David D. Bruhn Home Page

Battle Stars for the Cactus Navy

Night Action off Tulagi by Richard DeRosset, depicting the destruction of USS YP-346 by the Japanese light cruiser IJN Sendai off Guadalcanal on 8 September 1942. It will be used as the cover art for a book, currently undergoing publisher review and provisionally titled "Battle Stars for the Cactus Navy," devoted to the U.S. Navy's Patrol Yachts and District Yard Patrol craft (converted civilian yachts and fishing vessels commonly called "Yippees") of World War II. (Click on title to view entire painting.)

Pacific Island Hoppers

Enemy Strike from Rabaul: an oil painting

Enemy Strike from Rabaul by Richard DeRosset will be the cover art for a book manuscript in progress, provisionally titled "Pacific Island Hoppers."

Endorsement of Painting
Richard DeRosset's depiction of the APc-15 during its battle with a flight of Japanese dive bombers and fighters takes me back to that day seven decades ago and reminds me of the heroic efforts of my officers and crew. He captures the minute details of the ship engaged in a life and death fight for its survival against overwhelming odds. His magnificent painting is a masterful work of power, passion, and detail.
Kemper Goffigon III
Former Commanding Officer USS APc-15

Richard DeRosset's Salvation from the Sea depicts Lt. John F. Kennedy, the commanding officer of PT-59, taking U.S. Marines pinned down by Japanese forces at the mouth of the Warrior River off Choiseul Island the evening of 2 November 1943. This photograph will be used in the book manuscript provisionally titled "Pacific Island Hoppers"

Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Volume III: The U.S. Navy's Coastal and Inshore Minesweepers, and the Minecraft that Served in Vietnam, 1953-1976

From 1953 to 1976, twenty-four U.S. Navy coastal minesweepers (MSCs) swept mines, searched the seafloor for downed aircraft, sunken ships and lost munitions, "showed the flag" in the Caribbean and throughout the Far East, and played a key role in the Vietnam War. Atlantic Fleet coastal minesweepers searched for a nuclear bomb buried in the sea bed off Savannah, Georgia, as a result of a midair collision between two U.S. Air Force aircraft and provided support for the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. MSCs based at Sasebo, Japan, conducted patrols off Vietnam to interdict smuggling of supplies by sea to the Viet Cong in the South. One, USS Vireo, participated in the destruction of an enemy gun runner. Much smaller minesweeping boats(MSBs) kept the Long Tau River, which passed through the dangerous "Forest of Assassins" and connected the South China Sea to Saigon, open to merchant vessels delivering military cargos to allied forces. Facing daily the possibility of death by Viet Cong mine or riverbank ambush, the thirteen boats of Mine Squadron Eleven Detachment Alfa comprised the first Navy unit to be awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Possessing too few minecraft to support its riverine combat operations, the U.S. Navy also pressed existing landing craft and newly built assault support patrol boats and minesweeping drones into these duties.

The unheralded MSBs and steel-hulled minecraft collectively garnered four Presidential Unit Citations, three Meritorious Unit Commendations, and three Navy Unit Commendations. Significant numbers of the small enlisted crews that took the craft in harm's way received the Navy Cross, Silver Star and Bronze Star Medals for acts of heroism performed under fire.