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The Navy SEALs are born
In 1962, the Navy quietly created two teams that would change modern warfare.
Coming January 1
Dossier 01
Navy & the Sea
Beyond the horizon. Behind the headlines.
The stories in this series
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Fire aboard USS Enterprise
One overheated rocket set off a chain of explosions on the world's first nuclear carrier.
Coming January 14
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Underway on nuclear power
Four words from a submarine changed undersea warfare forever.
Coming January 17
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The first landing on a ship
A daredevil pilot landed on a warship using ropes and sandbags.
Coming January 18
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An American Navy expedition sights Antarctica
A U.S. Navy lieutenant claimed the discovery of a frozen continent.
Coming January 19
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The capture of USS Pueblo
A Navy spy ship was seized, and its crew spent eleven months as prisoners.
Coming January 23
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The first human satellite
A Navy captain flew away from the space shuttle with no tether at all.
Coming February 7
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Guadalcanal is secured
After six months of brutal fighting, the Japanese were gone from Guadalcanal.
Coming February 9
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Operation Homecoming
The first American POWs walked off a plane into freedom after years in Hanoi.
Coming February 12
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First salute to the Stars and Stripes
On Valentine's Day 1778, a foreign navy saluted the American flag for the first time.
Coming February 14
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Remember the Maine
A massive explosion in Havana Harbor killed 260 American sailors and led to war.
Coming February 15
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Decatur burns the Philadelphia
A 25-year-old lieutenant sailed into an enemy harbor to destroy a captured American ship.
Coming February 16
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The Hunley's first strike
A hand-cranked submarine became the first in history to sink a warship.
Coming February 17
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The wrecks of Truxtun and Pollux
Newfoundland miners climbed down icy cliffs to save American sailors.
Coming February 18
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Butch O'Hare saves the Lexington
One Navy pilot stood between nine bombers and his aircraft carrier.
Coming February 20
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The Great White Fleet comes home
Sixteen white battleships sailed around the world to show America had arrived.
Coming February 22
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The USS Princeton disaster
A giant cannon exploded on a Navy warship with the president aboard.
Coming February 28
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USS Cyclops vanishes
A Navy ship with 306 aboard sailed into the Caribbean and vanished.
Coming March 4
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The Seabees get their name
The Navy needed builders who could fight, and they became the Seabees.
Coming March 5
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Monitor vs. Virginia
Two iron ships fought for hours, and every wooden navy became obsolete.
Coming March 9
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MacArthur escapes Corregidor
Navy PT boats carried a general through enemy waters at night.
Coming March 11
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The ship that wouldn't die
A burning aircraft carrier lost 800 men and still made it home.
Coming March 19
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USS Langley, the first carrier
America's first aircraft carrier started life as a coal ship.
Coming March 20
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The Naval Act of 1794
Pirates attacking American ships convinced Congress to build a navy.
Coming March 27
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The last fight of USS Essex
A young Farragut watched his frigate fight to the end off Chile.
Coming March 28
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Commodore Perry opens Japan
A Navy commodore with black ships ended two centuries of Japanese isolation.
Coming March 31
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Okinawa: the last great battle
On Easter Sunday 1945, Americans walked ashore on Okinawa almost unopposed.
Coming April 1
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The loss of USS Akron
The Navy's giant flying aircraft carrier went down in a storm off New Jersey.
Coming April 4
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Sinking the battleship Yamato
The biggest battleship ever built sailed on a one-way mission and never arrived.
Coming April 7
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The loss of USS Thresher
On a routine deep dive, the Navy's most advanced submarine never came back up.
Coming April 10
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The Navy buys its first submarine
For $150,000, the Navy bought a 54-foot boat that could hide underwater.
Coming April 11
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The ship that refused to sink
A mine broke her keel, but the Sammy B crew refused to let her sink.
Coming April 14
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Apollo 13 comes home
After four days in a crippled spacecraft, three astronauts splashed down alive.
Coming April 17
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The Doolittle Raid
Sixteen Army bombers took off from a Navy carrier that was never built for them.
Coming April 18
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John Paul Jones raids England
In 1778, an American captain landed on the coast of England itself.
Coming April 23
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Exercise Tiger: D-Day's secret disaster
Weeks before D-Day, 749 Americans died in a rehearsal, and it was kept secret.
Coming April 28
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The fall of Saigon
In the final hours, Marines and helicopters lifted thousands from rooftops.
Coming April 30
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Dewey at Manila Bay
"You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." By lunchtime, a Spanish fleet was gone.
Coming May 1
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Alan Shepard: the first American in space
"Light this candle," Alan Shepard said, after hours of waiting on the pad.
Coming May 5
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The sinking of the Lusitania
A German torpedo sank a passenger liner in 18 minutes, killing 128 Americans.
Coming May 7
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The Battle of the Coral Sea
The first battle where the ships never saw each other.
Coming May 8
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Robert Gray finds the Columbia
A Boston captain crossed a deadly sandbar and named a river for his ship.
Coming May 11
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The Navy Nurse Corps
The first women to officially serve in the Navy were called the Sacred Twenty.
Coming May 13
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The attack on USS Stark
Two missiles struck a Navy frigate in the Persian Gulf, and 37 sailors died.
Coming May 17
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The loss of USS Scorpion
On her way home, a Navy submarine vanished in the Atlantic with all 99 aboard.
Coming May 22
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The USS Bennington explosion
A peacetime morning off Rhode Island became one of the Navy's deadliest days.
Coming May 26
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NC-4 flies the Atlantic
Eight years before Lindbergh, a Navy crew flew across the Atlantic first.
Coming May 27
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"Don't give up the ship"
A dying captain's last order became the motto of the U.S. Navy.
Coming June 1
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Midway: five minutes that changed the war
In about five minutes, Navy dive bombers turned the Pacific War.
Coming June 4
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D-Day
On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops crossed the Channel.
Coming June 6
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The attack on USS Liberty
In international waters, an American ship was attacked by aircraft and torpedo boats.
Coming June 8
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The burning of the Gaspee
Rhode Islanders burned a British ship 18 months before the Boston Tea Party.
Coming June 9
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Marines land at Guantanamo Bay
The Marines who came ashore in 1898 never really left.
Coming June 10
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America declares war on Britain
The young nation went to war against the world's greatest navy.
Coming June 18
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The Chesapeake-Leopard affair
A British warship fired on an American frigate in peacetime, off Virginia.
Coming June 22
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Truman sends forces to Korea
Two days after the invasion, Truman ordered American planes and ships to fight.
Coming June 27
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Operation Red Wings
Four SEALs on a mountainside faced a far larger enemy force, and one came home.
Coming June 28
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Battle of Santiago de Cuba
In four hours, the U.S. Navy erased an entire Spanish fleet.
Coming July 3
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Perry's Black Ships
Four smoking warships sailed into Edo Bay and changed Japan forever.
Coming July 8
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The Port Chicago Explosion
In seconds, a California pier vanished, and 320 men died.
Coming July 17
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Fire on USS Forrestal
One stray rocket set off a chain of explosions on a carrier deck.
Coming July 29
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USS Indianapolis
After delivering the atomic bomb, they spent four days in shark-filled water.
Coming July 30
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PT-109
A Japanese destroyer cut his boat in half. Then Lt. Kennedy started swimming.
Coming August 2
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Under the North Pole
A submarine reached the top of the world without ever surfacing.
Coming August 3
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Damn the Torpedoes
His lead ironclad sank. Admiral Farragut ordered full speed ahead anyway.
Coming August 5
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Extortion 17
Thirty Americans boarded a Chinook in the Afghan night. None came home.
Coming August 6
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Hedy Lamarr's Secret Patent
A Hollywood star patented an idea that helps power today's wireless technology.
Coming August 11
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The Other Kennedy Brother
Joe Kennedy Jr. volunteered to fly a plane packed with explosives.
Coming August 12
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The Panama Canal Opens
Thousands died digging it. Then a cargo ship crossed a continent in hours.
Coming August 15
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Old Ironsides
British cannonballs bounced off her sides, and a legend was born.
Coming August 19
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There Is No Second
An American schooner beat Britain's best, and a famous trophy got its name.
Coming August 22
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The Navy Mission That Found Titanic
The search for Titanic was a cover story for a top-secret Navy mission.
Coming September 1
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Surrender in Tokyo Bay
On a battleship's deck, the deadliest war in history officially ended.
Coming September 2
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The Battle That Trapped Cornwallis
America's independence was decided in a sea battle with no Americans in it.
Coming September 5
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The Turtle: America's First Submarine
A one-man wooden submarine tried to sink the British flagship.
Coming September 7
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We Have Met the Enemy
His flagship was shot to pieces, so he rowed to another one.
Coming September 10
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Inchon
MacArthur bet everything on a landing almost everyone said was impossible.
Coming September 15
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I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight
His ship was sinking, and the British asked if he'd surrender.
Coming September 23
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The First Nuclear Carrier
Eight nuclear reactors powered the longest warship ever built.
Coming September 24
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Michael Monsoor
He was the only one who could have escaped. He chose to stay.
Coming September 29
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The Naval Academy opens at Annapolis
It started with fifty midshipmen and seven teachers on an old Army post.
Coming October 10
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Arnold's fleet at Valcour Island
America's homemade navy lost the battle and may have saved the Revolution.
Coming October 11
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The attack on USS Cole
A small boat came alongside while the crew lined up for lunch.
Coming October 12
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The Navy is born
Congress voted for two ships, and the United States Navy began.
Coming October 13
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The Hunley sinks with its inventor
The man who built the submarine went down with it on a practice dive.
Coming October 15
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The world turned upside down at Yorktown
The Revolution was won as much at sea as on land.
Coming October 19
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Old Ironsides is launched
She is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat anywhere in the world.
Coming October 21
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Kennedy tells the nation about Cuba
At 7 p.m., the president told Americans that nuclear missiles sat 90 miles away.
Coming October 22
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Taffy 3 off Samar
Destroyers charged battleships, knowing they probably would not come back.
Coming October 25
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The Sinking of the Reuben James
The first U.S. warship sunk in World War II went down before America entered it.
Coming October 31
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A Gunboat and a New Nation
A U.S. Navy gunboat helped a country be born, and with it a canal.
Coming November 3
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Operation Torch
America's first big punch at Hitler landed in North Africa.
Coming November 8
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The five Sullivan brothers
They enlisted on one condition: that they serve together.
Coming November 13
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First takeoff from a ship
A civilian pilot rolled off a wooden ramp and started naval aviation.
Coming November 14
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Dallas
The president who survived PT-109 was killed in an open car in Dallas.
Coming November 22
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First flight over the South Pole
To clear the mountains, they threw their food overboard.
Coming November 29
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John Paul Jones raises the first flag
Before the Stars and Stripes, America's navy flew a flag with Britain's Union Jack.
Coming December 3
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Jesse Brown and Thomas Hudner
His wingman crash-landed on purpose to try to save him.
Coming December 4
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Flight 19 disappears
Five Navy bombers vanished, and then so did the plane sent to find them.
Coming December 5
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Pearl Harbor
At 7:55 on a Sunday morning, the first bombs fell.
Coming December 7
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Grace Hopper is born
Amazing Grace taught computers to understand words, and the Navy kept calling her back.
Coming December 9
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The sinking of USS Panay
Four years before Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes sank an American gunboat.
Coming December 12
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Typhoon Cobra
The storm killed more sailors than many battles did.
Coming December 18
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The ship of miracles
Built for 12 passengers, a freighter rescued 14,000 refugees by Christmas.
Coming December 25
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The Monitor sinks off Hatteras
The ironclad that changed naval warfare could not survive a storm.
Coming December 31