Military Sea Services Museum

Military Sea Services Museum The Military Sea Services Museum exhibits hundreds of artifacts, mementos, weapons donated by veterans. We are open from noon until 4 p.m. Wednesday -Saturday.

Admission is always FREE. Tour docents guide visitors through our many displays. School groups and large groups are encouraged to call ahead so additional docents May be on hand. The museum is fully wheelchair accessible. Special presentations on military and naval topics may be provided on request. Groups may also request to tour at times outside our normal operating hours. Sharing stories of fam

ily members who have served are encouraged. Our motto, “The Military Sea Services Museum - Where history comes alive!” We take seriously. Fully air conditioned with many places to sit when needed. Welcome.

06/01/2026

The Convair B-58 Hustler stood apart from every other bomber of its era because it was built around one revolutionary idea: speed as survival.

At a time when most bombers relied on high altitude, large payloads, or sheer numbers, the B-58 became the world's first operational bomber capable of sustained Mach 2 flight.

Powered by four powerful turbojet engines and wrapped in a sleek, dart-like fuselage, the Hustler looked more like a futuristic fighter than a traditional bomber. Its stunning performance allowed it to fly faster than many contemporary interceptors, making it one of the most technologically advanced aircraft of the Cold War.

What truly made the B-58 unique was its combination of cutting-edge aerodynamics, advanced materials, and sophisticated avionics. The aircraft featured a highly swept delta wing, extensive use of honeycomb structures to save weight, and an escape capsule for each crew member, features that were years ahead of many aircraft in service at the time.

06/01/2026

Cassin Young (March 6, 1894 – November 13, 1942) was a captain in the United States Navy who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Medal of Honor citation:

For distinguished conduct in action, outstanding heroism and utter disregard of his own safety, above and beyond the call of duty, as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Vestal, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by enemy Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Commander Young proceeded to the bridge and later took personal command of the 3-inch antiaircraft gun. When blown overboard by the blast of the forward magazine explosion of the U.S.S. Arizona, to which the U.S.S. Vestal was moored, he swam back to his ship. The entire forward part of the U.S.S. Arizona was a blazing inferno with oil afire on the water between the two ships; as a result of several bomb hits, the U.S.S. Vestal was afire in several places, was settling and taking on a list. Despite severe enemy bombing and strafing at the time, and his shocking experience of having been blown overboard, Commander Young, with extreme coolness and calmness, moved his ship to an anchorage distant from the U.S.S. Arizona, and subsequently beached the U.S.S. Vestal upon determining that such action was required to save his ship.

06/01/2026

Today, we remember and honor the life of Captain Erwin Bernard Lawrence, one of the first Tuskegee Airmen and a true pioneer in American military aviation.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on this day in 1919, Capt. Lawrence became a pilot during a time when the military doubted whether Black Americans could fly in combat. He proved them wrong — again and again.

Graduating with Class 42-F-SE from Tuskegee Army Air Field, Lawrence joined the legendary 99th Fighter Squadron. He served with distinction across North Africa and Italy, eventually rising to command the squadron in 1944.

He flew nearly 100 combat missions in P-40 Warhawks and P-51 Mustangs, earning multiple Air Medals and a Purple Heart. His leadership was critical during fierce battles like Anzio, where the 99th downed more enemy aircraft than any other unit during a brutal two-day fight.

On October 4, 1944, during a low-level attack on a German-held airfield in Greece, Capt. Lawrence’s plane was seen to spin and crash — likely caught in a cable strung across the field. He was just 25 years old.

Capt. Lawrence is buried at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy. He gave everything — his brilliance, his bravery, and ultimately his life — to a nation that didn’t yet treat him as equal.

We set aside today in his memory.

Learn more: https://cafriseabove.org/erwin-bernard-lawrence/

06/01/2026

It is with profound sadness that the Congressional Medal of Honor Society shares the passing of Medal of Honor Recipient Colonel Bruce P. Crandall, U.S. Army (Ret.), who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism during the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam. He passed away peacefully at his home on May 31, 2026, at the age of 93.

A legendary Army aviator, Colonel Crandall was awarded the Medal of Honor for repeatedly flying his UH-1 Huey helicopter into intense enemy fire on November 14, 1965, to deliver critical ammunition and evacuate wounded Soldiers. Completing 22 flights through relentless enemy fire, his actions saved countless lives and became one of the most celebrated acts of courage in Army aviation history.

With Colonel Crandall's passing, there are now 63 living Medal of Honor Recipients.

Please join us in extending our heartfelt condolences and prayers to the Crandall family.

To learn more about Colonel Crandall's remarkable life and legacy, visit: https://www.cmohs.org/news-events/press-releases/passingofbrucecrandall/

05/31/2026

August 1963, Key West, Florida. The sun beats down on a parched island where the freshwater aquifers have turned briny and undrinkable. Panic is setting in. The US Navy’s largest mobile desalination plant, a massive, roaring beast of steel and pipes, sits idle on the docks. It was designed for aircraft carriers, not civilian rescue. But with 45,000 residents facing a catastrophic water shortage, there is no other option. Enter Chief Warrant Officer John Schellenger. He isn’t just an engineer; he is a magician of mechanics. The plant’s complex multi-stage flash distillation system is prone to violent "scaling"—mineral buildup that clogs pipes and kills efficiency. If it fails, the city dies of thirst.

Schellenger ignores the manual. He realizes the standard chemical treatments are too slow for the emergency output required. In a move that defies every safety protocol, he manually overrides the pressure valves, pushing the system to 110% capacity. He creates a rhythmic, pulsing flow that literally shakes the mineral deposits loose before they can harden. For 72 hours, he sleeps in 20-minute bursts, listening to the hum of the turbines like a doctor monitoring a heartbeat. The plant groans, vibrates, and threatens to explode, but Schellenger’s intuitive adjustments keep it running. Freshwater pours into the city mains. He didn’t just fix a machine; he engineered survival against impossible odds, turning salt into life when science said it couldn’t be done fast enough.

SHOCKING FACTS:

The plant produced 1 million gallons of fresh water per day, saving Key West from total evacuation.

Schellenger’s "pulsing" technique was an improvised hack that predated modern automated anti-scaling systems by decades.
The operation ran continuously for 72 hours without a single mechanical failure, despite operating beyond design limits.
This mission proved that mobile desalination could work for civilian crises, changing global disaster response protocols.

The cost of the operation was a fraction of the billions it would have cost to truck in water or evacuate the population.



(AI-generated historical reconstruction for educational storytelling — not a real photograph)

05/31/2026

The USS Constitution launched in 1797 and nicknamed “Old Ironsides”, is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat, and maintaining her requires the same materials she was originally built from.

That means massive, straight‑grained white oak timbers, something modern commercial forestry rarely produces because trees are harvested long before reaching the 150–200 years needed for ship‑grade strength. To solve this, the U.S. Navy began managing its own dedicated forest in Indiana, treating it like a living time capsule of future ship parts.

This forest, known as the Naval Support Activity Crane forest, is carefully stewarded so that only a handful of trees are harvested each decade, ensuring the Constitution can be repaired authentically for centuries to come.

The Navy’s approach is so sustainable that the forest is actually healthier today than when the program began, blending military heritage with long‑term ecological planning. It’s one of the rare cases where a modern institution actively grows trees today for a ship that will still need them hundreds of years from now.

05/31/2026

Confidence Maneuver: Barometer. At Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, C-130 flight crews utilize a series of intense training exercises collectively known as "confidence maneuvers" to master the handling boundaries of the HC-130 Hercules in Alaska’s notoriously unforgiving maritime environment. Designed to build trust between the pilot and the heavy, four-engine turboprop airframe, these maneuvers push the aircraft to its aerodynamic limits through steep turns (often banking between 45 and 60 degrees), slow flight tracking, and controlled approaches to aerodynamic stalls. By practicing these aggressive recovery procedures at safe training altitudes, Kodiak pilots learn to intimately recognize the airframe's physical buffet cues and structural warning signs. This mastery proves critical when crews must drop beneath low cloud ceilings or execute sharp, low-altitude 90-270 degree tactical turns over raging, white-capped seas to spot survivors and accurately deliver emergency search and rescue (SAR) survival kits.

Address

1402 Roseland Avenue
Sebring, FL
33870

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 4pm
Thursday 12pm - 4pm
Friday 12pm - 4pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+18633850992

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