By Norman Polmar (Editor’s note: This is the fourteenth in a series of blogs by Norman Polmar, author, analyst, and consultant specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence fields. Follow the full series here.) About the time that he was named Secretary of the Navy in February 1981, John F. Lehman met with two of
By Dr. Bill Dudley The recent news of Rear Admiral John D. H. Kane, Jr.’s death brought back a flood of memories among those who recall his days as the Director of Naval History and the Naval Historical Center (now the Naval History and Heritage Command). He had a distinguished career, reaching back to his
By Captain George Stewart, USN (RET) This is the second in a series of articles by Captain Stewart detailing the technical specifications, manning, and operations of the U.S. Navy’s Fletcher class destroyers. My previous article (read Part 1 here) gave an overview of the U.S. Navy’s highly successful Fletcher class destroyer. In this article I
The 2013 McMullen Naval History Symposium, hosted by the History Department of the United States Naval Academy, will be held 19-20 September 2013. For program updates, the list of panelists, registration, and additional information visit: www.usna.edu/History/Symposium/ For NHF members attending the symposium, we encourage you to wear your NHF lapel pin. If you do not
This summer, we’ve had the opportunity to work with the Navy Museum on their Summer Engineering Camp, and directly support the LEGO Robotics portion of the curriculum. The camp, which concluded last Friday, brought dozens of youngsters to the museum for a four-day, team based competition. The Cold War Gallery was bustling all week with
By Norman Polmar (Editor’s note: This is the thirteenth in a series of blogs by Norman Polmar, author, analyst, and consultant specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence fields. Follow the full series here.) John Lehman had an almost revolutionary impact on the Navy. He walked into the Pentagon in 1981 knowing what he wanted
By Marc Liebman, Fireship Press, Tuscan, AZ, (2012) Reviewed by Thomas P. Ostrom It was my pleasure to review this magnificent book about U.S. Navy helicopter combat rescue operations for downed aviators and crews during the Vietnam War. Naval Historical Foundation Program Director Dr. David F. Winkler suggested I review this book because of my
By Martin J. Bollinger, World Ship Society Ltd, Windsor. UK. (2012). Reviewed by Ingo Heidbrink, Ph.D. Russian or to be more precise Soviet maritime history seems to be one of the most overlooked topics in global maritime history. Of course there is an explanation for this, the obvious language barrier many scholars are facing and
By Peter Fretwell and Taylor B. Kiland. 2013, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD, (2013). Reviewed by Charles Bogart Never before have I had the privilege to read a book that within only 153 pages of text provides the reader with an outline of how to be a leader. I need to mention that there is
By Andrew C. A. Jampoler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, (2013). Reviewed by Mark Lardas The nineteenth century United States Navy exploration efforts included the Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 that circumnavigated the globe and discovered parts of Antarctica and the 1848-49 hydrographic expedition charting the Dead Sea. Both were notable successes. On the other end
By James M. McPherson, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC, (2012). Reviewed by Kenneth J. Blume, Ph.D. Do we need yet another book about the naval side of the Civil War? When the book has been written by the nation’s preeminent scholar of the Civil War, the answer is certainly yes. James M.
By Tonio Andrade, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, (2011). Reviewed by STCM James C. Bussert, U.S. Navy (Retired) The Chinese naval and land military defeats versus all foreign powers, including Japan, Russia, Britain and France from 1886 to 1947, are well known. What is not well known is the Chinese defeat of Dutch forces over
By Marc E. Nonnenkamp, CreateSpace: Charleston, SC, (2011). Reviewed by Walter “Winn” Price My immediate interest in these two volume stems from the presence in my manuscript of three Imperial German Navy ships: S.M.S. Olga, Adler, and Eber. Longer term I anticipated that Marc Nonnenkamp’s research would under girt future writing leading up to the
By John T. Pigott, (2006) Reviewed by Rear Admiral Peter B. Booth, U.S. Navy (Retired) The whaleboat was deep in the water, grossly overloaded with sailors hauled from the ocean. I grabbed the oil-soaked life jacket of the sailor who would have brought our total to thirty-five, and had started to heave him aboard when
By Captain George Stewart, USN (Retired) This is the first of a series of articles describing life in the 1950s on a World War II built Fletcher Class Destroyer. My connection to these ships began as I was approaching graduation from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in August of 1956. Due to a change in
