WQED-TV has just released on YouTube an excellent ten-minute profile of Navy WAVE Julia Parsons’ codebreaking work in World War II. It shows footage of our 100th drive-by birthday party for Julia last March and features an interview with Enigma expert Sam Lemley. Julia ended up in the German U-Boat
by Todd DePastino Last week, I got an email from former Navy officer Bernie Erhart who picked up the recent issue of VBC Magazine and read the article, “What Is the Difference Between a Ship and a Boat?” Bernie went home to look the question up in his well-thumbed 1959 edition
by Todd DePastino No military regulation has been more closely watched—and more frequently changed—than the do’s and don’ts of tattoos. Last week, the Marine Corps revised its policy, allowing the “sleeve” (whole arm) tattoo and also permitting officers more than four tattoos visible in uniform. Both officers and enlisted can now
by Todd DePastino World War I ended precisely on the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month of 1918. At the moment the bells struck and the guns went silent, a body fell in a French village. Henry Gunther was a bank clerk from Baltimore, drafted the year
This story from SeaBee veteran Derek Sansone (NMCB-21, Black Jack Battalion) reinforces my conviction that the SeaBees is the most ingenious branch of the military. My Reserve Navy Seabee Battalion was activated in January 2003 as part of the build-up for the invasion of Iraq. A few months into deployment, 125 of
98-year-old Paul Fairbrook joined VBC Happy Hour on October 4 to talk about his experiences as a “Ritchie Boy” in World War II. Paul fled Nazi Germany with his Jewish family in 1938 and, like our other 98-year-old guest that night, Max Lerner, joined the US Army to exact their revenge against
