edited by Dwight Hughes and Chris Mackowski
A navy veteran might call this a book of sea stories, specifically Civil War sea stories. Such tales—like fish stories, campfire stories, and aging-warrior stories— traditionally have about them elements of the fantastic and the fabricated. A true sailor would begin with, "This is no s**t!" Essays within indeed take place on the oceans, also on the beaches, in the harbors, and on the rivers of the Civil War. They are, however, comprehensive narrative history fashioned by talented public historians at Emerging Civil War. They also contain features of the fantastic but with the virtue of being true. Although the chapters are roughly chronological, these essays make for good browsing in any order of interest. They touch on many topics from strategy, tactics, and technology to social and political issues as well as personalities great and lowly. Devotees of both Civil War and naval history will discover unique perspectives on familiar events as well as obscure tales filling gaps of knowledge and understanding.
Email: shipdriver@verizon.net
Publisher: Savas Beatie, 2023
Ordering Info: Savas Beatie. See other works by this NOUS companion here.
by Gilbert Beyer
This book is more of a scrapbook than it is a history. The idea for it came into being while sitting around over beers with a group of shipmates at a reunion of former Fiske sailors. The late Tom Clancy once wrote, "If it isn't written down it never happened." I started collecting these stories in 2010 and got the last one received into this edition. This is probably the last in the series. Too many of the people involved have passed, some never having told their stories. Today is a different world than it was after World War II and before 9/11 but we would do history an injustice if we failed to recognize its passing.
Email: ddr6063@gmail.com
Publisher: Independently published, 2024
Ordering Info: Amazon. See other works by this NOUS companion here.
by Kevin Glynn
An historical fiction novel that present a dramatic retelling of the Battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The navies of Queen Elizabeth I of England and King Philip II of Spain square off for ten days of fighting in the English Channel. The story is told by the viewpoints of the protagonists on either side of the conflict. Are Elizabeth's fighting "sea dog" mariners up to the task of beating the Spanish juggernaut? Read the book to find out.
Email: kevin_j_glynn@yahoo.com
Publisher: Independently published, 2024
Ordering Info: Amazon
edited by Dr. Robert Browning Jr.
On May 18, 1862, Henry Willis Wells wrote a letter to his mother telling her in clear terms, "I am fighting for the Union." Since August 1861, when he joined the US Navy as a master's mate he never wavered in his loyalty. He wrote to his family frequently that he considered military service a necessary and patriotic duty, and the career that ensued was a dramatic one, astutely and articulately documented by Wells in more than 200 letters home, leaving an invaluable account of daily life in the Union Navy.
Wells joined the navy shortly after the war began, initially on board the Cambridge, attached to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, which patrolled the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. He witnessed the Battle of Hampton Roads and the fight between the ironclads CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. Next, the Cambridge assisted in the blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina. In one instance, the warship chased the schooner J. W. Pindar ashore during her attempt to run the blockade, and Confederate forces captured Henry's boarding party. After a short prison stay in the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, his Confederate captors paroled Henry. He travelled back to Brookline, and soon thereafter the Navy Department assigned him to the gunboat Ceres, which operated on the sounds and rivers of North Carolina, protecting army positions ashore. Henry was on board during the Confederate attempt to capture Washington, North Carolina. During this April 1863 attack, Henry was instrumental in the town's defense, commanding a naval battery ashore during the latter part of the fight.
His exceptional service gained him a transfer to a larger warship, the USS Montgomery, again on the blockade of Wilmington. Later the service assigned him to the Gem of the Sea, part of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. Through his hard work and professionalism, he finally earned his first command. In September 1864, he became the commanding officer of the Rosalie, a sloop used as a tender to the local warships. Later he commanded the schooner Annie, also a tender. At the end of December 1864, however, the Annie suffered a massive explosion, killing all hands, including Wells. He was twenty-three years old when his life and career ended tragically. Wells's letters document both his considerable achievements and his frustrations. His challenges, triumphs, and disappointments are rendered with candor. I Am Fighting for the Union is a vital and deeply personal account of a momentous chapter in the history of the Civil War and its navies.
Email: keel2truck@aol.com
Publisher: UAP, 2023
Ordering Info: The University of Alabama Press
by Taylor Kiland
Moving from the sidelines to the frontlines of activism, a small group of military wives defies government rules to leave wartime diplomacy to the professionals. Speaking up about the plight of their missing and captive husbands, they successfully make the fate of their men a national priority in the 1960s. It was a time when without the signature of a spouse or father, a woman could rarely obtain a credit card, get a mortgage, or purchase a car.
Meticulously researched, Unwavering is a spellbinding page-turner. Thrusting the reader into an unfolding drama, it captures the women's tentative beginnings and the obstacles they endured during the tumult of a war unfolding on television, in nationwide antiwar protests, the Watergate scandal, and the seismic cultural upheavals taking place in America. As they take matters into their own hands, they succeed in persuading a U.S. president, Congress, the State Department, and the Pentagon to follow their lead. Simultaneously, they galvanize public support for their cause, creating a national obsession with our missing men. In doing so, they established an enduring tenet of American policy to Leave No Man Behind. Theirs is not simply a wives' tale. This is the quintessentially American story of how a group of women, once silenced and sidelined, persevered against all odds to change how America fights its wars.
Email: taylor.kiland@gmail.com
Publisher: Knox Press, 2023
Ordering Info: Amazon
by David F. Winkler
1942 would prove crucial for the United States in the Pacific following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and a series of setbacks in the Southwest. As the first ship commissioned following America's entry into World War II, the light cruiser USS Atlanta would be thrust into the Pacific fight, joining the fleet in time for the pivotal battle of Midway and on to the Guadalcanal campaign in the Southwest Pacific. Embarked was an exceptionally astute observer, Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin, who faithfully recorded his thoughts on the conflict in a standard canvas-covered logbook.
Diaries were not supposed to be kept by those serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and for good reason. If recovered by the Japanese, they would likely have revealed that the Japanese code had been broken prior to the battle of Midway. Thus, Mustin's diary is a rare day-to-day accounting of the Pacific from a very opinionated mid-grade officer. Beginning with the commissioning of Atlanta at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Christmas Eve 1941, Mustin covers the ship's workups and her deployment to the Pacific in time for the battle of Midway.
It's then on to the Southwest Pacific, where the ship first engages enemy aircraft at the battle of the Eastern Solomons in late August 1942. Mustin's final entry covers the battle of Santa Cruz in late October 1942. The story is completed by an account of the battle of Guadalcanal and beyond, drawing upon Mustin's oral history. This is a valuable document, fully interpreted to provide a better understanding of the Pacific War during that critical year.
Email: winkler58@msn.com
Publisher: Casemate, 2024
Ordering Info: Casemate. See other works by this NOUS companion here.
by John Rodgaard
Obsolete, except for the experimental anti-submarine warfare sensor they carried, the USS Hammerberg, DE-1015, the USS Courtney, DE-1021 and the USS Lester, DE-1022 went to the Mediterranean to demonstrate the potential of a technology that relied on a passive towed array detection system; what the Navy officially designated as the Interim Towed Array Surveillance System (ITASS).
These 'Tailships' entered the Med in 1970. It was then that the US and NATO navies operated in a naval environment characterized by the most intense concentration of Soviet submarines and surface ships outside of Soviet home waters. The Mediterranean was the focal point in the great naval rivalry of the United States, with its NATO allies, against the Soviet Union's Voyenno-morskoi flot (Military Maritime Fleet).
When deployed as Tailships, these DEs proved so successful against Soviet submarines that the US Navy committed additional resources to refining the capability of passive towed array sonars. The development of the Towed Array Surveillance System (TASS), the Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System (SURTASS) and the Tactical Towed Array Sonar (TACTASS) deployable systems were direct follow-ons to ITASS.
The ships' deployment occurred during a time when the United States was torn apart by the war in Vietnam. Although far away, the effect of Vietnam on the ships' crews as well as the Sixth Fleet reflected the greater turmoil within the society they served. The turmoil was evident in the competition for resources to keep the ships steaming and in personnel tensions among the crews.
Additionally, the ships and men operated in a sea surrounded by increasing tensions in the Middle East. While stationed in Naples, Italy, the Palestinian Black September Organization created terror across Europe during the summer of 1972, with the massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich, West Germany. That summer would see these sailors spending nights in Naples standing anti-terrorist watches with loaded weapons, whilst the pinging of an active sonar system would echo throughout the hulls of the moored ships. It was thought this would discourage swimmers wanting to plant explosive devices on ship hulls.
The objective of this book is simply to tell the story of these three ships and their men within the context of the greater events of the Cold War at sea in the Mediterranean; the successes and failures of operating in the Mediterranean, and life for those who called Naples their temporary home.
Email: john_rodgaard@yahoo.com
Publisher: Helion and Company, 2023
Ordering Info: Casemate
by Robert McLaughlin
Creative Destruction is a memoir on business leadership, a teaching document and one of the best selling leadership books of 2023. The author takes his readers on an inspiring journey of resilience, courage and transformation of businesses. The author's leadership skills were forged in the crucible of the Marine Corps which propelled him in a successful corporate career. This captivating memoir is not just a tale of success; it is an indispensable guide for inspiring leaders to navigate the turbulent waters of the corporate world. A readers review by Peter Wilbur.
Email: bob@tsgsix.com
Publisher: Regent Square Press, 2023
Ordering Info: Amazon or your local bookstore. See other works by this NOUS companion here.
by William S. Dudley, Ph.D
A detailed work of original research and synthesis that covers naval operations, administration, and logistics of the Naval War of 1812. This is a balanced account in terms of American and British challenges, responses, and lessons learned. It portrays what it took for the small U.S. Navy to cope with the the Royal Navy, then the world's most largest and most successful maritime force. The author explains that the USN used a combination of skill, innovation, and adaptation to survive and hold the enemy at bay until the negotiation and ratification of an honorable peace treaty.
Email: billdudley@goeaston.net
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021
Ordering Info: JHU Press. See other works by this NOUS companion here.
by CDR Kenneth Breaux, USN (Ret.)
There are many books written about epic battles, heroic soldiers and the remarkable events that occur during a war. This book contains little of that history. This book is about the more than 70,000 men who remain missing after America's wars. Their names appear in our cemeteries, on gravestones marked "unknown," on commemorative walls listing the missing or simply in after-action reports inadequate to the task of declaring a life at an end. Americans are sensitive to the injustice and incompleteness of such records. So, the United States is the only country publicly committed to searching for missing warriors' remains and to identifying and finally honoring them. This commitment has been inconsistently fulfilled, however, and results have been mixed. This book shows how modern warfare loses its dead in ways that make them harder than ever to find after battle. It tells the story of families who never give up hope and of the volunteers and officials who try to help them. But it's also the story of how our government too often has failed to make finding the missing possible -- and what we can do about it. These are the ultimate cold cases.
Email: kenneth.breaux@sbcglobal.net
Published: 2022
Ordering Info: Amazon. See other works by this NOUS companion here.
by Captain Steven Craig, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve (Retired)
It was late November--one of the coldest periods to be on a ship near Alaska. The Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis had run aground during a severe storm and was taking on water. The engine room flooded, disabling the engines. Mountainous seas and gale force winds pounded the Jarvis, and to make matters worse, the ship was floating toward a rocky coastline that would surely destroy it and probably kill most, if not all, of the men.
The ship's captain ordered an emergency message be sent to the Seventeenth Coast Guard District Office in Juneau requesting Coast Guard assistance. But there were no Coast Guard assets near enough to provide immediate help.
At 7:04 p.m., for one of the few times in Coast Guard history, a MAYDAY call for help would come from a Coast Guard vessel.
This is the incredible story of the grounding and near sinking of the USCGC Jarvis and how her crew fought to save their ship--and themselves--from disaster.
Email: SCraig7002@gmail.com
Publisher: L&G / Hellgate Press, 2019
Ordering Info: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or direct from author
by Dale A. Jenkins
Was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor inevitable?
It's November 1941. Japan and the US are teetering on a knife-edge as leaders on both sides of the Pacific strive to prevent war between them. But failed diplomacy, foiled negotiations, and possible duplicity in the Roosevelt administration thwart their attempts. Drawing on now-declassified original documents, Diplomats & Admirals reveals the inside story of one fateful year, including:
How the hidden agendas of powerful civilian and military leaders pushed the two nations toward war
The miscommunications, misjudgments, and blunders that doomed efforts at peace
China's role in the US ultimatum that triggered the attack on Pearl Harbor
Why the carrier-to-carrier showdown at Coral Sea proved a fatal mistake for Japan
How courageous US navy pilots snatched victory from defeat at the Battle of Midway
The defining events of WWII could have ended very differently. Combining perspectives from both military and civilian leaders, Diplomats & Admirals uncovers new insights into the Pacific naval battles that shaped the world—and the men behind them.
Email: dale.jenkins001@icloud.com
Publisher: Aubrey Publishing Co., 2022
Ordering Info: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
by Marc Liebman
Which serves a Navy better? Tradition and hierarchy, or innovation and merit?
Two teenagers – Jaco Jacinto from Charleston, SC and Darren Smythe from Gosport, England – become midshipmen in their respective navies. Jacinto wants to help his countrymen win their freedom. Smythe has wanted to be a naval officer since he was a boy. From blockaded harbours and the cold northern waters off Nova Scotia and Scotland, to the islands of the Bahamas and Nassau, they serve with great leaders and bad ones through battles, politics and the school of naval hard knocks. Jacinto and Smythe are mortal enemies, but when they meet they become friends, even though they know they will be called again to battle one another.
“This is Marc Liebman’s first foray into the age of sail, and what a densely packed, rattling yarn he has produced... The twists and turns of the breathless plot see the two main protagonists cross again and again in a story that never lets up its pace.” ~ Philip Allan, author of the award-winning Alexander Clay series about the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail.
Email: marc@marcliebman.com
Publisher: Penmore Press LLC, 2020
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Hunter Rawlings & Mark Greaney
*Now a New York Times Bestseller*
A desperate Kremlin takes advantage of a military crisis in Asia to simultaneously strike into Western Europe and invade east Africa in a bid to occupy three Rare Earth mineral mines that will give Russia unprecedented control for generations over the world's hi-tech sector.
Pitted against the Russians are a Marine lieutenant colonel pulled out of a cushy job at the Pentagon and thrown into the fray in Africa, a French Special Forces captain and his intelligence operative father, a young Polish female partisan fighter, an A-10 Warthog pilot, and the commander of an American tank platoon who, along with his German counterpart, fight from behind enemy lines in Germany all the way into Russia.
From a daring MiG attack on American satellites, through land and air battles in all theaters, naval battles in the Arabian sea, and small unit fighting down to the hand-to-hand level in the jungle, Russia's forces battle to either take the mines or detonate a nuclear device to prevent the West from exploiting them.
Email: Hunter.Rawlings.Author@gmail.com
Publisher: Penguin/Berkley, 2019
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Ken Brown
The "Second Happy Time" was the informal name given to the phase of the battle of the Atlantic when German U-boats attacked both merchant and U.S. naval vessels along America's east coast. With tankers burning and petrol rationing in New York City, the U.S. Navy seemed powerless to stop the deprivations of Hitler's marauding U-boats.
Ken Brown seeks to explain how the United States responded to these deadly assaults and looks at the steps that the Navy Department took to train the men, harness the scientists, and make the organizational changes that were required to defeat the German threat.
Email: thekenbrown@yahoo.com
Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2017
Ordering Info: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
by William L. McGee
On 7 August 1942, eight months to the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. 1st Marine Division landed on the islands of Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Thus was the beginning of the bloody and brutal six month Battle for Guadalcanal. For those who were there, Guadalcanal was not only a name, it was an emotion… recalling desperate fights in the air, furious naval battles during the night, frantic work at supply or construction, savage fighting in the sodden jungle, and nights broken by screaming bombs and deafening explosions of naval shells.
Under one cover, WWII military historian William L. McGee details all the campaigns fought in the Southern, Central and Northern Solomons—from Guadalcanal to Bougainville—and then summarizes the valuable lessons learned from these bloody battles.
“There is enough gripping drama, heroism, and heartbreak in McGee’s almost encyclopedic The Solomons Campaigns to supply Hollywood with material for a century.” –Marine Corps League Magazine
“A World War II navy veteran and prolific author, McGee has written the second of a three-volume set that will form a definitive account of naval, sea, and land operations in the South Pacific.” –Library Journal
William L. McGee's (1925–) writing career has spanned six decades. He has written 22 books, including five World War II military histories. Pacific Express: The Critical Role of Military Logistics in World War II is on the Marine Corps Commandant’s Professional Reading List as required reading on Logistics. For a complete list of books by the author, visit www.WilliamMcGeeBooks.com.
Email: mcgeebmc@aol.com
Publisher: BMC Publications, 2001
Ordering Info: Amazon
by John Rodgaard, Robert Moore
This is a ship biography of one of the 67 V & W Class destroyers built at the end of the Great War and scrapped at the end of World War II. After freezing in the forgotten war in the Baltic in 1919, Venomous spent the 1920s in the Mediterranean. She was in the front line when the German blitzkrieg swept across Europe and the V & Ws made high speed dashes across the Channel to bring troops (and civilians) back from Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.
Venomous and her sister ships escorted the Atlantic convoys which kept Britain fed and the Arctic convoys which supplied our Russian allies with the weapons to stop the German advance. She took part in Operation Pedestal which saved Malta and, as the allies prepared for the landings in North Africa, was ordered to escort the destroyer depot ship, HMS Hecla, to the invasion beaches. When Hecla was torpedoed off the coast of Morocco, Venomous fought the attacking U-Boat and rescued 500 survivors.
Venomous escorted convoys along the coast of north Africa including the first through convoy from Gibraltar to Alexandria and the invasion force to Sicily, Operation Husky. In October 1943 she returned to Britain and was converted to an Air Target ship for training Barracuda Torpedo Bomber aircrew based at Douglas in the Isle of Man. She was nearly lost in a hurricane off the east coast of Scotland before being sent to Kristiansand in Norway to accept the surrender of German naval forces.
This third revised edition contains dozens of photographs taken by the ship's company; most have never been seen before.
Author: john_rodgaard@yahoo.com
Publisher: Holywell House Publishing, UK, 2017
Ordering Info: Amazon, or directly from the author.
by Bob Stockton, Chief Petty Officer, USN (Ret.)
Many things may be said about Bob Stockton, but one of them can never be that he doesn't have a copious imagination. Throughout the pages of Fighting Bob, Stockton takes the reader on a nonstop, action-packed literary thrill ride rife with danger, suspense, and the all-too-familiar machinations of political intrigue.
Led by his great-great-great grandfather, Commodore "Fighting Bob", Stockton embarks on a daunting quest that takes him everywhere from the front lines of the War Of 1812 to the throes of battle with Barbary Pirates - all in the midst of an hallucinogenic, drug-induced state.
Readers should not be fooled, though: Fighting Bob features a host of eye-opening true-life accounts, highlighting the very real events that played a pivotal role in the birth and subsequent evolution of our very own United States. As such, Stockton's epic narrative paints a vivid, compelling picture of living, breathing history at it realest - and most raw. An enjoyable, adventure-laden read.
Reviewed by US History Files, 2012.
Author: drbob456x@gmail.com
Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2011
Ordering Info: Amazon or contact the author for payment and shipping information.
by James D. Hornfischer
The extraordinary story of the World War II air, land, and sea campaign that brought the U.S. Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower. Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts by Americans and Japanese alike, here is a thrilling narrative of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War, focusing on the U.S. invasion of the Mariana Islands in June 1944 and the momentous events that it triggered. With its thunderous assault into Japan's inner defensive perimeter, America crossed the threshold of total war. From the seaborne invasion of Saipan to the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, to the largest banzai attack of the war and the strategic bombing effort that led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas became the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender with consequences that forever changed modern war.
James D. Hornfischer is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Neptune's Inferno, Ship of Ghosts, and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award.
Email: jh@hornfischerlit.com
Publisher: Bantam, 2016
Ordering Info: Amazon, and can be ordered online at book website jameshornfischer.com
by Dennis Koller
Winner 2017 Silver Medal, Mystery/Thriller, Military Writers Society of America
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith . . . So help me God."
A lifetime ago, two young Naval aviators took that Oath. Both were shot down over North Vietnam and together endured years of brutal torture as prisoners of war in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Four decades later, one is a San Francisco Homicide Inspector. The other has decided it’s payback time and has begun killing selected Americans who went to North Vietnam to aid the enemy's cause. The Oath, that once made them brothers-in-arms, now threatens to destroy their lives.
"An exciting and well written story with a plot that could have been a real life biography, or dream, of many Vietnam Veterans during and since Jane Fonda’s visit to Hanoi." LCDR Richard Pariseau, USN (Ret.) USNA ’60, PhD
Email: denniskollerauthor@gmail.com
Publisher: Pen Books, 2016
Ordering Info: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered online at book website www.denniskoller.com
by William S. Dudley with J. Scott Harmon
This book is both a history of the major events of the naval war and a catalog of the remarkable exhibit now (4/20/2013) on display at the Naval Academy’s Mahan Hall. The exhibit combines the Naval Academy’s extraordinary trove of War of 1812 art and artifacts and William I. Koch’s unique personal collection of art and artifacts pertaining to the career of Captain James Lawrence whom Koch claims as an ancestor. Dr. William S. Dudley, a former Director of Naval History, wrote the text with Dr. J. Scott Harmon, former Director of the Naval Academy Museum, who collaborated as curator of the exhibit which will be on display at Mahan Hall until November 2013. The book displays beautifully reproduced images of portraits, weapons, documents, maps, track charts, and ship models from the combined collections.
Email: billdudley@starband.net
Publisher: The Donning Company Publishers, Virginia Beach, VA, 2013
Ordering Info: www.navyonline.com Amazon
by Vance H. Morrison, Bruce Swanson, Don H. McDowell and Nancy Norton Tomasko
This biography recounts the extraordinary life of I. V. Gillis, both as an officer in the U. S. Navy from 1994 to 1919 and as a collector of rare Chinese books. The book provides rare insight into little known aspects of the Spanish-American War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the enormous changes in China from 2011 until 1948. CDR Gillis, a Naval Academy graduate, commanded several U. S. Navy ships, was the first U. S. Naval Attaché in China, and remained in China until his death, marrying a Chinese princess and collecting books now housed at Princeton University’s East Asian Library. The original author, CDR Bruce Swanson, was unable to complete the book before his death in 2007 and asked Captain Vance Morrison, a former U. S. Naval Attaché in China himself, to finish and publish the book.
Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2012
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Zsolt Stockinger
"From February 2005 to March 2006, Navy trauma surgeon Zsolt T. Stockinger served on a forward operating base in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, where he treated more than a thousand casualties and performed hundreds of surgeries. Throughout his deployment, he penned his more introspective thoughts and frustrations about his experiences in a journal that he occasionally sent to his wife as a way to stay connected. Stockinger's diary comprises a compendium of daily military life in Iraq from a surgeon's perspective, from the intense action of rocket attacks and emergency procedures to the creative and often lighthearted ways soldiers fill tedious stretches of down time. Illustrated with more than 50 photographs, this work provides a realistic portrait of life on base and a powerful perspective on the human carnage of war."
Author: ztstockinger@gmail.com
Publisher: McFarland and Co., 2012
Ordering Info: Amazon or other on-line bookstores
by John Frank Gamboa, Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
¡El Capitán! The Making of an American Naval Officer, is a remembrance my midshipman life at the U.S. Naval Academy and my service in the Navy’s naval surface warfare profession. A brief family sketch provides an ethnic and cultural context and my Mexican-immigrant parents’ pursuit of the American Dream in Owens Valley, California, where my six siblings and I were born and raised. The book portrays how I overcame educational, financial, ethnic and cultural barriers to enter the academy in July 1954, graduate in June 1958 and was commissioned a Navy Line Ensign. It describes my professional development of leadership, seamanship, surface warfare, technical and management skills in ranks from ensign to captain while serving in shipboard billets ranging from division officer to commanding officer and then squadron commander. The setting is primarily at sea—over 17 years of operational service during the Cold War aboard destroyers, a cruiser and six amphibious ships with extended forward deployments in the Sixth Fleet operating in the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, and in the Pacific Ocean Far East with the Seventh Fleet. My sea command focus was amphibious warfare. The memoir highlights my performance as the first Mexican-American naval surface warfare officer in the history of the U.S. Navy to command a major warship as a commander, another major warship as a captain and a squadron of seven amphibious warships as a captain. The epilogue includes a synthesis of what worked for me as a successful warship captain—my values, beliefs and lessons learned. John McCain, one of my three Naval Academy roommates, provided a foreword.
Email: frank.gamboa@cox.net www.frankgamboa.com
Publisher: Fortis Publishing, 2011
Ordering Info: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and can be ordered on line at book website www.frankgamboa.com
by Douglas V. Smith, Ph.D.
Published to coincide with the Centennial Celebration of U.S. Naval Aviation, this book details the history of U.S. Navy Aviation from its earliest days, before the Navy’s first aircraft carrier joined the Fleet, through the modern jet era marked by the introduction of the F-18 Hornet. It tells how Naval Aviation got its start, profiles its pioneers, and explains the early bureaucracy that fostered and sometimes inhibited its growth. The book then turns to the refinement of carrier aviation doctrine and tactics and the rapid development of aircraft and carriers, highlighting the transition from propeller-driven aircraft to swept-wing jets in the period after World War II. Land-based Navy aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft, rigid airships and balloons are also considered in this sweeping tribute. Foreword by Navy Lieutenant George Herbert Walker Bush, 43rd President of the United States, who fought gallantly wearing the Navy Wings of Gold in the Pacific in World War II.
Email: dvpj@cox.net
Publisher: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2010
Ordering Info: Naval Institute Press, Barnes & Noble, any bookstore chain branch, Amazon
by Eric Dietrich-Berryman, Charlotte Hammond, R. E. White
This is the untold story of twenty-two U.S. citizens who came to fight for England by volunteering for the Royal Navy before America entered the war. They were commissioned between September 10, 1939 and November 10, 1941. Most of the men were sent for training to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich thus initiating what was to become the famous " over here" phenomenon as the two different cultures learnt to adapt to each other's ways. The faculty recognized the arrival of the first three men with a commemorative plaque placed in the floor of Painted Hall on June 15, 1941. Mindful of the possible legal consequences, since foreign military service is against U.S. law and can result in loss of citizenship, the names were omitted from the plaque. The search for their identity began over 30 years ago. Additional names were added as they became known, along with details of their lives and military service. What makes this tale compelling is that the men actually made a significant impact on the war effort. Showing up was just the start. Some achieved remarkable accomplishments. This is the story of who they were, what they did and why, and what become of them.
Email: berryman2@earthlink.net
Publisher: Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2010
Ordering Info: Amazon, Naval Institute Press, any bookstore chain branch
by Terry Miller, Editor
Eighteen members of the Secret Scurvy Dog Society writers group relate their own accounts, many humorous and some pointedly not, of life at sea on U.S. Navy destroyers during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Beginning with the question - Why the Navy? - and ending with reflections on how their experiences during hard lives at sea came to be considered cherished memories, these men, both officers and enlisted, tell the quintessential Sea Stories of the latter half of the 20th century. Scurvy Dogs, Green Water and Gunsmoke is the first joint effort for these writers, most of whom have been published previously in the Tin Can Sailor, the journal of the National Association of Destroyer Veterans.
Email: terrymiller@destroyers.org
Publisher: Oak Tree Press, 2008
Ordering Info: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Tin Can Sailors, Inc., Oak Tree Press
by Stephen Sussna
Defeat and Triumph tells the story of the still controversial, important, dramatic but little known Allied invasion of the French Riviera on August 15, 1944. This was known as Operation Anvil and later renamed Operation Dragoon. Notwithstanding the massive opposition of Winston Churchill, his military advisers, and many notable American Generals, Dragoon happened. After suffering four years of humiliating and devastating defeat, French men and women were assisted by their American and British Allies and this invasion ensured World War II victory in Europe. Defeat and Triumph: The Story of a Controversial Allied Invasion and French Rebirth thoroughly analyzes the pros and cons of Dragoon. The book provides a panoramic history of Operation Dragoon and related events in France, the United States, the Mediterranean, and Germany from 1940 to 1945. The author is in the unique position of having served on D Day of Dragoon as helmsman of LST 1012 (Landing Ship Tank). The LST 1012 participated in the most dangerous and tragic event of the invasion. Professor Sussna has gathered and analyzed a treasure trove of previously unpublished American, British, French, and German archival materials, diaries, letters, periodical articles, maps and interviews.
E-mail: stevesussna@cs.com
Publisher: XLIBRIS, 2008
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Douglas V. Smith, Ph.D.
Considers the transformation of the U.S. Navy from a defensive-minded coastal defense force into an offensive risk-taking navy in the very early stages of World War II. Noting that none of the navy’s most significant World War II leaders were commissioned before the Spanish-American War and none participated in any important offensive operations in World War I, Carrier Battles examines the premise that education, rather than experience in battle, accounts for that transformation. In this book, Smith evaluates his premise by focusing on the five carrier battles of the Second World War to determine the extent to which the inter-war education of the major operational commanders translated into their decision processes, and the extent to which their interaction during their educational experiences transformed them from risk-adverse to risk-accepting in their operational concepts. Covers the five carrier battles of World War II and many other important surface actions and critiques the decisions of the major commanders who fought them.
Email: dvpj@cox.net
Publisher: U.S. Naval Institute Press Annapolis, MD, 2006
Ordering Info: Naval Institute Press, Barnes & Noble, any bookstore chain branch, Amazon
by Claude Berube, John Rodgaard
Charles Stewart’s life of sailing and combat on the high seas rivals that of Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey. Stewart held more sea commands (eleven) than any other U.S. Navy captain and served longer (sixty-three years) than any officer in American naval history. He commanded every type of warship, from sloop to ship-of-the-line, and served every president from John Adams to Abraham Lincoln. Born in Philadelphia during the War for American Independence, Stewart had met President Washington and gone to sea as a cabin boy on a merchantman before age thirteen. In March 1798, at age nineteen, he received a commission one month before the formal establishment of the Department of the Navy. Stewart enjoyed an illustrious naval service. Thomas Jefferson recognized his exploits in the Mediterranean during the Barbary Wars, while James Madison sought his advice at the outset of the War of 1812. Stewart trained many future senior naval officers – including David Porter, David Dixon Porter and David Farragut. In his eighties, he served as a pallbearer at President Lincoln’s funeral. Yet, Stewart owed his reputation to the time spent as the most successful fighting commander of the USS Constitution. Undefeated in battle, including defeating the British warships HMS Cyane and Levant simultaneously, both ship and captain came to be known as “Old Ironsides”. Stewart’s service both mirrors and shaped the early history of the navy and country.
Auhor: john_rodgaard@yahoo.com
Publisher: Potomac Books, 2005
Ordering Info: Amazon, or directly from John Rodgaard at john_rodgaard@yahoo.com or 321.591.6123
by Joe Buff
The next world war rages. With the Allies at a stalemate with the Berlin-Boer Axis, every battle takes on a new significance. But in a conflict fought with billion-dollar technology and campaigns comprising millions of soldiers, the outcome may rest in the hands of a single man... Commander Jeffrey Fuller, captain of America's most sophisticated and deadly fast-attack nuclear submarine, the USS Challenger, is accustomed to victory in battle. But for his latest mission he is informed that the only way he can succeed is if he crosses into enemy waters -- without firing a single shot. His objective: recover a spy. The world of espionage is unknown territory for Fuller. He is ordered to locate an asset, code-named Zeno, who may hold the key to staving off a crippling Axis attack. But this new world is full of lies, feints, and betrayals. In combat, Fuller always knows who his enemy is and how to defeat him. In the shadow world of covert operatives and counterintelligence, the distinction between enemy and ally is far more elusive. And it only gets more complicated. Steaming toward his target, Fuller and his crew begin to suspect that the spy they have been sent to retrieve may in fact be a subterfuge, a ploy intended to lure the Allies' most dangerous weapon into enemy hands. With the clock ticking down to an invasion that could alter the course of the war, Fuller suspects that his new " friend" could even be a double agent, intent on using Challenger as a weapon against his own allies, destroying the fragile ties binding nations in war. Fuller is accustomed to the codes of the Silent Service, where loyalty is taken for granted, orders are followed without question, and battles are as precise as a torpedo's firing solution. But now he must adapt to a world where betrayers become the new patriots and lies are the instruments of destruction. With the lives of his crew and the fate of his country hanging in the balance, he will have to risk everything on the word of a man who has, for the last two years, served Fuller's most bitter enemies.
Email: readermail@joebuff.com
Publisher: Morrow/HarperTorch, 2004 hardcover, 2005 paperback
Ordering Info: Amazon, all brick-and-mortar & on-line bookstores, or via JoeBuff.com
by John J. Gobbell
With THE LAST LIEUTENANT and A CODE FOR TOMORROW, John J. Gobbell has firmly established himself as one of today's leading authors of epic war novels. His hero, Todd Ingram, has proven to be one of the most fascinating and endearing characters in the genre. In WHEN DUTY WHISPERS LOW, Lieutenant Commander Ingram faces his biggest challenge to date as his best friend turns against him when the chips are down. It's 1943 and the U.S. Navy is caught in a fierce battle against the Japanese in the South Pacific. At stake is the Allies newly won Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. But Isoroku Yamamoto, Admiral of the Combined Fleet and architect of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, desperately wants Guadalcanal back. Calling it “Operation I,” Yamamoto throws everything into the foray, scraping together top-line dive bombers and torpedo planes from all over the Pacific to carry out a series of Pearl-Harbor sized bombing raids in the Solomons. In response, the Allies introduce the proximity fuse to the fleet a top-secret anti-aircraft detonator that can greatly assist the U.S. Navy in their desperate fight against Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes. However, in the heat of battle Commander Jerry Landa refuses to use the fuse - and pays the price as his ship, the USS Howell, is torn in half by Japanese “Val” dive bombers. Lieutenant Commander Todd Ingram confronts Landa, questioning his authority as the two become enemies in the midst of battle. As Ingram and Landa fight to survive “Operation I,” Yamamoto personally directs the raids that will return him to the glory of December 7, 1941 raids that will facilitate the recapture of Guadalcanal and that will cripple the United States Navy forever. Filled with epic battles, romance, and the brutality of war, John J. Gobbell has crafted a tale that will transport the reader into the South Pacific during World War II--a story as vibrant and stunning as anything he has ever written.
e-mail john@johnjgobbell.com
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2002 hardcover 2004 softcover (in print)
Ordering Info: Amazon, any major bookstore, Tin Can Sailors
by John J. Gobbell
Commander Todd Ingram stands on the bridge of his destroyer, U.S.S. Matthew (DD 525) when, suddenly, Japanese dive bombers plunge through the overcast. It’s a coordinated and devastating attack, the ship rocked by massive explosions. Concussions hurtle Ingram overboard, and helplessly, he watches his embattled ship stagger into the evening mist. He’s left behind as the Matthew’s crew desperately fights the fire and the Japanese. Ingram barely lasts the night, and early the next morning he whoops for joy as a periscope cuts a wake toward him through a glass-smooth sea. But joy turns to horror as the submarine surfaces. The submarine is the I-57 of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her skipper is Commander Hajime Shimada, recipient of Japan’s highest honor: Order of the Golden Kite. Also aboard the I-57 is Korvettenkapitän Martin Taubman, of the Kreigsmarine. Until recently, Taubman was the naval attache’ in Tokyo. With Hajime and the I-57's crew of forty-nine officers and men, Taubman is enroute home via the U-Boat pens in Lorient, France. Ingram works hard for his keep and endures beatings from his captors. But he’s assured by Taubman, who becomes a chess-playing partner, to obey his captors, to keep his head down and work, that he'll be safely interred in a POW camp in Germany after they arrive in Lorient. It’s only until the I-57 makes a secret rendezvous with her sistership, the I-49, in Madagascar’s Antongila Bay, that Ingram learns this is not just a simple technical exchange mission between Germany and Japan. The I-57's mission has far more personal, and deadlier ramifications. Worst of all, Ingram discovers Hajime plans to get rid of him before they reach Lorient.
e-mail: john@johnjgobbell.com
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2004 hardcover
Ordering Info: Amazon, any major bookstore, Tin Can Sailors
by Ty Martin
The complete history of USS Constitution (" Old Ironsides" ) from her authorization in 1794 to her bicentennial in 1997. The first edition (1980) received a George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation. This new edition received the 1997 Robert G. Albion/James Madison Award for Naval History from the National Maritime Historical Society and won the Naval History Center's Constitution Bicentennial Book Competition Prize.
Email: timonier@teleplex.net
Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 1997 (revised edition 6th printing (soft cover), 2003)
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Ty Martin
A collection of anecdotes about individual crew members of USS Constitution from captain to boy embedded in a discussion of their organization and operation.
Email: timonier@teleplex.net
Publisher: Tryon Publishing Company, 2003
Ordering Info: GetTextbooks, www.ussconstitutionmuseum.org. Price $20.00.
by RADM Stuart F. Platt SC, USN (Ret.)
The armament tide has begun to flow strongly again in the United States. This book will assist our Nation's leaders and the American people to better understand how to manage the business of rearmament during these flood tides. Drawing on historical anecdote, common business principals and the author's 31 years of military service, the book provides an entertaining and educational look at the complexities of arming the American military.
Contact person is duffrey@armamenttide.com
Publisher: Granville Island Publishing, 2002
Ordering Info: Amazon , local bookstore. You may also order fromwww.armamenttide.com on-line.
by John J. Gobbell
In The Last Lieutenant, Navy Lieutenant Todd Ingram escaped the horrors of Corregidor. Now, in San Francisco, he agonizes over Helen Durand, the Army nurse he left behind, fighting for the resistance on Mindanao. Todd Ingram is befriended by Senior Lieutenant Eduard Dezhnev, the Soviet Naval attache’ to the USSR’s consulate there. But things go badly for the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands and Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance orders Ingram to the destroyer U.S.S. Howell as executive officer. Right back in the fighting, Ingram is caught in two of the epic naval battles off Guadalcanal: the Battle of Cape Esperance and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Amidst this, Ingram reaches for Helen but her rescue is hampered by the espionage activities of Dezhnev, a man Ingram grew to trust and admire. With the war at its apex, Todd Ingram puts his life on the line not only for the girl he loves, but for his country, and for a world so perilously close to collapse.
email: john@johnjgobbell.com
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 1999 hardcover 2002 in print
Ordering Info: Amazon, any major book store, Tin Can Sailors.
by Thomas G. Mahnken
Uncovering Ways of War substantially revises the perception of how American intelligence performed prior to World War II. Mahnken challenges the assumption that intelligence regarding foreign militaries had little influence on the development of U.S. weapons and doctrine. Finally, he explains the obstacles these agencies must still negotiate as they seek to understand foreign efforts to exploit the information revolution.
Email: tgmahnken@aol.com
Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2002
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Bernard D. Cole
China is now building a large modern navy to assure its status as Asia's predominant power. This major new study provides timely, authoritative information about China's developing navy and its quest for power. Dr. Cole examines China's navy in detail, its organization as well as its submarines, ships and airplanes. He also discusses its personnel and China's future plans for its navy. He asserts that Beijing's navy is focused on specific, limited goals, but that the reunification of Taiwan is one of those goals....and one that will involve the United States.
Email: coleb@ndu.edu
Publisher: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2001
Ordering Info: Amazon, bookstores, or direct: Customer Service, USNI Operations Center, 2062 Generals Highway, Annapolis MD 21401. 800-233-8764 or 410-224-3378. www.NavalInstitute.org
by Don Landauer
PEARL shows how the original natives came to Hawaii. Then it describes how European and American explorers and seamen came and affected Hawaiian culture. Then it documents how and why and when the United States Navy came, and subsequently how the two cultures related to each other. You Marines may be interested in the fact that the first ship (a captured British ship) into the Honolulu/Pearl Harbor area (in 1814)was commanded by a US Marine! Later the first US Marine detachment in 1906 deployed to the Honolulu area described Waikiki as a, " damned mosquito infested swamp" . The latest edition includes the Ehime Maru incident and the attack on New York and the Pentagon. The author was in the US Navy in 1945,6 and taught aboard 14 ships from 1990 to 1995 as a PACE instructor.
Email: Dontahoe@oakweb.com (summer) Donkauai@msn.com (winter)
Publisher: Flying Cloud Press, 1999, 3rd printing 2001
Ordering Info: Flying Cloud Press, Box 624002, S Lake Tahoe CA 96154 or USS Arizona Memorial, #1 USS Arizona Mem'l Place, Honolulu HI 96818. Price $21.95 + $2.50 S& H. Ten percent discount for USN & USMC veterans or Amazon
by Ty Martin
The story of USS Constitution's victorious service in the War of 1812.
Email: timonier@teleplex.net
Publisher: Tryon Publishing Company, 1996 (3rd printing, 2001)
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Ty Martin
A detailed description of the designing, construction, and launching of USS Constitution.
Email: timonier@teleplex.net
Publisher: Tryon Publishing Company, 1997 (2nd printing, 2001)
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Stan Piet & Captain Al Raithel, Jr, USN (Ret)
Martin P6M SeaMaster is the definitive history of the U.S. Navy's last seaplane project to see flight status. This book chronicles the three decades of the Glenn L. Martin Company's seaplane lineage that lead to the post WW II evolution of the High Speed Minelayer seaplane program. Covered are the technical hull achievements along with the politico/military forces that converged to spawn the revolutionary four-jet Marrtin P6M SeaMaster. Full discussion of its design competition, prototype development and crashes, pre-production and production variants along with the details of its weapons systems is featured. Also detailed are the proposed basing concepts and support equipment developments, follow-on designs, including the nuclear-engine proposals, and a complete review of its untimely demise and termination. The 70,000 word softcover volume features 236 pages in 81/2 x 11 landscape format with 12 pages of photos in full color. Over 375 photos and illustrations with 3-views and an inboard profile foldout complete this fascinating but bittersweet story of the end of the U.S. Navy's reliance on the naval flying boat.
Publisher: Martineer Press, 2001
Order Info: Amazon
by Ty Martin, Editor
The edited journal of Acting Chaplain Assheton Y. Humphreys describing Constitution's final war cruise of 1815, including her defeat of HMS Cyane and HMS Levant and her narrow escape from a British squadron.
Email: timonier@teleplex.net
Publisher: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company, 2000
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Bob Rositzke
"Henry Rodgers Ship Model Collection": Video: A close-up look at one of the largest and most valuable dockyard model collections in the world. These models, constructed from the mid-17th century through the late 19th century, are exact replicas of the British warships that won and preserved an empire. VHS Length: 17:00
Email: bobr@empirevideo.com
Publisher: Empire Video, Inc., 1999
Ordering Info: Call 703-866-1934 VISA/MC $19.95 (plus S& H)
by Bob Rositzke
Collection of stories about four major World War II naval campaigns and the Cold War. This video collection is part of a permanent display at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. VHS 36:00.
Email: bobr@empirevideo.com
Publisher: Empire Video, Inc., 1998
Ordering Info: Call 703/866-1934. VISA/MC accepted. $15 (plus S& H)
by Ty Martin
Describes the ship's unique construction features and takes her through her sailing in July 1997, the first in 116 years.
Email: timonier@teleplex.net
Publisher: Anchors Away, 1997
Run Time: 55 minutes
Ordering Info: Amazon
by John J. Gobbell
The Japanese siege of Bataan and Corregidor during World War II was one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history. Over 130,000 GIs and Filipinos were slaughtered on this oft-forgotten Pacific front. And if it were not for naval intelligence’s success in breaking the JN-25, the Japanese Navy code, Midway Island would have fallen as well, leaving Hawaii and perhaps even the West Coast of the United States for the taking. THE LAST LIEUTENANT, an unforgettable World War II thriller on part EYE OF THE NEEDLE and one part FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, captures the heart and soul of those who fought to stop worldwide fascism. With the eye for detail of a military historian and the writing skills that have brought comparison to John Le Carré and James Jones, John J. Gobbell takes his place among today’s finest historical thriller writers. THE LAST LIEUTENANT is Todd Ingram. Half-starved and beyond exhaustion, Ingram refuses to give up the fight when General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders Corregidor to the Japanese. As artillery blasts The Rock’s beaches and hillsides, Ingram commandeers a thirty-six foot launch with eleven other desperate men. But only Ingram knows the most dangerous threat of all: that a Nazi spy named Walter Radtke lies undiscovered aboard the submarine U.S.S. Wolfish, the last evacuation submarine off the island. The Nazis knows about Chester Nimitz’s plan to trap the Japanese fleet at Midway and needs just thirty seconds and a radio to get a warning dispatch to Yamamoto. Ingram must track down the spy through miles of Japanese-infested waters and stop him before the tide of the war turns irrevocably to the rising sun. Before Ingram can save himself, Helen Duran, the Army nurse he loves, and his men, he must save his country. Radtke knows that the U.S. navy has cracked the Japanese code and that Commander in Chief Chester Nimitz is planning a trap for the Japanese fleet at Midway. All Radtke needs is a radio and thirty seconds.
email: john@johnjgobbell.com
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 1995 Hardcover 1997
Ordering Info: Amazon
by Bob Rositzke
An inside look at life at the U.S. Naval Academy. Follow Midshipmen as they embark on the voyage of a lifetime. Length: 19:41
Email: bobr@empirevideo.com
Publisher: Empire Video, Inc., 1995
Ordering Info: Call 703-866-1934. VISA/MC accepted. $15 (plus S& H)
by James Tritten
Case studies of naval doctrine in UK, France, Spain, Italy and role of doctrine in paradigm shifts and revolutions in military affairs.
Email: jtritten121@comcast.net
Publisher: Naval War College Press, 1995
Ordering Info: Amazon
by James Tritten
This book is an analysis of President Bush's Regional Defense Strategy first unveiled in Aspen, Colorado, on August 2, 1990. This strategy involves a mix of active, reserve, and reconstitutable forces, and General Colin Powell's Base Force. The new regional defense strategy is based upon the 25 percent budget cut negotiated with Congress, a greatly depleted threat from the former Soviet Union, and a new international security environment that assumes two-year's warning of a European-centered global war.
Ordering Info: Amazon
Email: jtritten121@comcast.net
Publisher: Praeger Publishers, 1992
by James Tritten
This book analyzes President Bush's new Regional Defense Strategy--the master plan for guiding the transformation of U.S. defense policy in the post-Cold War era. This book provides the first comprehensive assessment of the new strategy, analyzes the consequences for U.S. forces and alliance relations, and examines the political difficulties of transforming Bush's vision into reality. It explains major changes in U.S. defense doctrine and strategy, force and command structure, future programming requirements, and how such change has been managed.
Ordering Info: Amazon
Email: jtritten121@comcast.net
Publisher: Praeger Publishers, 1992