Donald McPherson, a naval aviator who served during World War II, scored five confirmed kills in the Pacific while flying a Grumman F6F Hellcat from the USS Essex. This earned him the title of ace, and before his death on August 14, 2025, McPherson was America’s last living ace of the war.
McPherson at the controls of his F6F Hellcat during World War II. (Jen Riddle via Griffiths-Hovendick Chapel)
McPherson enlisted in the V-5 Aviation Cadet Program on January 5, 1943, after the Navy waived the two-year college requirement for aviation recruits.
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Adm. Daryl Caudle was sworn in Monday as chief of naval operations, promising to accelerate the sea service’s push for AI, unmanned system and network capabilities.
The new CNO is taking the helm as the Navy works to modernize for potential conflicts against advanced adversaries, namely China.
The official swearing-in ceremony took place at Leutze Park in the Washington Navy Yard area of the nation’s capital.
In a video message to the force released on the social media platform X, Caudle highlighted the need to expand and modernize the fleet.
The Air Force command that operates and protects nuclear weapons has returned the M18 pistol to service with its Security Forces and other personnel, a month after one of the guns killed an airman at a Wyoming nuclear base.
Out of close to 8,000 pistols inspected by the command, just under 200 were found to have some amount of wear on key firing mechanisms, though none were found to be responsible for any misfires. The M18 and a slightly larger variant known as the M17 are the standard handguns issued across the Department of Defense.
Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer Jane Rathbun is leaving the federal government after more than three decades of service.
Rathbun announced her departure Friday in a post on LinkedIn.
“It is with gratitude, pride, and humility that I close out this chapter of my career as a civil servant,” she wrote, adding that sone of the best aspects of her career included delivering “game changing capabilities and mission outcomes,” driving strategy, “busting bureaucracy,” and partnering with industry and academia to “solve some wicked problems,” among others.
US Army soldiers assigned to the 11th Airborne Division have completed a training mission in Kotzebue, Alaska, showcasing their preparedness to deploy and operate in remote Arctic conditions.
Russia has more friends than Western analysts like to admit, even three years into the Russo-Ukrainian War. While many have paid close attention to Russia’s beneficial partnership with Iran, the introduction of North Korea’s legions into the Ukrainian battlespace, or persistent materiel support from China, Russia’s other rising-power relationship is often underdiscussed — that of India.The Russian-Indian relationship is both of longer duration and deeper history than those Russia has with its other key partners.
Norway has announced plans to allocate Nkr7bn ($695.87m) towards air defence systems for Ukraine amidst ongoing conflict with Russia.
At Mach 3 – three times the speed of sound – an SR-71 pilot would be pushing close to the aircraft’s top speed, but the plane would normally have been able to fly at those speeds for more than an hour. But normal flying isn’t what test pilots do. On January 25, 1966, Lockheed test pilot Bill Weaver and his backseater Jim Zwayer took off from Beale Air Force Base in an SR-71 Blackbird to do some abnormal flying on a Blackbird dubbed #952.
Sadly, Zwayer wouldn’t return from the flight, an occupational hazard for many test pilots of that era.
Army Technology
The new facility will have the capacity to load 36,000 155mm artillery rounds a month
Global Defense News
The decision to order additional ACV-30s reflects a mix of operational requirements and strategic foresight