The U.S. Navy is likely to continue its deployment in the Red Sea to protect the shipping route.

As cruel and heartless as it may seem, kill marks (aka victory markings) are a time-honored method for the crew of warplanes, warships, and fighting ground vehicles to denote and commemorate the destruction of their enemy’s war machines, in the guise of symbols of the vanquished machined applied in stencil or decal to the side of the vanquishers’ machine.

Besides posterity, these kill markings also provide a historical snapshot of the type of combat faced by the victorious participants. The latest example of these artistic insights can be seen in the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Spruance (DDG-211) and its accomplishments in the ongoing Red Sea campaign against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen.