[Featured image: although only the fifth-largest nuclear test in history – the Soviets set off four devices that were more powerful – “Castle Bravo” was the largest nuclear test conducted by the United States, at 15 megatons. The test explosion blasted a 250-ft. deep by 6,500-ft. wide hole in the Bikini Atoll.]
1942: Southwest of Newfoundland, Ensign William Tepuni, of Patrol Squadron 82 (VP-82), spots a German U-boat. He targets U-656 with depth charges dropped from his Lockheed PBO-1 “Hudson” – the first sinking of a submarine by the United States during World War II.
1944: While hunting a Wolfpack of German subs in the North Atlantic at night, the Cannon-class destroyer escort USS Bronstein (DE-189) spots U-709 on the surface, preparing to attack the American task force. Bronstein hits the sub several times with her guns, and together with her fellow destroyer escorts, sink the sub with depth charges.
The destroyer escort USS Bronstein (DE-189). (U.S. Navy photo)
Bronstein‘s crew then spots another U-boat with their sonar and quickly sends U-603 to the bottom with more depth charges.
1954: The United States conducts its largest-ever nuclear weapons test, nicknamed “Castle Bravo,” in the Bikini Atoll. In just one second, the blast creates a 4.5-mile-wide fireball and produces a mushroom cloud that rises nearly 25 miles high by 62 miles across. The 15 megaton explosion is 1,000 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan nine years before.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during Operation ANACONDA. (U.S. Army photo)
2002: Operation ANACONDA, the first large-scale combat operation in Afghanistan since the Battle of Tora Bora, kicks off when a Navy SEAL reconnaissance team – aided by air support from an AC-130 gunship – destroys an enemy heavy machine gun position guarding what will soon be a landing zone. Within hours, the first of nearly 3,000 U.S. and Afghan allied troops are airlifted into the Shahi Kot Valley to destroy Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters operating in the area. “Anaconda” marks the first time conventional U.S. forces are used in a combat operation in Afghanistan.
