About M Glenn Ross

Captain Leslie Gehres Assumes Command of USS Franklin

By Glenn | November 7, 2025 |

Captain Leslie Gehres in his Patrol Wing Four headquarters. Photo US Navy

Commodore Leslie Gehres, shown here in Alaska.

Kamikazes “Body Crash” USS Franklin and USS Belleau Wood

By Glenn | October 30, 2025 |

Two carriers burning after separate kamikaze strikes. USS Franklin (CV-13), at right, and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) afire after being hit by Japanese kamikaze suicide planes, while operating off the Philippines on 30 October 1944. Photographed from USS Brush (DD-745). US Navy 80-G-326798

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) left, and USS Franklin (CV-13) right, on fire after being struck by kamikazes 30 October, 1944.

Websites Essential to Researching U.S. Navy Ships and Crews

By Glenn | October 14, 2025 |

A group of US Navy officers including women who are WAVES attend the commissioning of the USS Franklin, 14 October 1943. The picture shows a vew of the ship's bow, wrapped in bunting taken from a lower angle so the bow looms overhead.

US Navy WAVES shown at the christening of USS Franklin on 14 October 1943.

Accurate Information Is The Lifeblood of Effective Decision-making

By Glenn | October 10, 2025 |

The Japanese battleship Musashi down at the bow after being hit by U.S. Navy carrier plane attacks in the Sibuyan Sea. Courtesy of Lieutenant Tobei Shiraishi. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 63434

IJN Musashi, down in the bow while under attack by Task Force 38 aircraft, including those from USS Franklin

Stories From The USS Franklin: Caught Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

By Glenn | September 23, 2025 |

USS Franklin Listing to one side after being attacked on March 19, 1945 as seen from USS Santa Fe

Radio interview with USS Franklin shipmates Alfred Amos and Stanley Olander.

Documentary: Navy Medicine at War: Final Victory

By Glenn | September 15, 2025 |

This is the sixth and last in a series of blog posts about US Navy medicine produced by the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery during the early 2000s. This particular video is graphic and contains images of Japanese soldiers committing atrocities as well as explicit accounts in the oral histories of the POWs…

Documentary: Navy Medicine at War: Stepping Stones To Tokyo

By Glenn | August 26, 2025 |

Ensign Jane Kendeigh, the first Navy flight nurse to reach Iwo Jima ministers to a wounded marine on 6 March 1945. She is bent over him as he lays on a stretcher, his head wrapped in bandages.

Ensign Jane Kendeigh administers aid to US Marines on Iwo Jima. She was one of the first two flight nurses to treat Marines in combat during WWII.

Battle Station Sick Bay

By Glenn | August 20, 2025 |

A pen and ink drawing of a sickbay on an unknown US Navy ship. There are four bunks, two on top of two. Sailors are shown lounging in the bunks and talking to each other.

“During that hurricane, one of the engineers came up from the engine room and put his hand over the knife-edge of the hatch just as a wave knocked the hatch down and smashed all his fingers. The only place a doctor had to do surgery on those old four-pipers was the wardroom mess table. I…

Navy Medicine At Normandy D-Day

By Glenn | August 11, 2025 |

This is the famous picture of US Army troops storming the Normandy coastline. The photographer is standing in a landing craft taking a picture of the men as they wade through the surf in front of him.

It’s one thing to read accounts of combat. It’s an order of magnitude higher when you can watch a documentary containing footage of that battle and hear veterans who were there narrating their experiences. I have been reading about the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, during World War II, for 60 years. I’ve read books, watched…