Great Lakes Bulletin: The Voice of NSGL for 101 Years

By Dan Smaczny, National Museum of the American Sailor Contract Curator

For over a century, Navy sailors, civilians, and local residents at or near Naval Station Great Lakes received base and Navy news from the Great Lakes Bulletin. With the rise in popularity of the internet and digital media, “the United States Navy’s Oldest, Continuously Published Base Newspaper” will become a digital-only publication beginning on March 30, 2019.  As part of a look back on the paper’s history, the National Museum of the American Sailor has selected from its archives a few historic headlines from the publication.

Every Memory Counts: Navy Vietnam Veteran Remembers His Experience

By Dan Smaczny, National Museum of the American Sailor Contract Curator

For historians, oral histories and personal recollections are important pieces of evidence. Often, ties to our past are even closer than we think. In our museum, we find valuable ties to our past through our volunteer corps. One of our volunteers, Steve Winston, not only generously gives us his time but shared some of his memories of Vietnam as well. 

On Iwo Jima, Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue

By Dan Smaczny, National Museum of the American Sailor Contract Curator

“Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.” — Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, March 16, 1945.

February 21, 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan, D-Day plus 2: “Corpsman Up!” While under heavy enemy fire, United States Navy Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class John H. Bradley rushed to the aid of a fallen Marine at the base of Mount Suribachi.

Scurvy Me Timbers

By Kelly Duffy, National Museum of the American Sailor Deputy Director

It’s that time of year again where we enter into the heart of winter. While many of us now wrap ourselves in warm blankets, eat soup with healthy vegetables, and grab any fruit imaginable off the grocery store shelf, sailors in the past were not always so lucky.

Keep Them Fit To Fight: The Salvage of Pearl Harbor

By Tricia Runzel, National Museum of the American Sailor Curator

The attack on Pearl Harbor lasted just two hours, but the loss of life, supplies, and ships was staggering. When the smoke cleared, thirteen ships were in various stages of damage and seven ships, as well as a floating dry dock, were sinking or already sunk. Worse still, the attack had killed over 2,000 military personnel, including Navy, Army, and Marines. The human loss could never be repaired, but for a nation entering war, repair and reuse of the ships and materials was paramount. The question was, how?

Dress Blues: George G. Koplos, Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class (CB)

By Samantha Belles, National Museum of the American Sailor Collections Manager

The National Museum of the American Sailor’s collections are comprised of numerous artifacts, each telling a unique story of an enlisted Sailor’s career. When taken together, these stories help illuminate just what it was like to be a Sailor in the United States Navy. In particular, uniforms play a key role in helping the museum tell the Navy’s history.

Fire Control on Iowa-class Battleships

By Michael Frutig, National Museum of the American Sailor Intern

An Iowa-class battleship was the single most powerful ship ever built for the United States Navy, comprised of 45,000 tons of steel and equipped with the largest guns ever fitted to an American ship. Nine 16-inch guns sat in three-gun turrets; each barrel was capable of firing on its own. These guns could fire a shell that weighed either 1,900 (HE) or 2,700 (AP) pounds a distance of twenty-four miles.

Sailor Jerry

By Kelly Duffy, National Museum of the American Sailor Curator

Norman Collins, known better as Sailor Jerry, was perhaps the most influential tattoo artist of the twentieth century. His style of tattooing is still copied and is a classic example of the Golden Age of Tattoos, especially Naval tattoos.

Baseball the Navy’s Goodwill Ambassador

By Dan Smaczny, National Museum of the American Sailor Contract Curator

For years the students at Merizo Martyrs School played baseball on a raggedy field in the village of Merizo, Guam. That changed when the NAVFAC Marianas Self-Help Seabees of U.S. Naval Base Guam volunteered their time to refurbish the George Leonard Charfauros Baseball Field in May 2016.

One Among Thousands: The First African American Navy Women

By Martin Tuohy, National Museum of the American Sailor Archivist

Since America’s earliest decades, African American women lived and worked maritime lives. Today, the U.S. Navy reflects that truth; African American women are seasoned sailors.  But who chose to be the Navy’s first African American women sailors, and why?