US History Trivia: What was the name of the US Navy ship that was attacked by Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen?

Update week!  As you may have noticed, Pocket Trivia: US History and Pocket Trivia: US Presidents launched an update a few weeks ago, putting 50 new questions into each of these games.  So, for the rest of this week, when we feature these two games, we will discuss questions off of the update.

Today's question features a topic not far from the minds of any U.S. resident:  terrorism.  On October 12, 2000, a US Navy destroyer was attacked in Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.  The suicide-bombing was perpetrated by Al-Qaeda.  So, in today's question off of US History:  What was the name of the ship?  Was it the USS Brenna, USS Blue Marlin, USS The Sullivans or USS Cole?

What papers, published by the New York times, revealed the systematic deception of the American people in regards to the Vietnam War?

Given all of the recent controversy over Wikileaks, I can think of few questions that would be more appropriate than this one right here.  This one comes off of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. History game: What papers, published by the New York times, revealed the systematic deception of the American people in regards to the Vietnam War?  Was it The Kissinger Compilation, The Defense Report, The Pentagon Papers or The Dreyfuss Report?

The correct answer would be The Pentagon Papers.  The Papers, published by the New York Times, was actually a Defense Department study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1945-1967.  The study was put together by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.  It was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, who had once worked on the report, to the New York Times.  It showed that four Presidential administrations had actually lied to the American public about the war and had expanded the war greater than was previously known, among other accusations.

The Nixon administration sued to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers, fearing that its publication would set a bad precedent for future National Security leaks (sound fimiliar?).  The Nixon Administration obtained an injunction to stop the Papers publication, but the decision was overturned 6-3 in a U.S. Supreme Court decision, allowing the publication of the Papers to continue.

Others in the Nixon administration would later admit that the report was a classic example of "overclassification" and that there was never a threat to national security, so the parallel to Wikileaks is unclear - but nonetheless, certainly makes you think, doesn't it?

Which state is home to the largest naval base in the world?

We're in a military frame of mind today - this question comes straight off of our Pocket Trivia: US History game. What state is home to the largest naval base in the world?  Is it California, Hawaii, Virginia or Massachusetts?


The answer is Virginia.  Some interesting comments here about the psychology of this question too, since some of these answers have elements of being trick question-like.  I went with Hawaii as a possible answer because just about everyone likely thought of Pearl Harbor when they saw that.  Nope - though I think you can make the case that Pearl Harbor is the best known U.S. naval base.  I also went with California since its one of the biggest states in America and would seem like a safe guess.  Wrong again.

Virginia is the correct answer, and the largest naval base in the world is Naval Station Norfolk, located in Norfolk, Virginia.  It serves as the garrison of the 2nd naval fleet, conducts over 100,000 flight operations a year, 150,000 passengers and 264,000 tons of mail.  That's a lot of mail.