By Matthew Eng NHF Membership Spotlight is an ongoing segment for the Naval Historical Foundation blog where we showcase our loyal members. It’s important that we let our members know that they are as integral a part of naval history as the ships and sailors that continue to protect and serve today. If you are
Edited by Richard J. Bailey, Jr., James W. Forsyth, Jr., and Mark O. Yesley, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Steven K. Stein, Ph.D. This collection of eleven essays by current or former faculty of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS) at Maxwell Air Force Base explores linkages between modern
By Benjamin J. Hruska. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD (2016) Reviewed by Heather M. Haley Over the past three decades, debates over the professionalization of public historians have raged between academic historians and those who involve themselves in archival management, museum curation, and the digital humanities. Benjamin Hruska, former director of the Block Island Historical
By John J. Domagalski, Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia, PA (2016) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three (MTB-3) joined the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines just three months before Japan attacked the islands on December 8, 1941. Six boats and 82 sailors under Lt. John D. Bulkeley’s command performed remarkably
By Richard S. MacAlpine, Infinity Press (2016) Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart This amazing book allows the reader to enter the heart and soul of Frank H. Schofield who entered the Naval Academy in 1886 and retired in 1933 as Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Battle Fleet. Admiral Schofield saw service during the Spanish-American War
By Ronald S. Coddington, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD (2016) Review by Thomas P. Ostrom Ronald S. Coddington has chronicled the lives of dozens of Confederate and Union sailors in the War of the Rebellion (1861-1865) in his magnificent photographic and narrative history. In the Foreword, Professor Craig L. Symonds traced the general backgrounds
By Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2017) Reviewed by Capt. Howard R. Portnoy, USN (Ret.) With the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaching, it seems an appropriate time to reexamine our perceptions of the war to determine if revisions are necessary. It appears reasonable to
By Dr. David F. Winkler In 2013, the Naval Historical Foundation (NHF) initiated the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Award to acknowledge a lifetime body of work that embraces scholarship, leadership, and mentoring in the field of naval history. The inaugural presentation during the 2013 Naval Academy McMullen Naval History Symposium included Dr. Phillip Lundeberg, Dr.
By Chris Goss, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) This new book details one of World War II’s least known but, at the time, most efficient aircraft, if only for its psychological effect on allied, especially British, morale. For approximately three years, the Condor patrolled the convoy routes
Edited by David C. Evans, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (Hardcover,1986; Paperback, 2017) Reviewed By: Michael F. Solecki The Japanese Navy In World War II is a collection of interviews/essays previously published in various volumes of the United States Naval Institute’s Proceedings, as well as other publications from the 1950s and 1960s by former witnessing
Andrew Lambert, ed., Naval Institute Press Annapolis MD (2017) Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, Ph.D. Announcing the death of Sir Julian Corbett in 1922, The Times of London believed the nation had lost ‘a naval historian of remarkable gifts.’ Corbett was certainly that, but he was also much more as Andrew Lambert ably amplifies in this
Andrew S. Erickson, Ed. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Dwayne Day, Ph.D. On April 26, China’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier, still lacking a name, slipped into the sea. The smart-looking vessel bears a strong resemblance to China’s only operational carrier, built by the Soviets and bought from Ukraine. This new ship will
By Peter E. Davies, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK and New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) No. 116 in the highly successful Combat Aircraft series from this prolific publisher and author, this new book is an excellent compilation of Navy squadrons that flew the F-4 in Southeast Asia. It’s one of
By Matthew T. Eng The Naval Historical Foundation is gearing up for our annual meeting on Saturday, 3 June. This year’s focus will be the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Our guest speaker this year will be Dr. Timothy Orr, co-author of Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers
By Dave Stockwell, Book Publishers Network (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter B Mersky, USN (Ret.) The Vietnam War (roughly 1964-1973) was not only a series of albeit hard-fought, bloody aerial campaigns by aircrews who flew from hot, humid airfields throughout Southeast Asia, or the equally hot, humid undulating flight decks of Seventh Fleet carriers in
