Navy Ships

The 10th time was a charm for Navy and a curse for Loyola yesterday afternoon in Annapolis. Senior guard Jeff Charles scored a team-high 16 points to lead the Midshipmen to a 58-54 victory over the Greyhounds, Navy's first victory over an NCAA Division I opponent in 10 tries this season. The Midshipmen (3-9) ended a four-game losing streak and won for the first time since posting consecutive victories over Division III schools Gettysburg and Washington College last month. Loyola (0-10)

HAGERSTOWN - From the time he left the Navy in 1946, Bill Kearns held on to his collection of memorabilia from the USS Bon Homme Richard, on which he sailed from the day it was commissioned in 1944. He never knew what to do with the pictures, the photographs, the uniforms - pieces that told his little slice of World War II history. He knew his buddies had mementos, too - tucked away in attics, packed in boxes, stuff many of their wives might be more than happy to have them discard. It all clicked when he inherited an old rowhouse in this landlocked Western Maryland city and decided to turn it into a museum of the ship's history, a place to honor those who served alongside him nearly 60 years ago. He now calls the house the Skivvy Waver House, after the nickname shared by Kearns and his fellow signalmen on the ship.

More than his four brothers, Tim Shanley gave serious thought to going to college somewhere besides the Naval Academy. He had been offered a full scholarship to Georgetown University, and a spot was waiting for him on its football team. His mother hoped he would go. But deep down, she knew that Tim would do exactly as his brothers - and their father - had done. "Psychologically speaking, I don't think Tim had a choice," said Eileen Shanley, sitting in her Annapolis living room recently, surrounded by framed photographs of her sons in uniform.

WASHINGTON - The war was supposed to start with about 3,000 precision-guided weapons ripping through the night sky over Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. But late yesterday, President Bush was offered targets he couldn't refuse, and everything changed - at least for the moment. Instead of the widely anticipated massive aerial bombardment, one designed to induce in Iraqi troops and leaders what Pentagon officials have called "shock and awe," the first shots of the second Persian Gulf war were far less destructive and visually impressive.

Before Master Sgt. Richard Christopher of the Maryland National Guard was shipped to the Middle East in December, his wife drafted a list of chores: Fix the transmission on the Chevrolet pickup, sign over power of attorney, repair the tractor and move the computer from the family room to the bedroom. "I was afraid I'd miss an e-mail," says Gayle Saunders-Christopher, 56, of northern Harford County. With the computer screen just three feet from her bed - and angled toward her pillows - Saunders-Christopher can spot e-mail from her husband as it arrives.

Before yesterday, Navy backup quarterback Aaron Polanco was known mostly for his solid, steady play during mop-up duty. But all that changed in an instant yesterday when he came on for injured starter Craig Candeto and nearly became the first Navy quarterback to beat Notre Dame since Roger Staubach before falling, 30-23. Though Polanco didn't do anything jaw-dropping statistically, he kept Navy composed after Candeto, the team's leading rusher, had to leave on the game's fourth play with a sprained ankle.

WASHINGTON - General Dynamics Corp. sought yesterday to overturn the Navy's award to Northrop Grumman Corp. of a $2.9 billion three-year contract to design a new class of destroyers that is less visible to radar. General Dynamics' attorneys filed a protest with the U.S. General Accounting Office, alleging problems with the Navy's process for determining a winner in the design contest. Raytheon Co. is the prime subcontractor on Northrop Grumman's team. Lockheed Martin Corp. teamed with General Dynamics.

C. Carwood Lipton, 81, whose World War II experiences played a role in the best-selling book and television miniseries Band of Brothers, died Sunday in Southern Pines, N.C. Band of Brothers author Stephen Ambrose recently told a North Carolina audience that Mr. Lipton was a major source of information for the book. The HBO miniseries that aired this year focused on the retelling of the U.S. Army's newly formed Easy Company (Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division)

NORFOLK, Va. - The Firebolt, one of the Navy's newest, fastest ships, built to insert and extract commandos in exotic locations around the globe, zipped through the Chesapeake Bay one recent morning on a new mission: Homeland defense. And in place of Navy Seals, it had a new strike team: a boarding party from the Coast Guard. For the first time since World War II, the Coast Guard is defending Navy ships in U.S. waters as well as taking a more vigorous look at thousands of ships entering those waters, checking their cargoes and crews.

WASHINGTON - The new war against terrorism could well begin in the dun-colored mountains and the ancient cities of Afghanistan. Cruise missiles fired from Navy ships in the Arabian Sea strike military and political targets, while F-18 attack aircraft screech through the skies and unleash precision bombs. High-flying B-1 bombers unleash a huge cargo of munitions that obliterates portions of the landscape. In the Afghan hills, Arabic-speaking Green Berets from Fort Campbell, Ky., call in airstrikes against terrorist camps or link up with guerrilla fighters for the first time since the Vietnam War. Overhead, small, unmanned drones make long, lazy loops, broadcasting live pictures to commanders, while lumbering spy aircraft zap ground radar installations and vacuum up enemy radio signals.