U. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE
As this new magazine demonstrates, history is alive and well at the Naval Institute, even though our focus remains on today and tomorrow. Here is a department-by-department recap of other hi story-related activity at the Institute:
Proceedings: With feelings of relief and parental pride the Proceedings staff is watching the birth of our magazine's stand-alone offspring
►Relief, at the appearance of a safety valve to ease the terrible pressure caused by the mounting number of fine historical articles already purchased by the Editorial Board but not yet published for lack of space.
►Pride, in meeting a long-standing need for a first-rate magazine devoted to naval and maritime history.
As the publisher has said, quality history will not disappear from the pages of Proceedings. We hope the high-quality manuscripts keep coming in—and in fact that the volume increases—now that we have the ability to publish more of them. If you are a historian, or a history buff, or someone who happened to be on the scene during one or more of the memorable events in naval history, we want to hear from you.
As the young Marine said to the psychiatrist who told him that he had to be crazy to volunteer for Vietnam combat duty:
“Write it down. Doc. Write it down.”
Oral History: Since 1969, the Naval Institute’s oral history program has collected interviews with flag officers and other individuals with interesting or unusual careers. The typical format for these oral memoirs is a birth-to-present- day narrative by the interviewee. The collection, currently at 160 volumes, is available to browsers and researchers at the Naval Institute offices and the Nimitz Library in Annapolis, and at the Naval Historical Center in the Washington Navy Yard. Most of the volumes are held by the Naval War College, as well.
A master index file provides researchers with information on topics covered. Individual pages of transcript on a specific topic may be ordered for 20 cents per page. The bound volumes may be purchased for $50-100, depending on length. A catalog containing brief summaries of each volume is available for $3.
A new service as of 1986 is the oral history lending library program. Anyone, anywhere can borrow one of our oral memoirs for $12, plus return postage.
Volumes released during 1986:
►Chief Machinist’s Mate William Badders, U. S. Navy (Retired), a pioneer in the Navy’s diving and salvage programs, who received the Medal of Honor for his part in the submarine Squalus (SS-192) rescue effort. During World War II, he was in charge of diving and salvage operations in the Panama Canal.
►Captain Slade D. Cutter, U. S. Navy (Retired), a first-rate athlete and World War II submariner whose career is covered in two volumes. Postwar duties included service as the Naval Academy’s director of athletics and command of the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
►Rear Admiral John F. Davidson, U. S. Navy (Retired), a World War II submariner, who spent several years in the difficult assignment as officer detailer, and eventually served as Superintendent of the Naval Academy in the early 1960s.
►Captain Thomas H. Dyer. U. S. Navy (Retired), who first became involved in codebreaking in the 1920s, and came into his own as a respected cryptanalyst during World War II. His work was instrumental in the U. S. success at the Battle of Midway.
►Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller, U. S. Navy (Retired), the former Director of Naval History who discusses, in the first of three planned volumes covering his career, early battleship duty in the Utah (BB-31), submarine duty on China Station, and instructor duty at the Naval Academy in the 1930s.
►Captain Charles H. Kretz, Jr.. Supply Corps, U. S. Navy (Retired), who concentrates on his interesting duty with the Asiatic Fleet in the 1930s, first in the gunboat Panay (PR-5) and then the destroyer Bulmer (DD-222).
►Rear Admiral Donald J. MacDonald, U. S. Navy (Retired), who served as a White House aide in the 1930s, special naval observer in Britain during the early days of World War II, commanded the destroyer O'Bannon (DD-450) during the struggle for Guadalcanal, and skippered Harry Truman’s presidential yacht after the war.
►Navy wives Mrs. Marc A. Mitscher and Mrs. Roy C. Smith, Jr., who share their experiences in this demanding and important role. Mrs. Mitscher concentrates on her famous husband; Mrs. Smith is often humorous in her accounts of coping with Navy juniors.
►Rear Admiral Jackson K. Parker, U. S. Navy, who served in the destroyer Mer- vine (DD-489) during World War II, received his commission in 1958, and has frequently served in billets connected with steam propulsion. He currently serves as commander of the Norfolk Naval Base.
►Rear Admiral Edward K. Walker, U. S. Navy (Retired), who was an early submariner and is often credited with developing the torpedo data computer that proved so valuable during World War II. During the war. Walker commanded the destroyer Mavrant (DD- 402), aided by his executive officer. Lieutenant Commander Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.
Many other memoirs are currently in the works, including interviews with the first black naval officers and the first female graduates of the Naval Academy- In coming issues of Naval History, we look forward to bringing you excerpts from our collection and notices of newly released volumes. For information on any facet of the oral history program, or to request catalogs, lending copies, or bound volumes, contact the director of oral history.
Naval Institute Press: A number of exciting and important books on naval history are on the way from the Naval Institute Press this spring. The Landing at Veracruz: 1914, by Jack Sweetman, a U. S. Naval Academy historian, recalls an earlier era when an insult to the flag could bring the United States to the brink of war. Professor Sweetman masterfully recreates this strange encounter between occupying U. S. naval forces and Mexican troops fighting what they saw as blatant Yankee imperialism. The book draws on many firsthand accounts of participants and includes numerous photographs from private collections.
From that same period of U. S. naval expansion comes a biography of a figure long overlooked in naval literature, Admiral William Shepherd Benson, who served as the first Chief of Naval Operations, from 1915 to 1919. The authors, Mary Klachko and David F. Trask, correct the often negative picture of Benson fostered by his rivals, by recognizing the admiral’s significant contribution to the Navy and the nation. Klachko and Trask show how Admiral Benson, in time of war, skillfully balanced the political demands of the Wilson Administration against the needs of the Navy Department and acted as an important intermediary between the fleet and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, who stood well with President Wilson but not with naval officers. This valuable biography is the product of nearly 20 years of research.
A later naval era in another nation is captured in a major new book by Eric J. Grove, Vanguard to Trident: British Naval Policy Since World War II. This volume is a trail-blazer—the first attempt to relate the development of British naval policy to drastically altered postwar political and economic influences. The book describes the government’s attempts to come to terms with the financial realities of an austere postwar world in planning a future fleet. It also sheds new light on the Yangtse incident, Britain’s thoughts on military action against the Nationalist Chinese, plans for intervention in Egypt in the early 1950s, some little-known events in the Falklands that presaged actions 30 years later, and many other events and developments.
Moving back in time and to yet another country, the Naval Institute Press presents a classic naval study that has never before been published. The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy 1871-1904, by Theodore Ropp. edited by Stephen S. Roberts, provides unique coverage of the development and organization of one of Europe’s leading navies during a crucial period in history—a time of rapid technological and political change. Written in 1937 as a doctoral dissertation at Harvard by the now-emirient military historian Theodore Ropp, this work has been continuously consulted in unpublished form for the past 50 years. The book has been edited by a specialist in French naval history, and includes an appendix listing French shipbuilding programs from 1857 to 1900 and rare photos.
In July the Naval Institute Press will offer Theodore Roosevelt's The Naval War of 1812 in its Classics of Naval Literature series. With an abiding interest in both history and the U. S. Navy, Roosevelt devoted his exceptional intellect and energy to writing this exhaustive, unsurpassed account when he was only 24 years old. Still praised by naval scholars, Roosevelt’s book is regarded as a basic reference for the War of 1812. This new edition will include beautiful paintings of ships, battles, and prominent naval figures, some never before published.
Library and Photographic Services: The Photographic Library originated in 1962, beginning with photographs used in Proceedings and in books. Since then, we have purchased two collections: the photographs used in James C. Fahey's Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleer, and the Our Navy collection. With these collections, others donated to us—together with photographs purchased for Proceedings—we now have approximately 275.000 prints and slides in the library. We are always happy to receive more photographs and related historical items from those who wish to see them used in our many publications.
With the purchase of the Our Navy collection, we obtained about 30,000 negatives of ship photographs, as well as the art for certificates of the sea. In August 1974, we began our photo and certificate order service. Since then, we have added additional ships and aircraft negatives, as well as some color negatives.
The reference library holds approximately 3,000 books and the complete index to Proceedings. The library is used extensively by USNI staff, but all members are welcome to take advantage of this facility.
This year, for the first time, the Naval Institute and the Government Systems Division, Eastman Kodak Company, cosponsored the Annual Naval and Maritime Photo Contest. 1,589 entries were received—the largest number of entries since the beginning of the contest in 1962-63. All winning entries appear in the April 1986 Proceedings.
NAVY HISTORY
By G. Wesley Pryce III, Naval Historical Center
The past year brought many significant developments to the Naval Historical Center. Of special note was the appointment of Dr. Ronald H. Spector, professor of history at the University of Alabama, as the new Director of Naval History, in July 1986. A prolific author, he recently published Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan (1984), for which he received the 1986 Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Prize for Naval History. Other books on naval history written by Dr. Spector include Admiral of the New Empire: The Life and Career of George Dewey (1974) and Professors of War: The Naval War College and the Development of the Naval Profession (1977). Between 1971 and 1984, Dr. Spector was a historian with the Southeast Asia Branch, U. S. Army Center of Military History, where he made a major contribution to the historical study of the war in Southeast Asia by authoring Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941- 1960 (1983). This volume is the first in The U. S. Army in Vietnam series.
Captain William H. Peerenboom, U. S. Navy, joined the Naval Historical Center staff as Deputy Director in June 1986. Previously, Captain Peerenboom served as Deputy Director of the Strike and Amphibious Warfare Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. He served two tours in Vietnam, the last as commanding officer of the Newell (DER-322). His other commands included the Noa (DD-841). Robert H. McCard (DD-822), Wainwright (CG- 28), and Destroyer Squadron Four.
Responding to the Secretary of the Navy’s interest in an expanded historical program that covers the Navy’s post-World War II activities, the center recently established the Secretary of the Navy’s Research Chair. Applications for this position should be submitted by 30 June 1987. The visiting naval historian will serve for one to three years and will be selected on the basis of experience, publications, and reputation—and will be invited to work at the Naval Historical Center on a monograph treating the U. S. Navy since the end of World War II. He will also offer advice and guidance to colleagues in the center working on similar projects. The center actively seeks to encourage research and writing on the history of naval operations, administration, logistics, and technological innovation during this time frame.
The center is also offering one predoctoral fellowship and two post-doctoral grants in U. S. naval history for the academic year 1987-1988. For the former. the Naval Historical Center will provide $7,500 to support dissertation research and writing, with the expectation that the work will significantly enhance knowledge of U. S. naval history. The deadline for applications is 1 May of each year.
The two post-doctoral grants are in the amount of $2,500 each and are intended to assist scholars in the preparation of naval historical books or articles. These stipends are designed to defray some of the costs of travel, living expenses, and document duplication related to the research process. Interested scholars should apply by I May of each year.
The Naval Aviation History Office and Naval Aviation News magazine, under the direction of Captain Rosario Rausa, U. S. Naval Reserve, joined the Naval Historical Center on 1 July 1986. The Naval Aviation History Office was established in January 1942 and the Naval Aviation News magazine evolved from the Weekly Bulletin, which originated in 1917.
The Aviation History Branch provides advice and assistance on aviation historical matters; collects, analyzes, and preserves pertinent aviation historical data; and writes the history of naval aviation. The office also manages the Naval Aviation Insignia Program, provides reference assistance on aviation matters and liaison with fleet aviation units, and maintains active association with various aviation organizations and museums.
The collection of documents held by the Aviation History Office centers primarily on the post-World War II period. Most of these records are the command history reports submitted by aviation commands from July 1957 to the present. There are also several specialized reference collections that provide extensive statistical data on naval aviation. Examples from this group include the microfilm library of Aircraft History Cards organized by bureau number; the complete set of Naval Aviation News magazines from 1917 to the present; and the Allowances and Location of Naval Aircraft (1950 to present).
Another important collection held by this office includes the official records of the naval aviation insignia program covering the period from World War II to the present. The Aviation History Office is the final approving authority for all Navy and Marine Corps aviation insignia, and copies of all approved aviation insignia are maintained in the office archives.
Also joining the Naval Historical Center in July 1986 was the Combat Art activity of the Navy’s Office of Information. This transfer included the Navy Ad Gallery, located in Building 67 of the Washington Navy Yard. For 46 years, combat artists commissioned by the U. S. Navy have depicted naval warfare—from Pearl Harbor to the present. One of the Navy Art Gallery’s latest exhibits has a collection of paintings depicting the successful joint service operation in Grenada. Eleven watercolors by combat artist A. Michael Leahy reconstruct events that took place during Operation Urgent Fury, 23 October-3 November 1983. The gallery is open to the public from 0900 to 1600, Monday through Friday.
During 1986, a record-breaking 325,402 visitors came to the Navy Museum, another component of the Naval Historical Center. This high interest reflects the museum’s development of new exhibits, which in 1986 included “Forgotten Wars of the Early 19th Century: Quasi, Barbary, War of 1812, and Mexican War,” “Blue Sky—Brown Water: The U. S. Navy in Vietnam,” and the Pearl Harbor section of the World War II exhibit, which opened on 7 December 1986. In addition, the museum opened a submarine warfare exhibit in Building 70 of the Washington Navy Yard. These exhibits are part of a comprehensive plan to establish the Navy Museum as the foremost exhibit site for U. S. naval history.
Another area of particular interest to the naval historical community was the publication by the center late in 1986 of two major volumes. These were Volume 9 in the series Naval Documents of the American Revolution: American Theatre, 1 June to 30 September 1777; European Theatre 1 June to 30 September 1777, edited by William James Morgan, and From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959-1965 by Edward J. Marolda and Oscar P. Fitzgerald, Volume II of the series, The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict.
The volume on the American Revolution continues the publication of edited contemporary documents—correspondence, ships’ logs, muster rolls, written orders, newspaper accounts, and officers’ journals—which highlight the naval aspects of the War of American Independence. These documents reveal the role played in the winning of independence by the Continental Navy, the predecessor of the U. S. Navy, and by state navies and American privateers. The operations of British naval forces are also covered.
The second volume in the Vietnam series covers the critical early years of the struggle, when the U. S. role progressed from advice and material support of the South Vietnamese to massive American combat operations against North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, and Laotian communist forces. Based on thousands of declassified documents, numerous interviews with American and Vietnamese naval personnel, and the best of the published sources, the work is the most comprehensive treatment yet of the Navy’s role in the Southeast Asian Conflict. In response to the growing interest in the Navy’s role in Southeast Asia, The Setting of the Stage to 1959, Volume I in the Vietnam series, is being reprinted.
All of these publications can be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402.
MARINE CORPS HISTORY
By Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, U. S. Marine Corps (Retired) Director of Marine Corps History and Museums
The Marine Corps Historical Center occupies a three-story white-painted brick building facing the Leutze Park parade ground in the heart of the historic area of the Washington Navy Yard. At the head of the parade ground is the Latrobe Gate and Tingey House. The La- trobe Gate opens onto 8th and M Streets, Southeast, and a short distance up 8th Street stand the Marine Barracks and the Commandant’s House. All of these structures date from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Both Tingey House and the Commandant’s House were spared when the British burned much of official Washington in 1814. Tingey House is now the home of the Chief of Naval Operations.
At the other end of Leutze Park, and at right angles to the Marine Corps Historical Center, is the Naval Historical Center—in another white-painted brick building that is almost a mirror image of the Marine Corps one.
It is convenient to have the two historical centers adjacent to each other; it also symbolizes the complementary nature of the two programs.
Most visible to the public is the national Marine Corps Museum, which occupies the ground floor of the Marine center. Much smaller than the Navy Memorial Museum, which has its own much larger building in the Navy Yard, the Marine Corps Museum offers a compact visualization of 211 years of American Marine history. Premier exhibits are the two flags of Iwo Jima: the smaller flag that first flew over Mount Suribachi and the larger flag that replaced it hours later. The raising of the second flag was captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in his world-famous photograph. This in turn inspired the bronze 100-ton Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington—better known as the “Iwo Jima statue.”
The Marine Corps Museum is open from 1000 until 1600 every weekday and Saturday and from 1200 until 1700 on Sunday. It is closed only on Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Uninhibited by the space constraints at the Marine Corps Museum is its sister museum, the Marine Air-Ground Museum, which occupies a number of old hangars at the Quantico Marine base. The museum at Quantico has a world-class collection of restored aircraft that have figured in Marine Corps history and a growing display of heavy ordnance, tracked vehicles, and other impressive impedimenta of war. Because the old hangars have no heating systems, the Quantico museum is open seasonally, from April through November. Road signs on U. S. 1-95 and U. S. 1 give directions to the museum.
The historical center in the Washington Navy Yard houses the History and Museums Division of Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps. This division oversees historical, museum, and art activities throughout the Marine Corps.
The Museums Branch collects, conserves, and exhibits all manner of material history including weapons, uniforms, equipment, art, photographs, and personal papers.
The Histories Branch researches and writes official Marine Corps history, supports the writing of Marine Corps history by others, has an aggressive oral history program, maintains archives of official records, and has a reference service which last year alone answered 6,328 inquiries.
The Support Branch provides common services to the center including security, publications production and distribution, and a library of nearly 30,000 volumes, specializing in Marine Corps history and amphibious warfare.
The most important publications effort is probably the U. S. Marines in Vietnam series. The most recently published volume is Vietnamization and Redeployment, 1970-1971. Other volumes in print in this series are The Advisory and Combat Assistance Era, 1954-1964; The Landing and the Buildup, 1965; An Expanding War, 1966; Fighting the North Vietnamese, 1967; and Chaplains with Marines in Vietnam, 1962-1971.
Other major works recently published are A History of the Women Marines, 1946-1977 and a portfolio of prints. Marines in the Frigate Navy.
All these official histories are available through the U. S. Naval Institute’s or Marine Corps Association’s book services, or directly from the Government Printing Office.
Presently in work are volumes covering the years 1968, 1969, 1971-1973, 1973-1975, and a volume on Marine military law in Vietnam, as well as a number of regimental and squadron histories. A complete list of Marine Corps historical publications in print can be obtained by writing:
Marine Corps Historical Center Washington Navy Yard Washington, D. C. 20374-0580
Information can also be obtained from this address about Fortitudine, the quarterly newsletter of the Marine Corps Historical Center.
The History and Museums Division has observed this year’s 75th anniversary of Marine Corps Aviation by preparing an extensive exhibition of Marine Corps aviation art, which is now touring major posts and stations and civic centers.
An affiliate of the History and Museums Division is a Reserve Mobilization Training Unit whose members, mostly , historians and artists—in addition to training for their mobilization billets— provide a useful supplement to the fulltime staff, which numbers about 45 in Washington and 20 at Quantico.
A less official but most useful affiliate is the Marine Corps Historical Foundation, a non profit educational group with about 1,400 members. The foundation funds a number of activities such as internships. research grants, and fellowships for work in Marine Corps history and a hierarchy of awards for civilian sector accomplishments in Marine Corps history and art.
COAST GUARD HISTORY
By Dr. Robert L. Scheina, Historian of the U. S. Coast Guard
The Coast Guard will celebrate its 200th birthday on 4 August 1990. As that date approaches, the historian’s office will devote increasing energy to support the event. The celebration will begin at Newburyport, Massachusetts—the birthplace of the Coast Guard—on 5-6 August 1989, in conjunction with the Yankee Homecoming Day Festival. During the year-long observance that follows, the primary focus will be on local events. The bicentennial festivities will conclude at Grand Haven, Michigan, “Coast Guard City U. S. A.,” at its annual Coast Guard Day celebration on the first weekend of August 1990.
In preparation for the celebrations, several inexpensive brochures are being developed as handouts for Coast Guard units. Three have been published to date: Coast Guard History, A History of Coast Guard Aviation, and Coast Guard at War. These brochures are first being issued as supplements to the service’s in- house newsletter, The Commandant's Bulletin. The fourth brochure will be Customs and Traditions of the Coast Guard. It will explore the history of the service’s ensign, the slash, the motto, and much more, and is scheduled for publication late this summer. Copies of these brochures are available to the public upon request.
To further support the bicentennial, the historian’s office is supervising the preparation of historical guides for artists. These provide details of the most significant moments in Coast Guard history. Only a few pieces of art depicting the pre-World War II exploits of the service have been preserved. A number of significant postwar events have never been captured in art either. These guides will assist artists contracted by the Coast Guard. Their work will form the basis of the Coast Guard history slide show that will be distributed throughout the service. Subjects that have already been completed are: “The Taney at Pearl Harbor,” “The 1898 Overland Relief Expedition,” “The Miami landing troops below Norfolk, 1862,” “The Hudson at Cardenas Bay during the Spanish American War,” “The Introduction of Reindeer into Alaska,” and “Hunting Confederate Raiders.”
Also as part of the service’s bicentennial effort, the Coast Guard will issue The History of the Revenue Cutter Service in the Civil War, by Florence Kern, the noted author of many works focusing on the history of the Revenue Cutter Service, predecessor of the Coast Guard.
To support these and other undertakings, the Coast Guard has developed a number of reference files over the years. These are not a substitute for the National Archives system, but rather a ready reference collection to serve internal Coast Guard needs. These files cover Coast Guard cutters, craft, aircraft, stations, and subjects unique to the service—the Coast Guard ensign, for example.
These files are open to the public. To ensure timely assistance, the Coast Guard requests that appointments to enter the files be made. The size of the historian’s staff precludes our doing research for the public, but we would be pleased to estimate the quantity of materials we hold on any Coast Guard-related subject, and will be available to assist researchers at Coast Guard headquarters.
The office of the Coast Guard historian goes back to World War II, although its service has been interrupted on a number of occasions. Its primary functions are to preserve the institutional memory of the Coast Guard, to provide for the internal needs of the service, and to assist in making this documentation, and any finding aids developed, available to as wide an audience as possible.