Last night, the US Navy Museum hosted a special panel presentation entitled “An Underwater Ice Station Zebra: Recovering a Secret Spy Satellite Capsule from 16,400 ft Below the Pacific Ocean” The subject for the evening was the once classified 1972 mission to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Early that year, a film capsule from
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the return of American Prisoners of War held by the North Vietnamese. Many of the POWs were naval aviators, and the Naval Historical Foundation, in conjunction with the National Museum of the United States Navy, is working on a number of initiatives to remember the long ordeal endured
Written by Adrian K. Wood and Illustrated by Giuseppe Rava. Osprey Publishing, Ltd., Long Island City, NY. (2012) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA. Writing about human activities in the Bronze and early Iron Ages is a daunting task. Evidence from these eras is fragmentary at best, like a jigsaw puzzle with far more pieces
By Ken W. Sayers, Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, MD, (2012). Reviewed by Jennifer Daley The United States Navy has a strong history of developing unique vessels to combat specific roles beyond the realm of traditional battleships and submarines. In the 2012 publication, Uncommon Warriors: 200 Years of the Most Unusual American Naval Vessels, author Ken
By Thomas Boghardt, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2012) Reviewed by Capt. Winn Price USNR (Ret.) I thoroughly enjoyed this tale from the black world of cryptology. Espionage novels replete with the ‘shaken-not-stirred’ womanizers and drivers of fast cars, abound in fiction and non-fiction. Codebreakers have not received glorification in a similar genre of novels.
Edited by Kenneth E. Bingham. NMCB-8 Association, Ventura, CA (2013). Reviewed by Charles Bogart The subtitle of this book is “The 13-Man Teams That Helped Rural Vietnamese and who Fought Alongside the Special Forces.” The introduction of the book under review proclaims that it consists of excerpts taken from the book “COMCPAC REPORTS, Special Edition,
By Chuck Veit, Lulu.com, Raleigh, NC. (2012) Reviewed by David Kronenfeld Chuck Veit in Raising Missouri has put together a tidy little volume detailing a little known footnote of American naval history – the sinking and salvage of USS Missouri. This is Veit’s third book and continues in the vein of his focus on 19th
By Joseph Gibbs, Sussex Academic Press Portland, OR (2012). Reviewed by J.J. Ahern As Joseph Gibbs notes in his introduction to On the Account: Piracy and the Americas, 1766 – 1835, “Piracy in the Age of Sail continues to fascinate modern audiences (ix).” The image of swashbuckling buccaneers readily captivates the imagination of all ages;
By Veronica Cherry, Gallant Books, (2012) Reviewed by Nathan Albright In reading this dramatic and action-packed novel about piracy and children in extreme peril, it is difficult not to suspect that the author has a variety of personal and professional motives in framing the story as she does. The novel begins and ends with a
By Ronald D. Utt, Regnery Publishing, Washington, DC, (2012). Reviewed by David Curtis Skaggs, Ph.D. Entering the lists of War of 1812 naval history contenders is Ronald Utt’s Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron that seeks to demonstrate that this conflict forged the respected United States Navy that emerged in the nineteenth century. Or at
By Michael Rutstein, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Salem, MA (2012). Reviewed by James C. Bradford, Ph.D. Despite its important role in American defense policy from the Revolution through the War of 1812, privateering has never been the subject of a comprehensive study. This accounts, in part, for the fact that privateering, i.e., the system of
With the Covert Submarine Operations exhibit in the National Museum of the U.S. Navy’s Cold War Gallery serving as a backdrop, a large crowd filled the Gallery’s North Hall on the evening of 11 April 2013 (coinciding with the Submarine Force’s 113th Birthday) to witness and participate in a program titled “Seawolf and The Maritime
Edited by Jim Bresnahan, Naval Institute Press, 2011. Reviewed by Rear Admiral Ed Keats, USN (Ret) Counter factional histories have been popular with chimerical writers over many years. I can recall from high school days being fascinated with a book based on the author’s imagination of an early ending to the Civil War right after
By Robert D. Hicks, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD. (2011) Reviewed by Mark Lardas When Britain’s first North America colonies were established, transatlantic voyages were challenges analogous to trips to the Moon today. What did it take to sail the Atlantic four centuries ago? Voyage to Jamestown: Practical Navigation in the Age of Discovery; by
Reviewed by Charles Bogart I Remember the Yorktown (2006) is the first of three self-published books that Gene Domienik has written concerning his service in the U. S. Navy during World War II. The book focuses on his tour of duty onboard Yorktown (CV 5) from October 1941 to its loss at the Battle of
