From the Archives | 80th Anniversary

Indianapolis

Nearly 70 years after USS Indianapolis tragedy, survivor tells his tale

Just past midnight July 30, 1945, two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine struck the USS Indianapolis with almost 1,200 people aboard.

Robert Hawthorne, chief of the American Forces Network Pacific technical services division, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023, after suffering a heart attack at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

Longtime AFN leader dies of heart attack at US air base in Japan

Robert Hawthorne, chief of the American Forces Network Pacific technical services division, died Thursday at this base in western Tokyo after suffering a heart attack, according to a Facebook post by the network Saturday.

In 1987, George Smith returned to AFN Nuremberg as an Army civilian after working at Voice of America in Washington, D.C. He led the station of 14 service members and government civilians, moving the affiliate from Nuremberg, Germany, to the former William O’Darby Kaserne in Fuerth. The station is now called AFN Bavaria and is located in Vilseck.

New memoir details AFN DJ Gorgeous George’s odyssey behind the mic

During the Vietnam War, an acne-prone, academic underachiever named George Smith walked into an Army recruiting office in Pennsylvania Dutch country and landed himself a radio gig that lasted for four decades.

A Navy public affairs officer poses for a photo with children at the Dorothea's Project Legacies Charity Center, Danang, Vietnam, during the USS Theodore Roosevelt's port call March 6, 2020.

USS Theodore Roosevelt’s fateful Vietnam port call had blessing of Pacific’s highest commanders

The decision to move forward with the port call was made by high-ranking Pacific military officials only after a thorough analysis of risks posed at that point in the spread of the virus, according to a written statement provided to Stars and Stripes by Pacific Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Myers Vasquez.

Pacific spotlight: Frank Gravinese

You’re a morning DJ for the Navy base radio station. Do you have fans?It’s funny, I actually do have a number of fans.

Marine Cpl. Todd Hunter and Air Force Staff Sgt. Rachael Herrmann chat with listeners calling into Herrmann's morning show on the AFN Okinawa radio station The Wave 89.1 which is based at Plaza Housing, Okinawa.

AFN knows they can’t please everybody, but they try

"I kissed a girl and I liked it / the taste of her cherry ChapStick / I kissed a girl just to try it / I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it."

The Samaritan Shopper Program for people in quarantine was launched at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, in summer 2020 and remained active until summer 2021, when vaccinations became widespread, and demand dropped off.

Volunteer shoppers resurface at US bases in Japan as COVID-19 surges

A new, record-breaking surge of COVID-19 infections in Japan led to a resurgence of a program to help deliver groceries to those in quarantine at Yokosuka Naval Base.