioned into the U.S. Navy at age nine. His adoptive father, Captain David Porter, probably had some hand in this. At age twelve, Farragut fought in the War of 1812. Though he was born in Tennessee, he remained steadfastly loyal to the Union during the Civil War, and after he seized the city of New Orleans, was promoted to Rear Admiral—a rank created specially for him by Congress. President Lincoln later promoted him to Vice Admiral (Farragut would later be a pallbearer at Lincoln’s funeral). Following the war, he was made the first Admiral of the Navy. http://mentalfloss.com/article/13040/11-things-you-might-not-know-about-us-navy (I only used 7)

Hope you are having a great day!

Thanks for stopping by!!

(I called out of work today…I’ll explain later, but I’m not feeling well today!)