Oral Histories

This memoir focuses heavily on the interviewee’s experiences in naval aviation. Once he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1927, Riley served in the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) and had to be persistent to get into flight training. Aviation assignments in the 1930s included service in Scouting Squadron Six ...

Admiral Rivero came to the Academy from Puerto Rico and after graduation and sea duty, attended MIT, receiving an MS in electrical engineering. During World War II he served in the cruisers USS San Juan (CL-54) and Pittsburgh (CA-72); he participated in the landings at Guadalcanal-Tulagi, a raid on the ...

This oral history was originally completed in 1970 and then was confiscated by the Navy the following year. It was subsequently classified secret by the National Security Agency because of its discussion of codebreaking. A sanitized version, with classified material removed, was released by NSA in late 1982 and forms ...

After graduation from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1929, Roland's earliest assignments were as gunnery officer on board the destroyers USCGD Shaw (CG-22) and USCGD Wilkes (CG-25), which were involved in the suppression of smuggling. From 1934 to 1938, he taught at the Coast Guard Academy and was assistant ...

Admiral Royar's memoir is unusual among those in the Naval Institute's oral history collection in that it deals with the career of a Supply Corps officer; most of the others are from line officers. Admiral Royar wound up his career in the mid-1950s as Chief of Naval Material. Previously, he ...

The admiral's career is a distinguished one in the field of naval ordnance. After study in the Postgraduate School at Annapolis, he took a graduate degree at MIT. Along with Admiral Rivero he was one of the Navy's first officers to be involved with radar in the early months of ...

Admiral Russell was instrumental in the recovery of the crashed "Akutan Zero" after its discovery on 10 July 1942.

Admiral Salzer was in the thick of the fray in Vietnam, in command of riverine warfare from 1967-1968. He set up Operation Sealords. He returned in 1971-1972 as Commander U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam. In his U.S. Naval Institute oral history, he recounts details of logistics support, fiscal management, ship repairs ...

Schneider has had an unconventional career. He set out to be an active-duty career officer in the Coast Guard. But the illness and death of his first wife led him into the Coast Guard Reserve and a new career in higher education while rearing the couple’s daughters. The memoir thus ...

After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1918, Admiral Schoeffel had duty with the Destroyer Force in the Atlantic during World War I. Designated a naval aviator in 1921, he served in air squadrons in the Pacific Fleet. After duty as navigator in the carrier Saratoga USS (CV-3), he was ...

This memoir covers the life and career of an officer who distinguished himself as a submariner and as a writer and educator. He was also an accomplished violinist, playing in a number of symphonies, depending on where his naval career took him. After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1939 ...

A strength of this memoir is in demonstrating the versatility called for in an unrestricted line officer. Captain Schwab was involved in war-fighting, technological research and development, and politico-military affairs. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1939, he served until 1941 in the battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), which was ...