On Friday, 27 April, and Tuesday, 1 May, the Mission Ocean program was inaugurated in the Cold War Gallery, at the National Navy Museum in Washington DC. One hundred-thirty students from two Prince William County schools were the first children to conduct undersea exploration missions, employing networked computers to operate their research submarine, while observing their sub's search on a 3D video display. Investigating the continental shelf area in the Aleutian Islands, students used ocean temperature and sulfur dioxide measurements to locate an actively erupting volcano in the virtual Education Center at the Cold War Gallery, part of the National Navy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Over the past month, a complex network of equipment was installed in the Cold War Gallery in order to facilitate the program. A grant provided by the Office of Naval Research enabled Purdue University Calumet to conduct the program, including the purchase of eight laptop computers for the Education Center. The laptops were then networked through a desktop PC to the Mission Ocean program at Purdue-Calumet's Center for Innovation Through Visualization and Simulation. The Naval Historical Foundation purchased the desktop PC, as well as a wide screen 3D television to display the submarine and the surrounding ocean. NHF Education Director Captain John Paulson, USN (Ret), former commanding officer of the nuclear attack submarine USS Philadelphia (SSN 690) as well as a retired school teacher, worked closely with the team from Purdue-Calumet to ensure that the simulation was running smoothly, and then led the students through the program.

Four Prince William County schools, Enterprise Elementary, Westridge Elementary, Parkside Middle, and Gainesville Middle, have piloted the Mission Ocean Program during the past year school year, conducting teamed hands-on activities to investigate bearing, range, charts, course, distance, speed, communications, data keeping, plotting, navigation, weight, mass, density, buoyancy, hovering, and then applying their constructed knowledge to simulation of each aspect of operating a research submarine on laptop computers to get underway, drive, dive, and explore.

During their visit to the museum, students were organized into teams, each taking their turn at the 45-minute submarine exploration problem. Student teams included the command team, plus drive, dive, ballast/trim, navigation, propulsion/electrical, research data, and scientist. All teams were successful in their mission, owing to great teamwork and year-long preparation. When not conducting the research mission, the students worked at projects developed by the staff of the Museum: "Underwater Research Vessel Challenge," where students could build submarines with LEGO building blocks, "Straw Rockets" to learn about Newton's Laws of Motion, mapping of an underwater wreck site, "Sink or Swim" engineering challenge plus the science of Cartesian divers, visiting the Navy Museum exhibits of the Trieste and Alvin submersibles, and conducting a deep diving research, navigation, and exploration scavenger hunt.

The Cold War Gallery houses an impressive collection of aircraft models, all built by retired naval aviator Michael "Pyscho" McLeod. On Wednesday, 2 May 2012, three new models joined the collection. Psycho lives in Florida, and builds the aircraft in his workshop at his home. He is currently a pilot for Delta Airlines, and was able to hop a flight up last week to install the three models.  

Each of the three new models has a unique story. Two are replicas of Medal of Honor aircraft, and the other played a fascinating role in early Cold War nuclear deterrence. Perhaps the most well known of the aircraft is the Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, modeled after the one flown by then-Lieutenant Commander Michael J. Estocin over the skies of Vietnam in 1967. In April of that year, he led 3-plane anti-SAM (surface to air missile) strikes that came under heavy enemy fire. On 20 April he led a successful attack against 3 SAM sites, despite heavy damage to his aircraft, and returned safely to the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA 14). Estocin led another anti-SAM strike group on 26 April, and once again came under heavy fire. With his aircraft aflame, he managed to launch his SHRIKE missiles at the target, and then turned and head for home. But he never made it - the damaged aircraft fell from the sky and crashed. Estocin was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. This model was sponsored by Captain Dale Lewey, his squadron mate.

The new helicopter model is a Sikorsky HOS3-1, flown by Lieutenant Junior Grade John Koelsch during the Korean War. In July 1951, Koelsch flew his HOS3-1 into a deeply overcast mountainous area in an attempt to rescue a downed Marine aviator. He succeeded in rescuing the injured Marine, despite heavy enemy gunfire and approaching darkness. During the rescue attempt, the helicopter was shot down, but Koelsch brought the chopper down safely and helped his crew and the Marine escape, then led them through 9 days of evasion from enemy capture. The men were ultimately captured, but Koelsch continued to show exemplary leadership and restraint during captivity, until his eventual death while still a prisoner of war. He, too, was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. Koelsch's HOS3-1 model was sponsored by Captain Colleen Nevius.

The final new model is a North American AJ-1 Savage. The Savage had a relatively short career in the Navy, serving as a carrier based nuclear capable bomber in the early 1950's. The AJ-1model was sponsored by Vice Admiral Jerry Miller, in honor of Vice Admiral Dick Ashworth, who flew it for VC-6 in 1951. This model proved to be particularly challenging for Psycho, as the kit needed to build it is exceedingly rare. The master molds for the kit seem to have disappeared somewhere in Eastern Europe, and Psycho had to scour online vendors and collectors to finally locate a kit for sale. The Savage, unique with its two propeller engines and one jet engine, was a large aircraft, and the resulting model is one of the larger ones now on display in the Cold War Gallery aircraft model case.

Brazo Zulu to Psycho for yet another fantastic set of aircraft models! Please visit the "Fly Navy" page of our Cold War Gallery website to see photos of the 34 aircraft models now on display.

The 2012 Submarine History Seminar was held on the evening of 24 April 2012, as part of the National War College Commandant's Lecture Series in historic Roosevelt Hall at the War College's Fort McNair campus in southwest Washington, DC. 2012 marks the 11th year that the Naval Historical Foundation has partnered with the Naval Submarine League to stage these compelling looks back at the U.S. Navy's submarine force in war and peace. This year's topic was "OUTLAW SHARK - The Beginning of Over-The-Horizon Targeting." The seminar took an in-depth look back at the intensive effort in the 1970s and 1980s to develop over-the-horizon (OTH) targeting methods needed to ensure that newly developed HARPOON and TOMAHAWK cruise missiles could be employed reliably to their full range potentials.  Moderated by NHF Vice President RADM Jerry Holland, USN (Ret), panelists included:

• RADM Guy Shaffer, USN (Ret), who had served for five years as Director, Navy Command and Control and Communications Projects for the Naval Electronics Systems Command in the 1970s;
• RADM Walter Locke, USN (Ret), who had served as Director of the Joint Cruise Missiles Project from 1977-1982;
• Dr. (and retired Navy CAPT) Robert Hess, who directed and performed contract analyses in areas of ocean surveillance, OTH targeting, command and control and related fields for numerous Navy and DoD offices in the 1970s and 1980s;
• CAPT Lynn Wessman, USN (Ret.), who served as project officer for OUTLAW SHARK at Submarine Group Eight in Naples, Italy in the late 1970s.

The audience of nearly 70 active duty and retired Navy personnel, plus eight midshipmen of the Naval Academy's Dolphin Club, listened with rapt attention to the participants' enthralling descriptions of the U.S. Navy's ultimately successful effort to target the Soviet Navy before they were able to develop the same capability to target USN ships.

The seminar was preceded by food and refreshments sponsored again this year by the Northrop Grumman Marine Systems office and included a ceremonial cake to mark this month's 112th birthday of the U.S. Navy's submarine force.