The Last Dive of the Bullhead: Martin Sheridan and the Price of Silence

In the summer of 1945, Martin Sheridan was no stranger to the silent, steel corridors of a submarine. As a war correspondent, he’d seen more than most. But aboard the USS Bullhead, he’d seen it all: the crack of deck guns, the eerie shimmer of a drifting mine, the close-call scrape with a Japanese convoy, and the pale dawns when a depth charge’s echo still rang in the ears. His Boston Globe article, published June 29, 1945, reads like a love letter to that boat and her men; a mosaic of danger, camaraderie, and cool defiance beneath the Pacific sun.

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Shortest and Saltiest

On June 27, 1970, a reporter with a poetic bent described Admiral John S. McCain Jr. as the shortest, saltiest, and most incorrigible admiral in the Navy. That reporter was Col. R.D. Heinl Jr., and he was not exaggerating. McCain, standing barely five-foot-seven, paced the floor of his headquarters in Pearl Harbor with a cigar clenched in his teeth. He commanded the largest forward-deployed force in American history. His authority reached across 500 ships, 7,500 aircraft, and nearly a million servicemen scattered throughout the Pacific from the Golden Gate to the Indian Ocean.

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