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Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Engineer who helped usher U.S. Navy into nuclear age turns 101: 'I've got so much to be thankful for'
Apr. 18—The bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey on the counter was a birthday gift from one of his 10 children. It'll last Frank Fogarty, a one-drink kind of guy, a while. He's someone who's made a habit of making things last. Fogarty turned 101 on Friday. "I don't think about it," he said while laughing about his age from his home at South Hill Village in Spokane. "The doctors say I should take a little bit of credit because I've been active all my life. It's got a lot to do with your heredity." The eyes are a bit clouded, and Fogarty admittedly struggles sometimes with names and exact dates, but the former nuclear engineer has lost nothing of his ability to tell a story. And his tale is that of atomic engineering, first with the U.S. Navy and later with commercial power plants. Born in Great Falls, Fogarty enlisted to join the Navy during World War II. But because he already had a year of college, his superiors instead kept him in school so that he could later attend the U.S. Naval Academy. After graduating from the academy in 1948, Fogarty first served on ships, including a stint on an aircraft carrier, and another aboard the USS Iowa battleship. But his destiny led him to the "Silent Service," the crews who operated beneath the waves on submarines. Fogarty attended submarine school in 1950 and served on two Balao-class diesel boats, the USS Tiru and the U.S.S Queenfish, for three years during the Korean War. The captain of the Tiru at the time was Patrick Gray, who later became President Richard Nixon's choice to replace J. Edgar Hoover as the director of the FBI. However, Gray withdrew his name from consideration after being implicated in the Watergate investigation. While serving during the war in Korea, Fogarty in 1953 was selected to interview to serve under Adm. Hyman Rickover, who directed the development of naval nuclear propulsion. Rickover personally picked over the test results and questioned the candidates on those areas where they seemed the weakest, Fogarty said. About three months after the interviews, Fogarty returned to his submarine, which pulled into port at Yokasuka, Japan. The captain on the submarine next to them yelled over: " 'I understand that you got a Rickover guy on your ship. He picked Fogarty.' So they flew us back to Hawaii." Fogarty then gathered his wife, Dorothy, whom he married in 1948, and their young family moved to upstate New York. "Me and three other guys were the first engineers on a nuclear submarine, the Seawolf," he said. "The senior one of us was a year ahead of me at the Naval Academy — a fella named Jimmy Carter." Fogarty worked directly with the future president, under Rickover's supervision, to bring the U.S. Navy into the nuclear age. "Jimmy's dad died," Fogarty said. "So, his mother made him quit the Navy and go back to Georgia. You know what happened to him after that. So, he did pretty well." Fogarty then served on the crew that took the USS Seawolf out to sea for the first time in 1955. He was later transferred to the USS Nautilus, which had been operating for about a year. "We were learning every day. We were doing something that nobody had done before," he said. "It was kind of an exciting time." But the novel science behind the shift to nuclear power also suffered casualties. The captain of the nuclear submarine USS Thresher, which was also the name of an earlier submarine that served in World War II, was Lt. Cmdr John Wesley Harvey, who earlier had worked as an engineer on the nuclear program with Fogarty. The Thresher sank in April 1963 while undergoing sea trials. Fogarty later personally selected Cmdr. Francis A. Slatterly, who had served as his executive officer, to lead the USS Scorpion. It sank in May 1968, and all 99 crew members on board were lost to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. "So, I had those two close friends that I knew who got lost on submarines," Fogarty said. "I knew a lot of the enlisted and other wardroom people on those ships." Fogarty later was promoted to executive officer and eventually was made captain of the Nautilus. While serving on the Nautilus, Fogarty was part of a second attempt that finally reached the North Pole under the sea ice. "I was the commanding officer for three-and-a-half years of the Nautilus," he said. "I went from there the chief of naval operations staff in Washington. I retired from there because I had eight kids. The oldest were ready for college, and I couldn't afford to send them to college on Navy pay." After 27 years in the Navy, Fogarty retired as a captain and took a job running three nuclear plants outside Idaho Falls at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. He worked there for 20 years before retiring a second time. "That's when they shut down all the nuclear commercial plants because of the problems in Pennsylvania with the Three Mile Island" plant in 1979, he said. "So I was in charge of an independent group that analyzed why that happened and what to do about it before they started up the nuclear program again in the Navy." He then went to Tennessee and ran the Tennessee Valley Authority's five nuclear plants. "I helped them get started after being shut down," he said. After leaving INEEL, he started a coal-fired electromagnetic power plant in Butte, Montana. But the plant shut down after two years when the technology proved unworkable. He then "retired" to 40 acres north of Idaho Falls, where the nuclear engineer traded neutrons for barbed wire. "I had fun raising some beef cattle. I had some good friends who taught me how to be a rancher, because I was not that qualified, even though I had grown up in Montana," he said. Dorothy died in 2015. The couple had been together for 68 years. Along with 10 children, Fogarty has 21 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Two of Fogarty's grandchildren live in Spokane, which is how he ended up here, he said. Fogarty noted that his mother lived until age 96. His father died at age 67, but his death occurred during surgery to remove his appendix. Fogarty's father's brothers both lived into their 90s. Except for the occasional beer, and Irish whiskey, Fogarty said he never smoked or formed other bad habits that hurt his health. "Oh yeah, of course I'm glad," he said when asked about his longevity. "All my kids are close to each other. Our family is as close as the dickens. "I've got so much to be thankful for," Fogarty continued. "There is something new happening all the time."
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The end of the ‘Golden Hour' and the transformation of U.S. military combat medicine
During the post-9/11 wars, the US military came as close to perfecting near-immediate trauma care on the battlefield as the chaos of combat would allow. No matter how a soldier was injured, if a medic was nearby, the odds were in their favor. Air superiority, MEDEVAC helicopters, Combat Support Hospitals, and Forward Surgical Teams meant combat casualties had a good chance to meet 'the golden hour' — the race to get a trauma patient into an operating room within 60 minutes. But as the wars dragged on, evidence came in that perhaps the Golden Hour wasn't the ideal measure. A case study published in the Journal of Special Operations Medicine Spring 2019 issue found that 95% of early deaths resulting from traumatic injuries may have been prevented if the patient had undergone damage control surgery within 23 minutes of injury, not a full hour. While the Golden Hour created the infrastructure of the modern U.S. military's battlefield medical doctrine, its era is likely over. In future conflicts, medical evacuation is aiming to be much faster — more like 20 minutes or less or — in a war without air superiority and no access to higher care, much longer. 'You may have previously heard a discussion of the 'Golden Hour',' Brigadier General Anthony McQueen told Task & Purpose as the commander of the Army's Medical Research and Development Command. 'We're moving more to a 'golden window of opportunity.'' In this week's Task & Purpose video, 'Every Second Counts,' stand-up comedian and Army veteran Thom Tran walks through the U.S. military's evolving approach to combat medical care, evacuation and why the 'Golden Hour' is really about 20 minutes. Each week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, Task & Purpose will be bringing in military veterans to host segments on different topics. These will range from breakdowns of tactics and doctrine to explainers on new tech and weapons systems, but each will be researched, reported and reviewed by the journalists on the Task & Purpose team. As with the stories we cover on the website, these videos will look at these topics from a rank-and-file perspective. This means they'll aim to answer questions such as: Why does this matter to a junior service member about to deploy to [name a country], or who will have to use [name a weapon system] or deal with [name a problem or threat]. If you enjoyed this week's video, please hop on over to our YouTube channel and follow the team there. And if you have suggestions for future topics our video team can cover, please hop in the comments and let us know. Navy fires commanding officer, command master chief of expeditionary security squadron The Marine Corps has settled the debate over the size of a rifle squad Leg day: Army cuts down on number of paid parachutists Navy commissions its newest submarine, the USS Iowa Why veterans are the real target audience for 'Helldivers 2'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ceremony to mark 36 years since deadly explosion onboard USS Iowa
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A ceremony to mark 36 years since a gun turret explosion killed 47 Sailors onboard USS Iowa is expected to take place on Saturday. Ceremony marks 35th anniversary of deadly explosion of USS Iowa The ceremony is scheduled to be held on Naval Station Norfolk starting at 9:30 a.m. The tragedy took place on April 19, 1989, when a gun turret on the battleship exploded while preparing for exercises off the coast of Puerto Rico. This remains one of the deadliest days in Navy history outside of wartime. According to Naval History and Heritage Command, the Iowa was commissioned at New York Navy Yard in February of 1943. The battleship spent time in the pacific during World War II, participating in the Marshall campaign, Mariana campaign, Okinawa campaign and the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. After being officially decommissioned in 1990, the Iowa now sits at the Port of Los Angeles, California as a museum battleship. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Two Marines killed in crash while on southern border duty identified
The two Marines killed in a vehicle crash Tuesday near the U.S.-Mexico border were both from California and were driving as part of a convoy when the crash occurred. Lance Cpl. Albert A. Aguilera. 22, and Lance Cpl. Marcelino M. Gamino, 28, were both assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, according to a news release from the 1st Marine Division, and were supporting Joint Task Force SouthernBorder operations. Aguilera was from Riverside, California, while Gamino was from Fresno. The crash occurred near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, a suburb of El Paso, Texas on the Mexican border, about 20 miles from Fort Bliss. 'The loss of Lance Cpl. Aguilera and Lance Cpl. Gamino is deeply felt by all of us,' said Lt. Col. Tyrone A. Barrion, commanding officer for 1st Combat Engineer Battalion and Task Force Sapper, in a statement. 'I extend my heartfelt condolences and prayers to the families of our fallen brothers. Our top priority right now is to ensure that their families, and the Marines affected by their passing, are fully supported during this difficult time.' Aguilera enlisted in March 2023 and was promoted to lance corporal in May 2024, the news release says. Gamino enlisted in May 2022 and was promoted to lance corporal in August 2024. He deployed to Darwin, Australia, with Marine Rotational Force – Darwin in 2024. A third Marine in the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion was injured in the crash and is listed in critical condition, the news release says. All three Marines were in a vehicle when the crash occurred during convoy movement. No further information about the circumstances of the crash have been publicly released. On Jan. 20, President Doanld Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border and ordered the U.S. military to support the Department of Homeland Security. The Defense Department has deployed about 7,200 U.S. troops on federal orders to the U.S.-Mexico border, of which about 2,400 are National Guardsmen, according to U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM. On top of that, about 4,600 Texas National Guardsmen are also deployed to the southern border as part of Operation Lone Star, which is a state mission that is separate from NORTHCOM's operations. Navy fires commanding officer, command master chief of expeditionary security squadron The Marine Corps has settled the debate over the size of a rifle squad Leg day: Army cuts down on number of paid parachutists Navy commissions its newest submarine, the USS Iowa Why veterans are the real target audience for 'Helldivers 2'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia continues to throw troops into a meat grinder in Ukraine
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine grinds on into its third year, Russia's military has suffered staggering losses. Yet, even as tanks burn and casualty counts reach the hundreds of thousands, Russia continues to pour troops into the meatgrinder. 'Since 2022, Russia has suffered more than 700,000 casualties in Ukraine,' former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in January. 'Now, that's more than Moscow has endured in all of its conflicts since World War II — combined. Russian casualties in Ukraine now surpass two-thirds of the total strength of the Russian military at the start of Putin's war of choice. In November 2024 alone, Russia lost nearly 1,500 troops a day.' In this week's video, Thom Tran, an Army veteran and stand-up comedian, walks viewers through the story behind those numbers, whether Russia's military is truly crippled, or if its 'quantity over quality' approach to manning and equipment suggests that it can keep going. Each week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, Task & Purpose will be bringing in military veterans to host segments on different topics. These videos will range from breakdowns of tactics and doctrine to explainers on new tech and weapons systems from a rank-and-file perspective. If you enjoyed this week's video, please hop on over to our YouTube channel and follow the team there. And if you have suggestions for future topics our video team can cover, please hop in the comments and let us know. Navy fires commanding officer, command master chief of expeditionary security squadron The Marine Corps has settled the debate over the size of a rifle squad Leg day: Army cuts down on number of paid parachutists Navy commissions its newest submarine, the USS Iowa Why veterans are the real target audience for 'Helldivers 2'
