On December 29, NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, the U.S. Navy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs dedicated a memorial to commemorate the Civil War ironclad, USS Monitor, and its crew. The USS Monitor memorial, located in Hampton National Cemetery in Hampton, Va., honors the iconic vessel that sank in a New Year's Eve storm 150 years ago, carrying 16 crew members to their deaths.

The USS Monitor was designed by Swedish inventor John Ericsson and is best known for its Civil War battle with the Confederate ironclad, CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads, Va., on March 9, 1862. The engagement marked the first time iron-armored ships clashed in naval warfare and signaled the end of the era of wooden ships.

Less than a year later, while being towed to a new field of battle, the Monitor capsized and sank off Cape Hatteras, N.C. The skeletal remains of two sailors were found in the ship's turret during a recovery operation in 2002 by NOAA and the U.S. Navy. The remains were turned over to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii, which is working to try and identify the sailors. To date, no trace of the other 14 missing members of the crew has been found....